How AI Affects Advertising Performance

Mark Zuckerberg just outlined Meta’s bold vision for the future of advertising in a new Stratechery interview—and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. Here’s the punchline for marketers: 1. The “Ultimate Business Agent” “Here’s my goal. Here’s my budget. Go get it.” That’s where Meta is heading. No creative. No targeting. No measurement. AI handles the entire funnel—automated, optimized, and outcome-based. 2. Creative Built by AI Meta is approaching the ability to auto-generate ad creatives at scale. Want more control? Upload your own. But increasingly, you won’t have to. 3. Targeting Is Basically Solved Zuckerberg: Meta’s system finds high-intent audiences better than humans. Manual targeting is increasingly discouraged. 4. Results-Based Billing From impressions → outcomes. Measurement is now embedded, not bolted on. But Here’s the Caveat: AI Without Strategy Is Just Noise at Scale AI makes decisions based on patterns—not business context, brand nuance, or customer empathy. Let it run unsupervised, and you risk: - Wasted spend on false positives - Brand-damaging creative hallucinations - Short-term optimization that kills long-term equity The real winners? Not just businesses who use Meta’s tools—but those who understand how to guide them. Because even the smartest AI still needs strategic guardrails. Otherwise, you’re automating mediocrity. If you’re a performance marketer, your job isn’t going away—it’s evolving. You won’t be setting bids or building audiences. You’ll be crafting positioning, auditing outputs, and fine-tuning the machine. The future of ads is AI-assisted. The future of great ads? Still very human.

The rise of AI doesn’t make agencies irrelevant. It makes them indispensable—if they evolve. I’ve heard the speculation: “With AI doing so much, will we need agencies anymore?” The truth is, AI isn’t eliminating the need for agencies—it’s exposing which ones are ready for the future. The partners embracing AI aren’t being replaced. They’re leading. They’re building smarter workflows, unlocking new insights, and evolving from executional support to strategic acceleration. After last week’s post on the 20-60-20 rule, many of you shared how you're balancing AI automation with human oversight. Today, let’s take that one step further—into how this balance is driving real operational excellence and unlocking new doors in advertising. Here’s a simple framework I’ve observed among the most successful AI adopters: Enhance → Automate → Innovate Enhance: Use AI to improve existing processes—make them faster, smarter, more scalable. Automate: Remove repetitive tasks. Free your teams to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. Innovate: Use AI to unlock new capabilities that weren’t feasible before. Let’s bring this to life with a real-world partner example: A tech partner began by enhancing keyword research. What used to take hours, AI now does in minutes—suggesting keywords based on vast data signals. Next, they automated reporting. AI now builds reports with insights and recommendations pulled from multiple sources. Their analysts? They’re back to focusing on strategy. Then came innovation. By combining AI-driven audience insights with creative optimization, they built a system that dynamically adjusts ad content based on real-time performance. That level of personalization? Simply wasn’t possible before. Here’s the kicker: human expertise remained essential at every step. Keyword research still needed a strategist to align with brand goals. AI-generated reports required interpretation to guide decisions. And the personalization engine? It’s tuned and refined by creatives and planners every day. This brings me back to a core belief: AI is a collaborator—not a replacement. The partners winning in this space aren’t just using AI—they’re working with it to amplify their teams and build smarter solutions. Looking ahead? I see AI evolving from optimization to orchestration. Predicting trends. Adjusting strategies in real time. Maybe even composing full-funnel campaigns with inputs from multiple signals and channels. But we’re not there yet—and that’s exciting. Because it means there’s still time to build, test, and shape what this future looks like. So let me ask you: How has AI helped you enhance, automate, or innovate your operations? What new possibilities are you starting to explore? #AmazonAds #AI #FutureOfAdvertising

I witnessed a revelation at Microsoft Advertising ACCELERATE: AI isn’t stealing the spotlight—it’s adjusting the lighting so marketers can shine even brighter. 🚀 Picture this: A marketer staring at a blank canvas, deadline looming. Enter #AI. Not with a finished masterpiece, but with a palette of possibilities. That’s the new marketing reality I experienced firsthand. The room buzzed when a speaker shared how AI-generated ad creatives helped a struggling campaign pivot in hours instead of weeks. Or deliver on an enterprise’s 1000’s of annual new website page requests (45% increase!) with no new headcount. But the applause? It was for the marketer who knew exactly which creative direction to pursue. What stuck with me: 🔹 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮, 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 – When a campaign resonated emotionally, it wasn’t the algorithm that grasped the cultural moment—it was the strategist behind it. 🔹 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 – I watched marketers showcase how AI handled the tedious tasks, freeing them to focus on the why behind campaigns rather than just the how. 🔹 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 – One presenter showed how her team’s strongest campaigns emerged when they treated AI as a creative sparring partner, not just a production tool. The Microsoft AI Mixology Guide reminds me of a good cocktail recipe—AI provides the ingredients, but the marketer’s hand determines whether it’s memorable or merely palatable. (link in the comments👇 ) Has your team found that sweet spot where AI amplifies rather than automates your marketing voice? I was *so* inspired by trivago CMO Jasmine Ezz [hear her wisdom in the video clip below - referencing Steve Clayton's masterclass in an enhanced AI workflow applied to his team in communications.] Drop your story in the comments. 👇 #AIinMarketing #MicrosoftAdvertising #CreativeRevolution