Meta debuts new AI advertising tools, expands Meta Verified availability – Business

Meta Platforms Inc. today introduced a set of artificial intelligence tools that will make it easier for brands to run ad campaigns across its platforms.

The features are rolling out for Meta Ad Manager, the company’s campaign management portal. Marketers can use the latter application to run ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and third-party websites. The new version of the application will become available alongside an update to the company’s Meta Verified business page verification service.  

Last year, Meta Ad Manager received a generative AI tool that allows marketers to upload a product image and change the background using natural language prompts. Thanks to today’s upgrade, the tool can now edit not only ad backgrounds but also the product in the foreground. Moreover, it’s gaining the ability to create multiple versions of an ad design on natural language prompts provided by the user.

Another newly added feature will allow marketers to have the tool overlay text on AI-generated images. Last year, Meta rolled out a separate AI capability that can automatically resize photos for different ad formats and user devices. As part of today’s update, the company is extending the latter capability to let marketers resize the text overlays on AI-generated images.

Meta Ad Manager, the ad campaign management portal receiving the new features, was previously expanded with a machine learning tool for generating ad copy. Until now, the tool could only be used to produce an ad’s primary text. Meta is rolling out a new version that can also generate ad titles, as well as align the prose it outputs with a company’s content tone and style guidelines.

The company disclosed today that the tool will be powered by Llama 3, the latest iteration of its open-source large language model family. Meta trained the new LLMs on a dataset more than ten times the size of the one it used to build the model lineup’s first iteration. The company says the versions of Llama 3 with 7 billion and 80 billion parameters are the most capable in their respective categories.

When it debuted the new LLMs in April, Meta disclosed plans to expand the model lineup down the road. The upcoming additions to the series are expected to feature more than 400 billion parameters. The increased parameter count should make them more adept at text generation tasks such as crafting ad copy.

Alongside the new version of Meta Ad Manager, the company today detailed enhancements to Meta Verified. Introduced early last year, the latter offering allows businesses to verify their Facebook and Instagram pages with a badge in exchange for a monthly fee. The subscription also includes account impersonation monitoring services and other benefits.

Until now, Meta Verified was accessible to businesses in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The social media giant is now expanding the availability of the offering to Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru, France and Italy. It’s also bringing the Meta Verified badge to WhatsApp accounts.

Going forward, Meta plans to make Meta Verified available through four different subscription tiers rather than one as before. The three new plans will provide access to additional features including “new tools for profile enhancements” and more ways to access customer support.

Image: Meta