Meta unveils AI-driven tools for omnichannel ads

Meta has launched a bouquet of AI-driven advertising solutions to help its e-commerce and retail clients in India enhance performance and boost sales. The new tools are meant for consumer organisations planning to take advantage of a growing demand from tier-2 and tier-3 city consumers in India. The solutions will be relevant for organisations with both types of business models, online as well as offline retail sales.

The global social media giant announced the availability of the new solutions at the recently held Meta Marketing Summit – E-Commerce Edition, which focused on emerging e-commerce trends in India. The summit was attended by marketers based in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The new portfolio of offerings includes an expansion of omnichannel ads, which show availability of products in the nearby retail outlets with directions for users to reach those physical locations. These ads will provide ways to underline discounts and guide customers to the outlets with an availability of stocks.

Meta carried out a few early tests of its new omnichannel ads. The advertisers using this feature (omnichannel ads) during these early tests, Meta claims, witnessed a 15% reduction in their media omnichannel cost per acquisition (CPA) and a 12% increase in their return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to their regular campaigns.

According to Meta, the organisations with physical retail stores using digital strategies will experience the maximum benefit upon using Meta’s new omnichannel ads solution. For instance, the apparel brand Taneira experienced 3.5 times greater purchase conversions and 4.3 times better ROAS by deploying the new omnichannel ads by Meta compared to campaigns optimised only for purchases.

Other introductions by Meta include a feature for advertisers to merge ‘partnership ads’ and ‘Advantage+ catalogue ads’. Presently, India has the world’s biggest community of Instagram creators and over 4,000 Indian advertisers already use ‘Partnership ads’.

Partnership ads allow brands to work collaboratively with creators and businesses looking to use their content for promotions. Meta informs that e-commerce and quick commerce companies across categories use these ads to improve performance. Sharing an example of Zepto, Meta informed that when Zepto integrated Partnership ads with its business-as-usual advertising strategies, it allowed the quick commerce player to reduce its customer acquisition cost (CAC) nearly by 18% and boost the click-through rate (CTR) by 33%.

Meta has also updated its Advantage+ catalogue ads by modifying the system to display more products, juxtaposing them with the products selected. For instance, if a brand wants to promote jackets, the system will also exhibit ‘dresses’, based on consumer interest. According to Meta, this feature has demonstrated a 14% growth in ROAS in its early tests.

Meta has also introduced Generative AI features to help e-commerce organisations to craft the ad creatives. The scope of the solution, at present covers tasks such as creation of backgrounds for catalogue ads. Meta plans to release fresh updates to this tool to facilitate virtual placement of model for apparel brands.

These tools aim to enable consumers with a greater clarity about product fit and appearance. They also promise to help brands automate and personalise their creative assets, according to Meta.

Meta shard the example of another quick commerce player Big Basket which tested its catalogue ads powered by generative AI. In a three-cell test which compared the background generation and image expansion features with traditional campaigns, Big Basket reported a 2.7% rise in click-through rate and a 3.4% drop in cost per install.

Meta plans to further experiment with Gen AI tools across features such as automated text generation and visual merchandising to assist e-commerce brand advertisers craft relevant and effective campaigns.