What Are Meta Advantage+ Placements?

We must understand its meaning to determine whether Meta Advantage+ placements are right for you. Advantage+ placements are part of Meta’s complete campaign solutions, using AI to maximize each ad impression and exposure on the Meta platforms.

What Are the AI Solutions Within the Meta Advantage+ Suite?

Here are the various Meta Advantage+ functions advertisers can utilize in ad campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Meta Audience Network.

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Further Reading

Explore the Benefits of Using Meta Advantage+ Catalog Ads

Meta Advantage+ catalog ads automatically adjust elements like creative and placements for products that capture customer interest. When a customer engages with a product from your catalog, Meta creates a targeted ad designed to increase appeal. This feature enhances your advertising strategy by driving more effective engagement and sales.

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Where Will Your Ads Appear with Meta Advantage+ Placements?

Depending on your campaign objective, your ads can appear in various placements and formats across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta ads platforms.

When Should You Use Meta Advantage+ Placements?

Now that you know which platforms and placements your ads can appear on, as well as which objectives and ad formats are compatible with Advantage+ placements, it’s time to determine if it’s the right fit for your brand and advertising goals. 

If you meet one or more of the following criteria, we recommend turning on Meta Advantage+ placements to maximize your advertising efforts on Meta platforms fully.

New to Facebook and Instagram Advertising

• For advertisers new to the platform who lack sufficient data to determine effective placements, Advantage+ placements utilize Meta’s extensive data and algorithms to identify the best ad placements automatically.
• This way, you can rely on Meta’s AI to distribute your campaigns across all available placements based on your ad format and objective. Meta will gather data to help you determine which placements work best.
• For instance, if you’ve been advertising more on YouTube and TikTok with video ads, Advantage+ placements can help identify the most effective ad placements within Meta’s advertising ecosystem.

Testing New Placements

• If you want to experiment with new placements or ad formats within the Meta Business Suite, Advantage+ can automatically include them in your campaign and measure their effectiveness.
• For example, if you have been primarily advertising on Instagram and are considering expanding to Facebook ads to acquire a new audience, such as promoting a new line of mocktails for a younger demographic, Advantage+ placements can help determine if Facebook placements are worth adding to your media plan or if maximizing Instagram ad placements would be more effective.

Download our 2024 Facebook CPLC Case Study

See how Strike Social used Facebook Reels and Carousel ads to highlight the brand’s reputation for stylish, durable automatic watches at competitive prices. By strategically allocating budget and selecting optimal ad formats, the campaign achieved a CPLC 34.69% below the guaranteed rate, proving the power of smart ad placements.

Download the report

Expand Ad Reach for Awareness and Traffic Campaigns

• Advantage+ placements can significantly boost your ad’s exposure when you aim to generate traffic or reach new audiences. By distributing ads across multiple platforms, Advantage+ placements help enhance both reach and engagement.
• The main purpose of Advantage+ placements is to broaden the visibility of your ads by displaying them across more locations within the Meta Audience Network. This means your ads will reach a larger audience, including users of mobile apps and websites beyond Facebook and Instagram.
• Though there isn’t a specific list of apps and websites within the Meta Audience Network, applying Advantage+ placements ensures your ads are seen in diverse digital environments, expanding your reach far beyond Meta’s own platforms.

When Should You Choose Manual Ad Placements Over Advantage+?

Manual ad placements can be advantageous when your advertising goals on Meta require a more tailored approach. If your objectives or concerns align with the following points, consider using manual placements:

Specific Placement Goals

• When you have specific goals for particular placements, choosing manual placements provides better control and precision, allowing for more targeted optimization.
• For instance, if your brand’s strategy revolves around video ads and you’ve seen positive results from this format, manual ad placement allows you to focus exclusively on high-performing Meta ad placements like Reels ads and other video-centric options.

Low-Quality Actions

• If you notice that certain placements are resulting in low-quality actions or conversions, such as accidental clicks or clicks from bots, it may be wise to exclude those placements manually. The algorithm does not inherently recognize low-quality clicks, so manual adjustments are necessary.
• For example, a study by a major B2B company found that while Meta Advantage+ helped them acquire more leads, their quality was lower than those leads acquired through traditional targeting and placement controls. In such cases, manually managing placements can help you focus on channels that yield higher-quality results.

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Further Reading

Guide to Meta Ad Sizes: Ensure Your Creatives Fit Every Placement

Meta ad sizes and specifications differ by ad type and placement. Advertising on Meta opens up multiple placements across Facebook, Instagram, and other apps within the Meta network. Make sure your creatives are sized right to capture audience attention across all placements.

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Opting In and Out of Meta Advantage+ Placements

You can set up your campaigns once you determine whether to use Meta Advantage+ or manual placements. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you configure your Meta ad placements before the campaign launch:

How to Turn On Meta Advantage+ Placements

1. Log in to Meta Ads Manager. Ensure you are logged into your Facebook account and have access to the Ads Account on which you will be setting up the campaign.
2. Click Create at the Campaign level, then choose your campaign objective.
3. For the campaign setup, choose Manual campaign.
4. Proceed with the usual campaign setup. At the campaign level, you can decide whether to turn on the Advantage campaign budget (formerly campaign budget optimization) before moving to the Ad set level.
5. You can toggle between Advantage+ and manual placements on the Ad set level. The default setting is Advantage+ placements. To keep Advantage+ placements active, do not make any changes.
6. Continue with the rest of your campaign and ad setup.

How to Turn Off Advantage+ Placements and Switch to Manual Ad Placement

1. Follow steps 1-4 as outlined above.
2. Once on the Ad set level, scroll to the Placements section and click Edit to switch to manual ad placement.
3. Toggle the button to turn off Advantage+ placements and click on Manual placements.
4. You can choose the specific ad placements you want within Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the rest of the Meta Audience Network.
5. Once you have selected your desired placements, proceed with the rest of your campaign and ad setup.

It’s best to decide upfront which option is best for your campaigns, as changing your ad placement setup mid-campaign can disrupt the learning phase and lead to inconsistent ad performance. By determining the best ad placement strategy before the campaign flight, you can steer your campaigns more effectively and develop a clearer plan for optimizing results.

Is Advantage+ Really Beneficial for Your Meta Campaigns?

Are you ready to leverage the power of Advantage+? You’ve seen various perspectives, and by now, you should be able to evaluate whether Meta Advantage+ placements can truly enhance your brand’s results. The next step is to test it and determine how much control you need over your campaigns versus letting Meta’s AI optimize your ad placements. The real answer lies in taking action.

If you have questions about using Meta Advantage+ for your campaigns and how Strike Social can combine our expertise with AI to drive better results for your brand, reach out to our team for a personalized walkthrough of our tools and technology.

The post Should You Use Meta Advantage+ Placements for Your Campaigns? appeared first on Strike Social.

How We Manage Campaign Pacing in Social Media Advertising

Campaign pacing in social media advertising refers to the strategic distribution of your advertising budget, ad delivery, and overall campaign efforts over a specific time period. Like a skilled sailor navigating through varying winds and tides, you aim to ensure your resources endure the entirety of your journey, hitting peak performance precisely when needed.

Depending on the objective of the ad campaign, the ad pacing can follow different approaches:

Campaign pacing by objective

This involves controlling the overall spending and delivery of the entire campaign over its duration based on a singular objective. For instance, in a Post Engagement campaign, the goal is to keep the pace of consistent ad delivery for engagement such as views, clicks, or likes, throughout the campaign flight. It’s useful to ensure a consistent presence throughout the campaign period.

Campaign pacing by budget

Focuses on controlling the campaign’s daily or weekly budget. Budget pacing helps ensure that your campaign doesn’t overspend or underspend on a specific day or week, allowing for more granular control over budget allocation.

The Negative Impacts of Poor Pacing and the Benefits of Effective Pacing in Advertising

Proper pacing in your social media ad campaigns can make or break the results of your digital advertising efforts. Let’s explore the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to ad pacing for your campaigns:

Advantages of Effective Pacing

Optimized Budget Utilization

• Pacing in digital marketing ensures your budget is allocated efficiently throughout the campaign duration. This prevents overspending or underspending during the early days of your campaign flight and ensures you have resources for ad delivery during peak periods.
• For example, when you run your Father’s Day campaign for the whole month of June, you should ensure that you have enough budget allocated during the peak dates (i.e., June 16 and 1-2 days before and after the event) to maximize your exposure and still have a regular budget towards the end of the month.

Consistent Brand Exposure

• With a well-paced ad delivery, your brand remains visible and engaging throughout the campaign.
• For instance, if your target impressions are 10,000 daily, proper pacing should keep you within this level without exceeding or underpacing so you consistently receive around 10K impressions daily.

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Further Reading

Strategic Insights for YouTube Video Reach Campaigns

Always-on campaigns provide sustained exposure, fostering brand recognition and loyalty over time. To maximize the impact of your YouTube Video Reach Campaigns, focus on pacing your spending strategically while aligning with broader objectives, such as key events or promotional periods.

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Disadvantages of Poor Pacing

Missed Opportunities to Reach the Target Audience at Optimal Times

• Poor ad pacing can cause you to miss key moments when your audience will most likely engage with your ads, leading to lower reach and conversions.
• For instance, in our Father’s Day example, if you allocate excessive funds during the campaign’s early days, you may not have the flexibility to increase your budget during peak times modestly. Similarly, if you constrain the budget too tightly during peak periods, you may spend funds on less relevant days, such as the month’s end, which is not as closely tied to the event.

Difficulty in Identifying Performance Trends and Making Timely Optimizations

• When your campaign lacks a structured pace, analyzing performance data and identifying trends becomes harder. Ineffective campaign pacing can delay necessary optimizations and hinder your ability to improve campaign results.

What Does It Mean When My Campaign Is Underpacing vs. Overpacing?

Understanding the signs of underpacing and overpacing is crucial for maintaining a healthy and effective social media advertising campaign. Recognizing these issues early on allows you to adjust and optimize your campaign for better results.

By understanding the causes and signs of underpacing and overpacing, you can proactively manage your social media advertising campaigns and ensure they perform at their best. Advertising pacing is a dynamic process that requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment to achieve optimal results.

How Strike Social Manages Pacing in Advertising Campaigns

Keeping a constant watch over your social ad campaigns is crucial, but monitoring them around the clock can be exhausting. What works today may not be effective tomorrow, and you need a reliable advertising partner to handle the hard work for you. Strike Social excels in this area, ensuring optimal performance through strategic campaign pacing.

Precision and Efficiency

Strike Social ensures optimal ad spend and consistent pacing throughout the campaign by precisely aligning ad budgets and goals, thus avoiding overspending and underspending.

In a YouTube Video View Campaign, we successfully delivered all of the requested views consistently throughout the campaign flight, with minimal deviations from the average weekly impressions ordered. Furthermore, we managed to achieve a campaign CPV that was 16.67% lower than the requested Max CPV.

Diverse Pacing Strategies

Strike Social employs various pacing methods tailored to the campaign’s objectives:

• Budget order ensures a steady distribution of the budget throughout the campaign duration.
• Outcomes order prioritizes desired outcomes, such as impressions, clicks, or views.

Internal Tech Tool and Expertise

We have developed an internal tech within our proprietary tool, CampaignLab, to facilitate effective campaign management.

Coupled with the expertise of our media buyers, this tool enables our rotating team to monitor all ad campaigns continuously. This constant oversight ensures that campaigns are optimized in real-time and that necessary adjustments are made promptly.

Ignite Your Campaigns with Strategic Ad Pacing

Seeing impressive results at the start of your campaign can be exhilarating, while slow starts can feel disheartening. However, proper ad pacing is the key to sustainable success in social media advertising. By carefully managing your campaign’s pacing, you can ensure your budget, impressions, and clicks last throughout the campaign, allowing for adjustments and optimizations.

While AI tools can assist you in achieving your campaign objectives, the success of your campaign ultimately lies in your hands.

Partner up with Strike Social to maximize the potential of your social media ad campaigns. Reach out to our team and discover how much more you can accomplish with our expert guidance and cutting-edge solutions.

The post Understanding Campaign Pacing in Social Media Advertising appeared first on Strike Social.

The Inevitable Future: Impact Of AI On Social Media Advertising

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not an intimidating force; rather, it frees you up from tedious, time-consuming tasks. Social media AI tools handle data analytics, and ad monitoring, allowing advertisers to focus on creativity. Despite AI’s increasing processing power, it still cannot replicate human intelligence, ensuring marketers remain indispensable.

Far from being a weakness, AI proves to be a strategic advantage. Social media platforms have recognized the potential of AI and utilized it to enhance their features and deliver superior user experiences. As we look toward the future of AI in social media, we can anticipate even more innovative tools and strategies to emerge. Let’s explore how AI is currently changing social media advertising and envision the transformative benefits it promises to offer in the future.

• What Is The Role Of AI In Social Media Advertising
• How Major Social Media Platforms Integrate AI In Their Processes
• What Other AI Tools Are There
• AI And Social Media: The Dynamic Duo For Modern Advertising

What Is The Role Of AI On Social Media Advertising

As a consumer and an advertiser, you’ve likely encountered several AI in social media examples without realizing it. Consider those product recommendations that match your preferences and browsing history. Or the seamless interactions with chatbots providing real-time answers. These instances merely scratch the surface of how AI is subtly reshaping social media advertising.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why AI is not just a passing trend but an essential force in shaping your marketing strategy:

Audience Targeting

One of the ways AI connects you to your preferred demographic is through lookalike audiences. By analyzing user data, AI algorithms identify individuals with similar interests and behaviors to your existing customer base. 

Advertisers can narrow their audience on Facebook by selecting a specific location, age group, and profession criteria. Here’s an example of audience-targeting AI on Facebook:

Based on these parameters, Facebook’s AI tool would estimate the campaign’s potential reach and possible conversions.*

* Note: The estimated reach and outcomes may vary depending on the allocated budget and campaign duration.

Additionally, AI-driven retargeting analyzes user preferences and behavior, allowing ads to be recommended to users. These platforms strategically display your ads to users who have previously shown interest in similar products or services. This approach ensures that your brand remains top-of-mind for potential customers.

Ad Placements

AI ensures your content is strategically displayed in the most appropriate format, maintaining a seamless flow throughout the user journey.

For instance, suppose your ad is an eye-catching photo you wish to showcase in Reels. AI provides the flexibility to present it as either an overlay ad or an interstitial ad. This prevents your content from appearing disruptive to the user – enhancing engagement and receptiveness to your ad message.

A/B Testing

With A/B testing or split testing, you can experiment with different ad variations and identify the most effective ones aligned with your campaign objectives. This technology allows you to test visuals, ad copy variations, or call-to-action buttons. AI efficiently analyzes the results to reveal which combination yields the best results. 

A/B testing on LinkedIn can be conducted on different levels – by ads, audience, or placement:

Real-Time Monitoring and Campaign Optimization

Platforms like Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and TikTok Business Center offer AI-driven real-time monitoring of ad performance. These platforms equip you with comprehensive tracking and analysis capabilities, keeping you informed about your campaigns’ progress.

Moreover, these social media AI tools can automate ad optimization by adjusting bid prices, ad placement, and creative elements. Changes can be done in real-time with minimal disruption*, while your ads are continuously running.

* When you make changes to your ads, it re-enters the learning phase. Only make adjustments to your ads when you believe they will improve overall performance.

How Major Social Media Platforms Integrate AI In Their Processes

Now that we’ve looked at how integral AI is in your marketing efforts, we’ll take a peek at the AI integrations within the major social advertising platforms:

Application of AI on YouTube Advertising

• YouTube, powered by Google AI, delivers your video ads across different environments based on your targeted audience and campaign objective. This allows your ads to be distributed across in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts placements, including a mix of connected TV, desktop, and mobile users.

Source: Google – Video ad formats

For example, opting for Video action campaigns lets you automatically scale your video ads, featuring prominent calls-to-action on various YouTube surfaces and partner platforms. Advertisers utilizing this feature witnessed an impressive average increase of 20% in conversions among automated audiences compared to manual targeting.

Related article: Advertisers’ Guide To YouTube Video Action Campaign Targeting

• YouTube’s internal A/B experiment revealed that incorporating at least one video of each orientation (horizontal, vertical, and square) resulted in a 13% increase in conversions. This is in comparison to using only horizontal video ads in your campaigns.
  
  Streamline your video creation process by utilizing a variety of formats, such as vertical video ads for YouTube Shorts. These ads can appear as a swipeable video or an image ad seamlessly integrating organic Shorts in the Shorts feed. This way, you can maximize your ad reach despite the YouTube ad format you choose to employ.

• Through strategic collaborations with third-party providers like OpenSlate, VuePlanner, and DoubleVerify, YouTube provides brand suitability controls that uphold maximum brand security. 

YouTube’s brand safety settings extend to content exclusion, allowing advertisers to exclude unsuitable content types from ad placements. Google also employs AI on YouTube to assign digital content labels akin to movie ratings (e.g., G, PG, etc.). With these advancements, advertisers can trust that ads are placed alongside content YouTube deems safe for brand association.

AI Integration in Facebook and Instagram (Meta) Campaigns

• Meta is dedicated to providing an engaging experience for users through its advanced discovery engine. This discovery engine AI in Facebook makes sure that individuals discover content aligned with their interests. Since the launch of Reels, there has been a remarkable 24% increase in time spent on Instagram, indicating the widespread popularity of short-form videos.
  
  Notably, over 40% of advertisers already utilize Reels ads to promote products and services. Because of the positive social experience, Instagram has become an engaging platform for brands to foster genuine connections with customers.

• The Advantage+ placements feature provided by Meta enabled the automatic delivery of ads across the most effective placements at any given time. This has kept costs low while ads are performing at their best. 

Furthermore, the Advantage campaign budget feature automatically distributed the budget in real-time to the best-performing ads. This automation AI in Facebook streamlined the ad campaign creation and management process, setting it apart from the manual account and ad setups.

Monos, a Vancouver-based luggage brand, tested Advantage+ shopping campaigns (ASC) in January-February 2023. During this run, they achieved a 58% decrease in incremental cost per purchase. Additionally, Monos observed a notable 35% increase in incremental return on ad spend compared to their usual campaign setup.

TikTok’s AI Algorithm and Ad Tools

• According to insights gathered by Roth MKM analysts, the platform boasts a 33% higher brand sentiment than other social media platforms. In addition, 73% of users feel a deeper connection to brands advertising on TikTok.
  
  These numbers can be attributed to its predictive AI, commonly referred to as the “TikTok algorithm.” The TikTok AI algorithm creates a personalized feed for each user based on their content interactions, time spent on each video, and content preferences.

• Automated Creative Optimization (ACO) is a TikTok AI tool that streamlines ad management by automatically identifying high-performing combinations of creative assets. Simply upload images or videos, write ad text, and select your call-to-action buttons.
  
  ACO then creates multiple ads for your campaign and continuously explores, evaluates, and optimizes them to find the most effective combination of variables. The system then presents the best-performing creative to your target audience.

Source: TikTok Business Learning Center

• TikTok Search Ads is an upcoming feature that enables brands to position themselves in front of potential customers searching for relevant information. By targeting specific search terms related to their products or services, brands can effectively engage viewers during their exploration. For instance, creating captivating videos centered around popular search terms like “coffee at home” presents a valuable opportunity.

What Other AI Tools Are There

Aside from the platform, as mentioned earlier tools, advertisers have access to a range of AI tools for social media advertising. These technologies offer unique functionalities that can significantly enhance advertising strategies and streamline campaign management, acting like an AI social media manager.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT quickly and easily generates high-quality content, including social media posts, ad copy, headlines, and calls to action (CTA). Further, ChatGPT can provide helpful suggestions and improvements to refine existing content.

However, it’s essential to fact-check and review ChatGPT’s answers to avoid errors the machine introduces. Keep in mind that ChatGPT’s knowledge is limited to information available up to 2021.

Bard

Another emerging AI tool that highlights the benefits of AI in social media marketing is Bard, which goes beyond ad copy generation. It can craft codes, scripts, emails, and more, adding a touch of innovation to marketing efforts.

Bard’s advantage lies in its integration with Google Search, allowing access to and processing real-world information. The recent update includes Google Lens integration, allowing you to include images in your prompts. Bard also provides suggestions with images and/or helpful links to support its answers. 

Not sure how Bard works just yet? Here are 25 Bard AI prompts to get you started!

CampaignLab

According to Xuebing (Bing) Bu, our esteemed Data Expert and Director of Technology, CampaignLab is designed to “help us reduce all the tedious work so that we focus on the creative parts.” Strike Social’s proprietary technology utilizes extensive machine learning AI in social media ad campaigns. This has allowed us to gather audience insights and use them to monitor and forecast campaign outcomes. Since its development, CampaignLab has emerged as the driving force behind our numerous successful client campaigns.

AI And Social Media: The Dynamic Duo For Modern Advertising

The transformative capabilities of AI have revolutionized the marketing industry, and businesses that adopt this powerful alliance are poised to thrive in the digital era. The impact of AI in social media advertising extends far beyond mere automation. It liberates marketers from mundane tasks, empowering them to channel their energy into harnessing their creativity.

While AI handles data analytics, ad performance monitoring, and audience insights, the creative process remains an area where human ingenuity shines. This dynamic interplay between advertisers, AI, and social media is key to achieving campaign success. Indeed, the synergy between AI and social media is the driving force behind the future of advertising.

The post How Important Is AI In Social Media Advertising Strategies appeared first on Strike Social.