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Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

businessinsider.com

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Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#41

Post by algo_trader »

redsymbol wrote: post #30

I'm a software engineer who is also a media buyer, which is the term for someone who purchases and configures advertising campaigns. I have spent over $100k of my own funds on Meta ads the past several years, which makes me moderately experienced. I spend a lot of time in the "ad manager", i.e. the webapp that Meta has for configuring these ads, allocating budget, and so on. I think the current UX of the ad manager w…

can you spare 5 minutes for a quick email/chat about bidding/campaigns?

its rare to find a technically proficient media buyer ;/

(I am not a FB employee or a lawyer.. ) I will send you a DM on twitter

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#42

Post by hollerith »

lawlessone wrote: post #40
atrus wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly? They might. A game I play (Torn.com) started using AI and over dramatic ads, and they outperformed (higher signups, and higher retention) the more traditional and even player created ads. The owner expressed surprise and frustration over it, because it kinda sucks that's what works.

Could we(AI ads) be hitting this? "Supernormal Stimulus" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus

Newspapers and cheap gin were already supernormal stimuli 200 years ago.

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#43

Post by doctorpangloss »

ffuxlpff wrote: post #17

We are all waiting for plot twist that these actually work better than human made ads and the weirder they get the worse humans can compete with them.

this plot twist happened years ago.

anyway, the main theory of better ad performance from generated ads isn't about, being weird or whatever. it's that few ads on social media are matching with intent to buy, i.e., they are the opposite of google search ads. so there's a much higher diversity of creatives. like, "saturation", like you see the ad so much, you are psychologically going to choose whatever product it is hawking when it finally comes time for you to buy a thing in the category it belongs to. generative ads are merely delivering ad creative development work that SMBs (40% of Meta's revenue) are too unsophisticated to use.

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#44

Post by redsymbol »

algo_trader wrote: post #41
redsymbol wrote: post #30

I'm a software engineer who is also a media buyer, which is the term for someone who purchases and configures advertising campaigns. I have spent over $100k of my own funds on Meta ads the past several years, which makes me moderately experienced. I spend a lot of time in the "ad manager", i.e. the webapp that Meta has for configuring these ads, allocating budget, and so on. I think the current UX of the ad manager w…

can you spare 5 minutes for a quick email/chat about bidding/campaigns? its rare to find a technically proficient media buyer ;/ (I am not a FB employee or a lawyer.. ) I will send you a DM on twitter

Sure, happy to chat. @redsymbol on twitter, or my email is in my HN about page

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#45

Post by dylan604 »

HawtAds wrote: post #14

It's not just Facebook, the entire ads industry is heading in this direction. There's a seismic change going on right now.

So instead of devs needing to retool their skills, the Don Drapers of the world will be ousted instead? I'm thinking I'm okay with this

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#46

Post by neom »

redsymbol wrote: post #30

I'm a software engineer who is also a media buyer, which is the term for someone who purchases and configures advertising campaigns. I have spent over $100k of my own funds on Meta ads the past several years, which makes me moderately experienced. I spend a lot of time in the "ad manager", i.e. the webapp that Meta has for configuring these ads, allocating budget, and so on. I think the current UX of the ad manager w…

I recently had to charge back $20k of ads because meta said no, in spite of the fact that a support person went on a webex with me, did a screenshare and saw that their ads dashboard is so totally broken that these mystical ads that ran are nowhere to be found, I mean maybe buried in the pages that would literally fail to load half the content, then producing internal app modals spewing incomprehensible errors, buttons that lead to nothing, and don't get me started on if someone happens to start an ad-hoc campaign in IG directly. LinkedIn are the only platform with a half decent ads manager, X is well built but I trust the results from it near zero.

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#47

Post by agumonkey »

atomic128 wrote: post #11
agumonkey wrote: post #4

there will be a chapter some day on the link or limit between human involvement and emotion, and the economic value of something for 2000 years we removed some hardship to improve everything but everything automated seems like an economic blackhole

Poison Fountain https://rnsaffn.com/poison3/

interesting, i didn't know about this effort

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#48

Post by dylan604 »

bondarchuk wrote: post #38
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #7

Ads are one of those things that are pretty much universally hated by every person on the planet and yet companies/platforms continue to find innovative ways to make them more insufferable.

If they were universally hated it would be easy to outlaw them through democratic means. Yet bring this up to the average person and they'll quickly find 500 reasons why it shouldn't be done. The only reasonable conclusion (sad as it may be) is most people don't actually hate ads.

haha, you seem to think laws a democratically created. we should all by now know that most laws are written by others that donate the most to the congress critters that just attach their names to them.

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#49

Post by alex1138 »

I apologize for the somewhat low-effort comment but across the board Meta is the single most malicious tech company I can think of

I'm no fan of Google but at least Google didn't use your 2FA for ads https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16378888, or for example you can actually contact people via gmail https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4151433

It's why a CEO being on record as saying "dumb fucks" matters, joking or not. And I don't think he was joking or else "trying to make a point". He does not care about you. When people show you who they are believe them

Re: Meta's ads tools started switching out top-performing ads with AI-generated ones

#50

Post by redsymbol »

neom wrote: post #46
redsymbol wrote: post #30

I'm a software engineer who is also a media buyer, which is the term for someone who purchases and configures advertising campaigns. I have spent over $100k of my own funds on Meta ads the past several years, which makes me moderately experienced. I spend a lot of time in the "ad manager", i.e. the webapp that Meta has for configuring these ads, allocating budget, and so on. I think the current UX of the ad manager w…

I recently had to charge back $20k of ads because meta said no, in spite of the fact that a support person went on a webex with me, did a screenshare and saw that their ads dashboard is so totally broken that these mystical ads that ran are nowhere to be found, I mean maybe buried in the pages that would literally fail to load half the content, then producing internal app modals spewing incomprehensible errors, butto…

It's an interesting situation. I think that despite the issues, Meta is the best (and fastest-learning) platform for mass-market purchase conversions. Linkedin has powerful targeting options, but the fact that it's tied to GMT drives me nuts. For LI, typically I use manual bids so I can easily dial down delivery at off times (e.g. if the ad objective is booking a sales call).

All in all, these ad platforms are tremendously complex software systems, and as someone who has been a fulltime software engineer I have a lot of sympathy. But with so much money is on the line, the standards are high.

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