As digital ad systems and data grow in size and complexity and as the tools addressing them become more synergised, and as chatbots themselves begin to add to the conversations about them, exchange4media was lucky enough to interview Arun Srinivas, Director and Head (India), Ads Business, Meta, on all things happening in big tech.

“At Meta, AI is at the core of our products, and more than half of our advertisers globally already use at least one product powered by it. AI-driven feed recommendations continue to grow their impact on incremental engagement. This year alone, we've seen a 7% increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6% increase on Instagram as a result of recommendation improvements,” stated Srinivas.

Noting that short-form videos, including Reels, is another area the company is very excited about, Srinivas notes that Reels has driven more than 40% increase in time spent on Instagram since its launch.

The company got research firm Factworks to do a study that showed in India, 97% of people surveyed have shared Reels with friends or family. The study noted that all of this engagement is inspiring people to engage with brands. 82% of people surveyed have followed a business after watching Reels, 74% have messaged a business, and 77% of people surveyed have purchased a product or service after watching Reels.

This must have been especially useful during the recent festive season, of which Meta released a consumer report. “We’ve seen strong momentum from our advertisers during the festive season. We saw the festive interest start as early as August-September, building towards festivals such as Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Dussehra, and peaking around Diwali. We continue to see advertisers build on this momentum as we move towards the year-end holiday season,” asserted Srinivas.

The festive study also showed that people are significantly influenced in their buying decisions by influencers and content creators with 66% of the surveyed Diwali shoppers agreeing with this. Messaging is emerging as a natural way for brands to engage with people with two-thirds of the Diwali shoppers saying that they are more likely to consider purchasing from a business if they can contact them via instant messaging. AR and VR are also disrupting how consumers engage with a business with 3 out of 5 shoppers saying that AR experiences help get them into the Diwali spirit and ultimately influence their purchase decisions.

“Personalization is at the heart of many of these experiences. The study highlighted that personalized content through ads on Facebook and Instagram is becoming increasingly vital for Diwali shoppers with an astounding 69% agreeing that it facilitates their shopping experience,” adds Srinvas.

Speaking of facilitation, the chat naturally shifts to Generative AI with Srinivas saying that it has the potential to transform the advertising industry, “and we are excited to unlock its benefits through our platforms. We recently announced that we’ve begun rolling out our first Generative AI-powered ad creative features in Meta Ads Manager. The new features include Background Generation that creates multiple backgrounds to complement the advertiser’s product images, allowing advertisers to tailor their creative assets for different audiences.”

Another feature, Image Expansion, seamlessly adjusts creative assets to fit different aspect ratios across multiple surfaces, like Feed or Reels, allowing advertisers to spend less time and resources on repurposing creative assets. And Text Variation generates multiple versions of ad texts based on the advertiser's original copy, highlighting the selling points of their products/services and giving them multiple text options to better reach their audience.

Meta has been testing these generative AI features with a small and diverse set of advertisers with Srinivas saying these select advertisers have been providing the tech giant with valuable feedback. “According to a survey of advertisers that participated in early testing, most advertisers expect saving time, and half of them estimate that generative AI will save them five or more hours a week - the equivalent of one month per year. Businesses can use this saved time for more strategic work. This is just the starting point, and we will continue to build on these experiences in 2024 and beyond,” he says.

And speaking of 2024 and beyond, what are the things Srinivas is most excited about?

“Apart from AI and Reels, another area where we see strong potential for advertisers is business messaging. Messaging is the future of business, and we are entering a new area of consumer engagement built on chat experiences. The shift to messaging is driving the next chapter of digital transformation for India’s businesses, and Meta is playing a role in this shift,” he replies, adding that India is at the forefront of business messaging and one of the places where the company is seeing a vast array of use cases and innovation come from.

“WhatsApp is deeply entrenched in the daily lives of Indians, making it a natural choice for how people and businesses get things done. We're helping businesses build great messaging experiences for WhatsApp and drive people there with ads that run on Facebook and Instagram to start a chat,” he says, pointing out that there are more than 600 million conversations between people and businesses every day on Meta platforms.

“More than 60% of people on WhatsApp in India message a business app account, and revenue from Click-to-Message ads in India has doubled year-over-year. These are powerful opportunities for businesses to engage with the right set of customers and unlock growth opportunities,” he concluded.