5 Essential Meta Updates – Brands & Advertisers’ Insider Guide (June-July 2024)

Whether re: marketing, current affairs, academia or just life in general, we’d say it’s a pretty popular opinion that staying ahead of the curve is crucial. 

Meta has dropped some sizzling updates recently, and being one of their leading agency partners, we’re here to break this exclusive intel down for you. You'll find below last month’s key product updates distilled into five essential points that’ll easily help level up your advertising game. 

And as always, we’ve got experts to manage the implementation of any of the below for you – so, (subtle plug time), get in touch with us for a free discovery call.

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Meta AI Comment Summaries – The Scoop on Conversations

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Are your posts flooded with comments?

We tend to view that as a good thing due to its correlation with engagement, but sometimes it does drown out the overall consensus / hero comments that you (as a brand) want people to immediately notice. 

Meta’s rolling out AI-generated comment summaries for English posts on public Facebook Pages, Groups, and Creators. This nifty feature helps users quickly catch up on what’s being said without scrolling through endless comments. 

For brands, here’s what’s important to note:

• Control over comment summaries: Delete, hide comments, or remove summaries at post and page levels.
• Engagement insights: Summaries reflect the real-time comment landscape, giving you better visibility.
• Eligibility: Currently available in the US, expanding soon.

‍Takeaway? Stay on top of public sentiment and manage your brand’s narrative more efficiently, spotlighting the comments you want audiences to focus on.

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Incremental Attribution – Boost Your Ad Performance

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Meta’s new Incremental Attribution feature is a game-changer. We know that a major determinant of Meta ad performance is its longer-term impact, and brands are increasingly focused on incrementality when evaluating advertising efforts.

This new Meta product is an opt-in attribution setting that helps advertisers easily improve the performance of their ads (especially if focused on incremental outcomes).

When selected, it replaces existing time-based attribution settings (e.g. 7DC | 1DV) and combines Meta’s deep repository of Lift study data with Machine Learning to predict the incrementality of conversions. 

For brands, here’s what’s important to note:

• New attribution setting with opt-in implementation: Enhances performance by predicting and adjusting the value of conversions in bidding and reporting. 
• Proven results: Early beta tests show better results compared to standard BAU optimisation methods.
• Compatibility: Works with Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, and available in Beta from August 2024.

‍Takeaway? If you’re aiming for higher ROI on your ad spend, Incremental Attribution is your new best friend, offering you more precise insights into, well, incrementality.

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Taller Ad Heights for Facebook Feed – More Real Estate for Creativity

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Meta has increased the height allowance for Single Image Ads on Facebook Feeds to a 4:5 aspect ratio.

This update allows for a more immersive ad experience and better consistency across Meta placements, especially since Instagram has had this for ages.

• New aspect ratio: From 1:1 (square) to 4:5 (portrait).
• Performance benefits: Likely improved click-through and conversion rates.
• Automatic updates: Existing ads will be adjusted if the original image supports the new ratio, and future ads can simply be uploaded in 4:5 (portrait) sizing.

Takeaway? Utilise the extra space to create eye-catching ads that drive engagement and conversions, and enjoy streamlined and seamless ad creation processes when your assets can be consistently cropped across all different Meta platforms.

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Say Goodbye to Detailed Targeting Exclusions

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Starting July 15, 2024, Meta is removing Detailed Targeting exclusions and migrating a subset of options to Audience Controls – which allows for the exclusion of any audiences necessary to protect your brand, as well excluding employees of your business.

This change aims to improve campaign performance and simplify audience management, with a recent advertiser test showing that the median CPA was 22.6% lower without Detailed Targeting Exclusions vs. using Detailed Targeting Exclusions.

• Impact: Cheaper acquisition and conversion costs.
• Transition period: Existing campaigns can run until January 31, 2025 – when they will automatically stop delivering without any action needed from advertisers.

‍Takeaway? Embrace the new Audience controls for improved campaign performance as advised by Meta’s algorithmic tech, whilst simplifying and streamlining targeting.

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Connect Google Analytics with Meta – Data-Driven Decisions

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Meta now allows eligible advertisers to integrate GA4 with Meta for enhanced conversion reporting, through a brand-new (Beta) Third-Party Analytics Integration that provides a secure way of sharing aggregated conversions data with Meta. 

Only available to a select group of advertisers, you’ll find the feature on Events Manager, and our team can point you further in the right direction.  

• Criteria: Available for global web advertisers using Sales Objective and Conversion Optimisation Autobid only, and have a Pixel integration with or without CAPI (*not available for CAPI-only set-up)
• Benefits: +22% increase in Meta-attributed conversions in early tests.
• Set-Up: Quick and easy, with full control over shared data.

‍Takeaway? Leverage this integration for more accurate performance insights and ad optimisations, enjoying full control of the data you share, with customisable settings and opt-out features. Only 5-10 minutes to integrate, with no developer support.