- AI-first holiday strategy: Meta expands Advantage+ tools, flexible media, and creative insights to optimize campaign performance through automation.
- Creator commerce integration: Enhanced creator marketplace filters, partnership ads with testimonials, and catalog tie-ins position influencers at the core of holiday promotions.
- Video-driven discovery: New Reels ad formats with shoppable product features and catalog video carousels align with rising video consumption across Facebook and Instagram.
- Omnichannel and global expansion: Shops ads scale to new international markets while omnichannel ads offer combined online-to-store optimization for better holiday conversions.
Meta doubles down on video and influencer-led ads to boost product discovery and engagement.
Meta is entering the holiday season with a renewed focus on AI-powered advertising formats designed to help brands capture attention when consumer spending peaks. The company’s latest updates emphasize automation, personalization, and commerce-first integrations across Facebook and Instagram, presenting businesses with new tools to scale performance at a critical time of year.
By aligning its Advantage+ suite with shoppable video formats and influencer partnerships, Meta is signaling that discovery-driven commerce is now inseparable from its advertising ecosystem.
Reels as the Engine of Discovery
Reels continues to dominate time spent across Meta’s platforms, with video watch time up more than 20% year-over-year in the U.S. Recognizing this shift, Meta has expanded its Reels ad capabilities, adding “show products” optimizations that automatically transform single media creatives into shoppable units.
- Source: Meta
Instagram’s carousel Reels format now integrates catalog video, driving conversion lifts as users swipe through content-rich shopping environments. For brands, this positions Reels not just as an entertainment format but as a conversion funnel—one that leverages AI to match the right products to the right audiences in real time.
Influencers as Merchandisers
Influencers are becoming more than storytellers; Meta is positioning them as direct merchandising partners. Updates to the Instagram Creator Marketplace make it easier to filter talent by geography and language, broadening regional reach for holiday campaigns. Partnership ads now integrate “intro cards” and testimonials, turning creator content into scalable, product-forward media.
When paired with Advantage+ catalog ads, these collaborations deliver measurable gains in click-through and conversions. This signals Meta’s push to entwine influencer credibility with its automated performance engine, providing brands with both cultural relevance and algorithmic efficiency.
Creative Diversification and AI Optimization
Beyond formats, Meta is tackling one of marketers’ recurring pain points: creative fatigue. New tools like Flexible Media allow the ad system to automatically repurpose existing assets into placements predicted to perform, generating a median 23% lift in conversions.
- Source: Meta
The addition of creative insights within Ads Manager arms advertisers with data on what’s resonating and what’s not, while related media recommendations help diversify assets without manual re-uploading. Together, these tools point to Meta’s broader strategy of reducing the friction between asset creation and performance delivery, making AI the creative director of holiday advertising.
Expanding Omnichannel Reach
While much of the focus is on digital storefronts, Meta is extending its holiday ad innovations into omnichannel experiences. Global rollout of omnichannel ads enables businesses to optimize campaigns across e-commerce, physical stores, and branded apps, guiding users to whichever channel is most likely to convert.
Integrated features like maps and discount callouts drive in-store traffic, while Shop ads expand into new international markets, including Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Japan. By weaving together online and offline pathways, Meta is positioning itself as a commerce enabler across the full shopping journey.
The Broader Implications for Marketers
These updates collectively illustrate Meta’s commitment to embedding AI deeper into every stage of the advertising cycle—from audience targeting to creative execution to conversion tracking. The emphasis on creators and Reels reflects broader industry shifts toward entertainment-led commerce, while the scaling of omnichannel ads signals Meta’s recognition that holiday shopping is still hybrid.
For marketers, the challenge will not be simply adopting these tools but learning how to balance algorithmic efficiency with brand voice and long-term customer loyalty.
