Meta Advertiser Field Notes
Weekly observations from inside Meta ads
A mix of AI-related risk, new automation tools, and ad creation updates stood out this week. Some of these are small, some are potentially more serious, but together they say a lot about where Meta is headed when it comes to control, guidance, and AI inside its business tools.
- AI-related ad account shutdowns
- New Meta Manus connectors
- Meta AI Business Assistant
- Add Business AI enhancement
- Format selection is changing
- ComScore Markets for auto ads
Let’s get to it…
1. AI-Related Ad Account Shutdowns
If you’ve been using the Meta ads connector to connect your ad account to Claude or other AI agents, tread very carefully. Maybe disconnect entirely for now until Meta’s stand on this technology clarifies.
We’ve seen several reports during the past week or so of advertisers getting their accounts shut down without warning. Like this from Naman Bansal, who said on LinkedIn that they’d lost 17 ad accounts due to AI…
Or this, from Tomas Kliment, who tells a similar story…
It sounds like some have been able to get their ad accounts back and some haven’t. But as we all know, the appeal process can be frustrating, with no ability for a second review in some cases.
If I were to guess, I don’t believe this is intentional on Meta’s part. Sure, they want to encourage the use of Manus (coming in the next update below), but this would be overly aggressive even by Meta’s standards. It’s more than likely a scenario of not accounting for the large volume of API calls that are happening.
Does that mean you should continue using these tools? Heck no. Stop until you get the all clear. It’s just not worth the risk.
2. New Meta Manus Connectors
Coincidentally (maybe?), Meta put out an announcement yesterday about the various ways you can unlock the “Power of Manus and in Meta’s Business and Creator Tools.” Meta formally announced the connectors available across Ads Manager, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Ads Manager: While we know about the problems mentioned above, you should be safe using Meta’s official Ads Manager connector to Manus. When connected, “Manus identifies actionable insights, and creates meaningful output formats such as websites, dashboards, slides and infographics.”
Instagram Creator Marketplace: Manus helps match businesses with creators whose audiences align with their marketing goals.
Instagram: Create, publish, and analyze all Instagram content types in one streamlined workflow.
WhatsApp: Beginning to roll out now, Manus handles tasks like checking calendars, drafting responses, and creating to-do lists to help small business owners manage their work directly within WhatsApp chats.
3. Meta AI Business Assistant
I know that this has been rolling out for a while, but I was finally granted access while writing this post. An alert popped up for Meta AI Business Assistant that looks like this…
Once you connect an ad account, Meta opens a panel on the right to initiate a chat with Meta AI.
You can either pick from some generic options or ask a custom question. I asked it how I could get better results from my active ads. While it does give an analysis and makes recommendations, I wouldn’t say there’s any added value. It just recommends the same stuff you’d get from Opportunity Score.
I’m just digging in, but it’s interesting, though I’m not sure it’s useful enough that I’ll make it part of my routine. It’s hopefully most useful for support-related situations where Meta’s human and automated support systems otherwise fail.
4. Add Business AI Enhancement
Speaking of Meta Business AI, I’m now seeing this enhancement when creating ads.
It’s not a new enhancement, but it’s been in testing or rolling out for the past several months. This is the first time I’ve seen it in one of my accounts.
The Add Business AI enhancement is available for Sales campaigns where you utilize any of the website-related conversion locations. It works within Facebook Feed, Facebook Reels, Facebook Stories, Instagram Feed, Instagram Reels, and Instagram Stories placements. An AI agent can instantly answer questions that people have about your product or business that are featured in the ad.
There are a couple of weird things about this enhancement so far…
First, the enhancement may be available even if you’re not currently eligible for the web, Messenger, or WhatsApp integrations of Business AI.
Second, I haven’t seen a way to preview how this would work with my ads. How can we trust that Meta AI will answer questions accurately? Is it based only on the ad copy and landing page information?
Certainly a risk, but maybe you’re adventurous. I turned it on for fun.
5. Format Selection is Changing
You may have spotted this message when creating an ad…
It reads:
Format selection is changing. Soon, Format display options in Ad creative will be the new way to choose formats. This also gives you the flexibility to show ads in multiple formats.
The Format Display Options feature is reasonably new, but I’ve been using it for several months now.
Admittedly, I haven’t seen it as a complete replacement for format selection to this point. I customize site links and they’re used to generate carousel and collection options. And if you choose carousel as the main format, you can use Format Display Options to generate ads that create variations featuring individual carousel cards.
What isn’t clear to me is whether anything else about the ad creation flow will update substantially when format selection goes away. That’s the biggest barrier to me understanding how this change will be executed.
Will we still be able to customize creative by placement? Provide creative options for different aspect ratios? I sure hope so.
6. ComScore Markets for Auto Ads
And finally, Meta announced that it is transitioning from Nielsen DMA to Comscore Markets for automotive mobile ads.
Per Meta, from the announcement:
This transition to Comscore Markets® allows us to provide advertisers with a partner solution that is more sustainable and scalable for long-term performance and measurement.
This change only applies to you if you run automotive ads. Here’s the developer rollout timeline…
- March 23: Advertisers will have the ability to update their vehicle offer feed to include Comscore Market IDs, mapping, and feeds instead of Nielsen DMA.
- April 20: A notification will be issued during feed ingestion for Catalog Ads if dma_codes is still included in the vehicle offer feed.
- June 22: Nielsen’s DMAs will be removed from all Meta targeting and reporting solutions.
Your Turn
What do you think about these updates?
Let me know in the comments below!
