Meta pushes AI in its ads, testing payments with no release date in France

Meta activates a series of AI functions in Ads Manager, Ads Creative Studio, and its conversational interfaces. Several capabilities are already available, while others are still in testing or planned for release by the end of the year. The company does not specify which countries are affected and has not announced a timeline for France, as Muse is not yet accessible in Europe.

Uncertain Availability and Lack of Timeline in France

Meta does not detail the countries involved in its new features and indicates that a large portion remains in testing. Muse is not offered in Europe, and no launch date has been communicated for France.

Ads Creative Studio Analyzes Performance and Expands Access

Ads Creative Studio, unveiled this summer, is beginning to be accessible to a broader audience. This tool combines performance analysis and audience understanding to indicate which visuals work and why, and it is capable of producing concepts as well as customizable video variants on various elements, ranging from the hook to the closing scene. Meta states that video accounts for over 60% of the time spent on Facebook and Instagram, and is developing its solutions accordingly: the creation of videos from still images in Advantage+ creative is now available to everyone, while a beta version allows certain advertisers to try transforming catalog images into product videos in Ads Manager and Commerce Manager. Product recommendations, expanded this fall, identify the featured item in an ad and suggest other references from the same collection or bestsellers. On the targeting side, Ads Manager will integrate AI-assisted audience discovery by the end of the year, with a description of the ideal customer in natural language and retention of relevant audiences. Customer Lifecycle Strategy is accessible to all users: when an acquisition goal is selected, a system recommends excluding existing customers. Meta is also experimenting with the possibility of excluding an entire segment of customers using a single Audience Label.

Ads Manager Assistant Gains Memory, Insights, and Natural Commands

Already integrated into Ads Manager and active from planning to measurement, Meta AI's business assistant is expanding its capabilities. Meta claims that advertisers following its recommendations see an average of 5% additional conversions at the same cost per conversion. The assistant now incorporates insights from Ads Creative Studio and retains tests from the past quarter, seasonality, and announced objectives. In testing are the import of strategy, tone, and guidelines from existing AI tools, natural language control to create or modify a campaign with validations and previews, as well as scheduled tasks and alerts for tracking, weekly summaries, and budget reminders.

Third-Party Tools via the MCP Server and Validation Control

Meta Ads' MCP server allows for new features through external AI tools, such as adding visuals, previewing ads, and detailed performance analysis. Tasks performed by an agent are sent as drafts in Ads Manager, allowing both humans and agents to modify the same campaign. Each action requires the advertiser's permissions and explicit validation before dissemination. Databricks, Perplexity, and Snowflake are among the partners that have integrated this server.

Direct Payment Tested in Messenger, Meta AI, and Muse

Meta is experimenting with finalized purchases within its conversational interfaces. On Messenger, a partnership with Shopify allows for the purchase of a product after an exchange with a brand's Business agent. In Meta AI, tests will begin this fall with Adyen, PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe to trigger a sale when the product appears in the conversation. In Muse, the PayPal wallet is added to Link by Stripe and Shop Pay among the payment methods.

Context: Deployed Agents and Competition from OpenAI

In June, Meta expanded access to the Business agent for managing customer interactions on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. By the end of September, the group offered a version of its personal agent called Muse for Small Business, aimed at small and medium-sized business managers. Meanwhile, OpenAI has been displaying ads in ChatGPT since February in the United States and launched its advertising platform in France at the end of August.