Amid various changes to online data collection, which has significantly impacted how much insight platforms use in ad targeting, Meta has been developing new machine learning-based ad targeting models that can deliver more relevant ads to each user, minus needing the same level of personal usage insight.

This is particularly important for Meta, which has never let go of what Apple’s iOS 14 update spelled for its business. Following the update, a lot of users have cut Meta off from gathering usage data in its apps.

Target Locked

While Apple’s policy changes have mostly hurt Meta’s bottom line, more recently, Meta’s ad business has seen some recovery, while marketers are also reporting much-improved performance tools like Advantage+, Meta’s automated ad targeting process.

How, then, is Meta magically delivering more relevant ads to users with less data to go on?

This week, Meta released an overview of its latest systematic update on this front, highlighting a new ad delivery process called ‘Meta Lattice’, which uses multiple data points to better predict likely ad responses through AI and other predictive technology. As per Meta:

“Meta Lattice is capable of improving the performance of our ads system holistically. We’ve supercharged its performance with a high-capacity architecture that allows our ads system to more broadly and deeply understand new concepts and relationships in data and benefits advertisers through joint optimization of a large number of goals.”

Essentially, the Lattice system can infer more likely user responses, without requiring as much direct insight from each user. The process utilizes knowledge-sharing across Meta’s different apps to expand its mapping of potential user activity and interest/s. Before, all of these elements were measured in isolation, but Meta’s more advanced predictive models are now able to take in a wider array of data points to better understand likely individual behaviors.

Lattice is basically an expandable database of all of Meta’s ad response activity, which, when cross-referenced with all of the information it has on each user, enables the system to better predict likely ad interest through more advanced mapping. This makes better use of all the data that Meta can access to show users more relevant ads. To add, the Lattice system can also better contextualize longer-term ad exposure, and its relative impact on response.

The Wrap

If you haven’t considered Meta’s Advantage+ ads, you should at least give them a go, with many performance marketers reporting strong results through the use of Meta’s evolving ad targeting tools. As these AI-based systems evolve, using a broader range of inputs, they’re likely to become more significant drivers of response, which could help you target the right audience for your offerings without needing to manually set the parameters of each campaign.

Sources

https://bit.ly/3W1LdXn