Why Everything You Know About Meta Advertising Is Changing

Jordan: The social advertising landscape has transformed dramatically, and what worked even six months ago might be costing you more money today. And today’s episode is a nice chunky one. It’s a must-listen if you’re managing any ad budgets between even $520,000 per month, and if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by all these changes, many being driven by AI and Advantage+. So we’re going to bring you some actionable insights on what’s actually working right now in Facebook and Instagram advertising, and, more importantly, how you can position your business for success in 2025.

Jordan: My name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to the Marketing Mindset podcast. This podcast is designed to help you navigate this cluttered world of marketing and challenge you to move away from random acts of marketing towards planning an intentional marketing strategy. And today we have got another special guest, first time on the podcast. Alex, welcome.

Alex: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Jordan: First time joining us. And yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to sit down. So Alex, tell us, just give us a little rough background. What do you do day to day? Where do you kind of fit within the Done By Nine fold currently?

Alex: Sure. One of my specialties is definitely your marketing strategy, and understanding who your audience is and where best to reach them. And one of the topics we’ll discuss today is where to best and how to best reach them on Meta and any paid advertising. So I work hand in hand with business owners to really define that audience, understand where they’re most often speaking to their customer, and then what best strategies to put in place with Facebook and Instagram to get the conversions that you’re looking for.

Jordan: I know, it’s the aim of the game. And it’s been a bit of an interesting year in terms of advertising.

Alex: Well, pretty much all of digital marketing is always changing. And I guess that’s one of the big challenges that we face a lot.

Jordan: Today’s focus is really having a look at Facebook, Instagram advertising, because it is a changing landscape. It changes a lot. And I think we even discuss this more often, but even having a look at some old campaign structures, the way we used to structure a campaign, and all the different ad groups and things like that, having a look at that interest-based targeting, it’s just dramatically changed even this year, from what I can see. So I’m really keen just to get an understanding from you as well, from your perspective, about what are some of those biggest significant changes that you’ve seen this year alone with Facebook and Instagram ads?

Alex: Absolutely. 2024 has been a real turning point in social advertising. We’re seeing really three major shifts that are reshaping entirely how we approach Facebook and Instagram. First, we’re seeing, obviously, AI becoming central to campaign performance. We’re seeing that Meta’s algorithms, like you just mentioned, have become significantly more sophisticated at finding the right audiences, right? So the days of highly granular audience targeting, with many different ad sets, many different interests, are pretty much slowly over. And we’re getting better results by actually letting Meta’s systems do the heavy lifting, instead of us having to necessarily go very granular into our audiences. So that’s the first shift we’re seeing, really, that AI power.

Alex: The second that we’re seeing, as we’ve discussed before, right, is that shift in creative requirements. So we’re seeing videos and reels and short content that looks authentic, with a direct message that’s a little bit less polished than it used to be. So that’s the second shift we’re seeing. And then the third one: with, obviously, all the iOS changes that have happened in the last few years, and just the way that attribution landscape has evolved, we’re seeing that more and more businesses are getting smarter in the way that they report on ads. So we’re slowly turning away from just ROAS, looking at return on ad spend, but we’re also looking at all the other things around this. So we’re looking at website traffic growth, brand search volume on Google, basically acknowledging that we’re moving away from the clickbait that it used to be. You’re just thinking Facebook and Meta and Instagram ads need ROAS, need conversions, but looking at an overall journey, customer journey, and how Meta supports that.

Jordan: Nice. So let’s break this down a little bit, because I think one of the big elephants in the room is AI. In the world of Meta and Meta advertising, it’s called Advantage+, and it’s essentially been around for a while now. And as you described before, it’s changing a lot of different ways of how we kind of build ads, audience targeting, and everything, really. So, AI in particular and Advantage+: the first one is, if you’re hesitant about AI, should we be hesitant? Should we be opening ourselves up to say, sweet, Meta, you can work this one out for us? Or what level of you as a marketer also needs to be involved in putting together the correct campaigns and ad structures?

Alex: Of course. Well, obviously, the introduction of that Advantage+, it’s really changed everything, like you’ve just said, right? Think about it the old way. So we used to create really specific audience segments, multiple ad sets, and we’d try to control everything. Whereas now we’re actually seeing better results by actually letting go of that control and letting Meta’s AI do what it does best. Now, how can we actually make sure that that’s accurate, or that’s targeting who we are wanting to target? You need three key things for Advantage+ to work. First, you need really clean data through your pixel or Conversions API. So you have to check that you’ve set everything up correctly there. That’s where we would come in first, right? Make sure everything’s happy. Then you need to make sure that you have different creative versions, because that’s where the real power will happen. And then you need patience and testing, even through an Advantage+ setting.

Alex: So what’s working best for our clients right now, especially the ones that are a bit nervous about AI and the crazy things it can do, is we call it the 70-30. So the 70% of your budget goes to Advantage+ campaigns for your core conversion objectives, and then 30% goes to more traditional setup, or specific targeting and testing. So we’ve seen that by doing this, we can get great results, and also just, obviously, go through a testing phase and a change phase with clients that they feel comfortable with, so that they actually see the results that match that split.

Jordan: Yeah. Is it specific industries that you’re seeing the best results currently? So obviously, we manage campaigns for a range of e-commerce versus service-based businesses, and they all have a slightly different cost associated. Is there certain industries that this is working better for, do you think? Or do you think that this is actually going to work really well for even a B2B setting? Or is it just going to work best if you’re in B2C and trying to run a sale on your shoes or whatever, you know?

Alex: Definitely. We’re seeing the best results in e-commerce, especially anything that has to do with retail, like fashion, accessories, beauty, all of that type of product. Subscription services as well, local businesses with very clear offers. But the industries that need a bit more manual control, and where it’s still a little bit of a struggle, is more B2B services with long sales cycles. And also, businesses are very niche, or have a single product offering that’s very niche. We’re seeing that it’s a bit harder to find those leads, or to find high-quality leads. So we might just have to, instead of doing the 70% to 30% approach, go 50-50 and just see how it goes.

Jordan: You know, it’s funny. Back in the day, we used to also, with the audiences, and having a look at the audience and building out an audience. So when you’re in the Facebook world, you’re having a look at the ad set. The ad set is going to have your audience on there. Back in the day, we would fill that with all these different interests. We would have different ad groups to look at different pockets of interests, and we could have, I don’t know, five or six different ad sets on there. What would you say now? Should we be condensing the amount of interest we’re putting onto an ad set and an audience, letting Advantage+ kind of pick up a bit of the heavy lifting there, just guide it a little bit? What do you reckon?

Alex: Absolutely. I think we should absolutely give AI a chance. What’s so powerful is how this new AI tool handles optimisation, right? So it’s not just about the audience targeting. It’s also about how they optimise the creative and the copy to the audience they’re sending. It’s making thousands of tiny adjustments in real time, across all different placement audiences and creative combinations. It’s a really powerful tool, that actually the amount of things that they can optimise and change would be impossible for us humans to do. So I would definitely look at giving AI a bit more room, with maybe a few audience hints, or suggestions, as they call it, instead of custom audiences, and see how it performs. But it will be a guessing game in the beginning, and you’ll soon start to see the results.

Jordan: And you’ve mentioned content. Content is obviously a big piece of any campaign, and how creatives perform. Obviously that, as you’ve mentioned already, it’s completely evolved, and it’s getting more and more important. And it goes back to that fundamental marketing piece of understanding who your audience is, what your USP is, and being able to actually craft content that is going to directly talk to that key audience that you have. But if we have a look at creative now, and I know you’ve spoken a little bit around videos obviously doing well, what are you seeing in terms of where we should be putting most of our creative efforts currently?

Alex: Right. So having a good content mix is important, because even though video is what’s working the most at the moment, you never exactly know what’s going to perform for an audience. Sometimes you think video will perform, and it ends up being the carousel or the static that performs. So I would say give a chance: about 60% of your creative to be video, 30% to be, like, static and images, and then 10% longer video content. And then the rest you can just test and turn on as you go. Maybe some carousels, just play around a little bit.

Alex: For video, what I recommend is really having short videos. So I’m saying no longer than 15 seconds. Have that hook in that first three seconds. Having that hook in those first three seconds is actually crucial. And also having some user-generated content, some genuine content, where you’re actually getting testimonials from customers, or real life, even if it’s staged, but real-life content that looks like if anyone would have filmed it in their bedroom.

Jordan: The other reason I love personally video as well is I love a good remarketing audience, and being able to build a custom audience set based on people that have watched a certain amount of video, I think, is a great way to keep people on your brand and on your customer journey. So that’s another reason why I think the video content is obviously key. I guess it also then comes down to how hard it is to kind of create these ads. Is there a, what type of process? Well, this is a two-pronged question, because it’s that. But also, then I know if you go into the Facebook Ads Manager now as well, they will prompt to try get five, lots of creative, and Advantage+ is going to try, write all your different variations of your headlines.

Jordan: How much are we allowing Facebook to kind of decide on that, do you reckon? Like, should we still be looking at that with a sceptical eye, and still making sure that it’s, because obviously us as business owners and as marketers, we know our customer, our audience, yeah, and our product and our USP. Like, how much do we rely versus?

Alex: I would say that for creatives, for video and statics, you can rely on AI, on Meta’s AI tools, quite well. For copy, I would say take it with a grain of salt. Go through everything, check through everything, because tone of voice is so specific to a business, and I still have my doubts sometimes around that. So I would be very careful about copy, and ensure that you’re switching from just, instead of telling your customers what you do and how you do it, try and switch from a problem solution. How does your product solve a problem they might be having? So I will always look at that. Also look at having a very authentic, conversational tone, instead of a more polished or corporate speak.

Alex: And then just, yes, like I said, customer testimonials. I’d be really careful, but, like you mentioned, right, creating content is time consuming, resource consuming. It’s quite a burden often for most businesses. So I would say for resource-limited businesses, make sure that you actually focus on authentic, easy-to-create content, rather than this perfect piece of content that only happens once a month. What would you say to, like, would you… What are you thinking?

Jordan: Yeah, look, I agree. It’s a hard one. I definitely, from some of the tests we’ve done in terms of the creative, especially, it goes back to what you originally said as well, about making sure you’re actually feeding it the correct data. So some of the issues we’ve seen, just to be mindful of, is, for example, if you’ve allowed Facebook to scrape your site, or to scrape the landing page, and it’s going to go through there and it’s going to read the content that’s on that page. And it’s going to create the ad content based on what it’s also reading on the website. I think that’s where it can get tripped up a little bit, because we’ve seen that, where it’s pulled the wrong content for a specific ad. So I think it’s just making sure that you’ve kind of got your eye across everything. So while the AI tools, especially in the content, like you said, I don’t think they’re a hundred percent there just yet.

Jordan: Who knows where it could go, but I definitely think that you do need to have a bit more of a content strategy. I think, and even based on what you’re saying before as well, I personally think that the real power right now of Advantage+ and Facebook’s AI and Meta’s AI right now is more around the audiences and the ad sets and interest-based targeting. ’Cause, you know, Facebook has got so much data, and Instagram’s got so much data on us as users. They know exactly what you stopped your scroll on, what type of content, and they’re building these data points around you, essentially, to build this picture of who they think you are, what you’re currently interested in, what type of buyer’s mindset you’re in. And you’ll be able to play the algorithms and test it yourself too. If you stop on a certain piece of content more often, do it a couple of times, and then you’re going to get fed that type of content pretty consistently. So I think they’ve got that really nailed.

Alex: That’s the best, yes, I would say that’s the best tool that AI has invented: not necessarily the content creation, but placing the right content in the right place at the right time in that customer’s journey.

Jordan: I couldn’t agree more. Then that’s only half the battle, and this is where, for me, it gets interesting as well, as that. Yeah, that’s half the battle, but we still need to make sure that the content is actually going to resonate with your audience, so that they are going to stop that scrolling and can actually build up that data set. And I guess that’s where it comes all the way back to actually having an advertising strategy, where you as a business, and a business owner, or a marketing team, actually understand what the hell your USPs are, or the selling points of your product, and the audience and the different personas. You still need to have all of those fundamentals. AI is not at the point now where it’s going to completely be able to read your mind and your business plan and understand how to just take the job off you.

Alex: A hundred percent. And that constant content strategy is so important for ad strategy, really, because in the past we used to focus a lot on, as marketers, right, on audiences, and finding the right niche, and testing lots of different aspects of demographics, interests, behaviours through those audiences. But now Meta can do this for us, right? So our key point, our key element that we need to focus on, is feeding the right creative at the right time. So we might not give the same to a top-of-funnel audience, right? They need to understand who you are and what you do and what problem you’re solving. Whereas in the middle and bottom funnel, you just need to really convert them on why your product is the one that will actually solve that product better than other products. So your content changes dramatically, and that’s where your content strategy comes in play.

Jordan: So if you’re right now thinking about, okay, we’re going to do our 2025 marketing, our advertising plan for our Facebook and Instagram ads, what are we looking at? Are there any certain skills that you think that we should be trying to learn more about? Or, ’cause I know, for example, internally within the team, we’re doing a lot of education, and you’ve been sitting down with the team and kind of taking them through the structure and how things are kind of changing, always trying to upskill. So what type of things do you think that people, marketers, business owners, should be having a fair understanding about, what’s working?

Alex: Sure, sure. In terms of skills that I think teams need to focus on, I’d say content strategy and storytelling, like always, but with an even bigger impact nowadays. Video production and editing: understanding the best and most cost-effective way to record authentic messaging. Definitely, obviously, AI prompts and just AI content editing, seeing how to use these new tools to make your work quicker and faster. And then my other big one is data analysis: really trying to understand, okay, great, so now Meta’s doing more work for us in finding the right audience, but how do we make a difference is actually in understanding the results that we’re getting, and how they’ll shift our content strategy. And I think that’s really something we should focus on.

Jordan: Okay. We haven’t really spoken about data. So just really quickly on that as well. So the data and analytics side, yeah. So you’re saying, obviously, that’s a real key point, a real key thing that we need to be keeping a bit of an eye on, yeah?

Alex: So instead of looking just at ROAS, understanding, okay, what’s the click-through rate of this ad? How many people have actually clicked on it, but maybe they haven’t purchased? So maybe that tells me, that audience segment, let’s say that you look at your data, and you see the click-through rate for this ad is, I don’t know, let’s say 8%, which is exceptional, right, for an audience of 50-plus years old. Well, maybe that tells me that that 50-plus-year-old is really interested in my product, but they’re not ready to convert from that first click. So then I’ll shift my creative to answer this type of audience in my middle and bottom funnel. So see how data drastically changes your content. So I would say that, yes, data, and understanding data, and reporting on it, and making decisions from it, would be crucial.

Jordan: And I think it’s pretty clear as well, as what we’re saying, that when you have a look at a robust, and not even a robust, even a basic Facebook, Instagram strategy, it’s not just about chucking out an ad, hoping something’s going to come from it. It’s trying to actually think about that user journey. So you’ve just described there a piece of content that’s potentially captured someone’s attention. They might’ve stopped and watched the video. They might’ve gone through to your website. And then it’s around how do we, if they purchase, amazing, but chances are probably not. So how do we then re-engage them, and educate them more about your product or your service, or show trust or authority with testimonials, to be able to bring them back and help encourage that purchase over time? So is that a fair statement, in terms of what we need to be focusing on, in terms of not just having just one ad, just hitting hope and hoping that it’s going to work, but actually trying to think about that user journey a bit?

Alex: I think that’s crucial. And again, it comes not only in that strategy, but in your entire business content strategy, because this goes also for your social media, for your website, for your email flows. You have to almost shift from having such specific channel-focused strategies to an overall, overarching content strategy across all your funnels and all your channels.

Jordan: Yeah. So the big things I think that we can take away for 2025 is truly having an understanding about AI is here. It’s not going to go away. We can see already we’re getting great results in terms of Advantage+, using the AI tools, especially in that ad set level, which is based on your audiences, and helping to build the interest-based targeting. Giving it as much clean data as possible, using that data to compound over time, kind of like that compounding interest-based account, using that to always keep getting better and better data. And focusing on that as the first core. And then potentially keeping an eye on how the creative side of AI development is working as well. Like, it’s not quite there just yet, but we can see that getting easier and easier, do you think?

Alex: I think it will, again, astonish us this year, and every day there’s a new tool, there’s a new program, a platform that does something new. So I guess also one of the key things for 2025 is to stay on top of the trends, and seeing what’s new, what’s happening, and how can you make the best use of it. But I think first, let’s just try a quick win. And I know it’s scary to change or understand this all, AI and Advantage+ campaigns, but maybe instead of going straight away to 70%, 30%, even start 20% of your ad budget to an Advantage+ audience, and start testing things now.

Jordan: Nice. Obviously, building strategies, ad strategies, it’s something that, well, we both enjoy doing. And if you’re listening here and you’re slightly confused still, obviously that’s where we can kind of come in and help. There is a lot of different things that you can learn over time. And I think that business owners and marketers, yeah, even, obviously, marketers need to understand these tools really well. But also I do think that business owners and business leaders should have an understanding about how AI is affecting some of these tools, how we can make them better, how reporting works, how the platforms work, and how conversion actually works and how it’s generated. I think there’s a lot that can be said, and there’s a lot of different things that you can kind of test. So, like I said, it’s something that we enjoy kind of having a look over. So if you ever needed any advice or wanted to get in touch with us, obviously you can contact us at donebynine.com. And yeah, even doing a bit of a consultation, having a look through the ad account pretty quickly.

Alex: 100%. You can see the major trends very quickly on. So if you’re ever interested in getting an ad account audit, get in touch with us and we can discuss our key findings.

Jordan: Hey, thanks so much for joining us. It’s been a really interesting discussion, and I think there is a lot to think about. And I know that a lot of people get a little bit scared, or a little bit bewildered, about Facebook ads and Meta ads. I’ve had a couple of consultations this week with a few clients, and it does seem like it’s a bit of a never-ending vortex. But once you get your head around it and try and think about it, go all the way back to having that actual marketing strategy, thinking about the audience that you’ve got, the content that you’re using, how you’re connecting with your audience, and then kind of letting AI, yeah, do the heavy lifting, I’m pretty confident that you’re going to have a pretty solid ad campaign.

Alex: Yeah, definitely. I think the excitement of this tool, obviously, is that it’s always, I mean, for us, is that it’s always changing, and that can be quite stressful for business owners who don’t do marketing on the daily, or aren’t ad experts. So that’s what we’re here for: to help you understand, and, I guess, bring clarity to that clutter of all of the acronyms and different strategies that you hear, that might be from three months ago and not working today. So that’s how we come in and try and make it a bit clearer for you, and make sure that even though we’re running your ads, you also understand how we run them and what strategy we have, so that you can also have control over what we’re doing.

Jordan: Nice. Well, thank you again so much for coming and joining us. I know, yeah, it’s, again, it’s really insightful just to hear another perspective on these ads, and to hear what’s kind of happening in the marketplace. So yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to join us.

Alex: Of course, always.

Jordan: And we will see you on the next episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast.