Wrapping up Meta’s 2025 Marketing Summit
- Jack Hendry
- Tiempo de lectura: 6 minutes
AI, Creator content, Nick Clegg, George Russell and more AI…
Alongside swathes of the US tech landscape Meta recently reversed DEI policies while loosening moderation across the platform. While Nick Clegg was there to provide re-assurance on this subject, the summit itself provided an opportunity to re-iterate the overwhelming scaling of AI and need for creative diversification.
It was revealed that 50% of content that users now see on Instagram is AI recommended, highlighting how they are being served predictive content as opposed to what they have chosen to follow.
We watched along and among some great case studies, as well guided meditations through mindful measurement, we have wrapped up a few of the key highlights:
AI, AI and more AI!
It will hardly be surprising to anyone that AI was the cornerstone of Meta’s 2025 summit. From a campaign perspective, this largely came in the form of Advantage+ and Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASCs) which leverage AI across campaign optimisation as well providing a simpler set up process for operational efficiency.
It is claimed that Advantage+ sales campaigns drive a 9% improved cost per action. Meta recommended to automate part, or all, of your campaign to reach the widest audience possible with Advantage+.
Further to this though, Meta announced how all generative AI features are coming together into an integrated workflow in Meta Advantage+ creative. Text generation allows you to use generative AI to create primary ad text and it was announced that this will soon be improved to be used across more text in ads, such as the headline.
In terms of the visual elements of ads, image expansion and background AI allow users to tweak imagery and Meta announced they are bringing improvements to the types of ‘realistic’ backgrounds that can be generated in future models. As to be expected, they are investing heavily in their AI tools, and much more is to come.
Ashleigh Winter, Paid Search Manager: “We’ve seen ASCs improve massively over the past six months, with higher CTRs and lower CPCs. The algorithms are getting smarter, optimising performance in real-time, but is this just targeting a higher proportion of already engaged users?
“A big question for us is whether the Meta AI changes are actually driving incremental sales or just mopping up the low hanging fruit.
“We’re actively experimenting with different audience strategies to break out of the cycle and expand our reach, ensuring we’re actually growing the customer base.
“From an operational perspective, AI has made campaign setup and management smoother, freeing up more time for strategy and creative testing.”
Reels, creators and sound…Creative is more key than ever
With the rapid emergence of TikTok, Meta realised the demand for short form videos and answered this with Reels. Throughout the summit Meta returned to the importance of Reels as a key element of digital strategy.
Reels account for over 50% of user time across Instagram, and that, at least according to a recent GWI study, 80% of gen Z users have purchased a product after watching a Reel.
One of the more surprising statistics that was presented was the fact that a massive 90% of Reels are viewed with the sound on, amplifying the importance of not just visual creative but how and what message is being communicated through sound.
Given their prominence across Reel formats, creators and Meta’s Partnership Ads were centre stage at this year’s summit with a focus on how these can be an effective way to create shortcuts to reach users who previously you might not have been able to, alongside being able to diversify creative whilst remaining authentic.
Further to this, it was raised how using creatives can be an effective way of bridging cultural gaps when expanding ‘cross border’ (new markets), an area that they reported is growing 2x as fast as domestic growth.
Creative is the biggest influencing factor in targeting
As ad platforms and their respective campaigns tactics have become centred around AI and machine learning, the focus is less so on buying audience and more the outcomes.
This was re-iterated in Meta’s summit where they highlighted that the most effective way of reaching new audiences is through the diversification of creative, formats, and narratives while testing to see what works and allowing AI to scale in such a way against that audience.
Being led by the creative and the freedom of AI optimisation will be able to fill blind spots that might exist in traditional campaign set ups with more rigid targeting parameters. Meta shared the below example from boohooMAN which followed a creative led targeting approach to reach a new audience of young males.
Molly Thompson, Senior Paid Media Lead: “AI has changed how we target audiences but we’ve seen creative become one of the most powerful targeting tools.
“With AI personalising content at scale, the most successful campaigns are likely to be the ones that prioritise creative variety and let AI test against dynamic audience segments to find what resonates.”
Measurement in the age of AI
During the summit Meta took us through a rather interesting mindfulness exercise in relation to measurement. With AI revolutionising the fundamentals of digital marketing, Meta emphasised the importance of flexing how measurement is viewed depending on the objectives.
In addition to existing open source solutions Geo Life and Robyn, Meta are beta testing a new package called LTVision which will estimate the LTV opportunity size based on your business model. This strategically follows the recent launch of Google’s Meridian.
The Meta Marketing Summit is available to watch on demand.
About Herd
Herd are based in Hessle, and we specialise in performance marketing and Shopify development. We combine our expertise across both areas to deliver solutions that are ambitious and impactful.
Over the past decade, we’ve earned Shopify Plus Partner status and driven growth for a host of ambitious global brands, executing bespoke strategies that are grounded in data.
Our talented performance marketing team features vastly experienced channel experts across SEO, paid media, content, and digital PR.
