The social media landscape is dynamic – haven’t we all heard that enough already? What we need to be focusing upon is, how do we stay up to date with these changes. We may not realise, but Meta is constantly changing things around, not just aesthetically, but also on the backend, which enable agencies, and businesses to better their campaigns, and get the most out of their spend.

Recently, Meta has introduced significant updates to its marketing analytics, particularly affecting the learning phases of ad campaigns. These changes will impact how advertisers can maximize their return on investment through Meta’s platforms.

Faster and (hopefully) better: Shortened Learning Phases

Let’s cut to the chase – previously, it took about 50 events to for the campaign to exit it’s learning phase, and to begin showing any real results. This meant, any changes to improve the campaign’s performance, had to wait.

That’s changed now; Meta’s most recent update allows a campaign to exit its learning phase after 10 events. What does this mean for advertisers?

This change  means that advertisers can now take better decisions much faster. Shorter learning periods give advertisers the ability to stabilise ad performances much faster than they previously could, and this will help achieve potentially improved campaign outcomes.

“You’re fired!” – Automatic Campaign Shutdowns

This may have come as a bit of surprise to many, but Meta has been pushing AI based campaign optimisations more and more over the past year. Features like improvements to text, to ad visuals, music, audience optimisation, ad placements and more are just some of the routine enhancements that Meta offers now.

Besides these, Meta has also introduced a feature that will automatically shut campaigns down, and flag them as “Delivery Error.”

What this means is that Meta, based on the campaign’s performance, will determine whether it should let the campaign run, or shut it down, basically, if you don’t show up, you’re fired!

But don’t let the alarm bells ring just yet! You can still run your campaigns by simply implementing the changes that Meta is recommending. Make sure that you don’t duplicate the campaign like before, as that tactic will not work anymore!

This is a great opportunity for advertise to closely monitor their campaign performance, and ensure they are set up correctly from the start.

‘What’s the end goal, you ask?’: Implications for Advertisers

The truth is, these changes have their pros and cons. These changes allow for faster optimisations, improved campaign performance, and greater flexibility with creatives. However, be mindful that to be able to get the most out of these changes, you constantly need to keep an eye out on your campaigns – this isn’t an out of sight, out of mind type of situation.

Also if a campaign isn’t performing how you expected it to, consider starting fresh. Isolate your most important promotion and create a single campaign with one ad set and a few ads (more on this later). This approach minimizes potential auction overlap and consolidates your budget, allowing for clearer insights into campaign performance.

And don’t be afraid to make use of Meta’s automations. The more advertisers use them, the more Meta learns what works and what doesn’t, eventually generating better outcomes for us!