April 2024 saw Meta pushing Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) as the primary solution for e-commerce. The platform began limiting manual campaign creation options for new advertisers, nudging everyone toward AI-managed campaigns.
For experienced media buyers, this was both a threat and an opportunity. The threat: losing granular control over audience targeting and placement. The opportunity: leveraging Meta AI to find audiences we never would have identified manually.
My approach was hybrid — using ASC for prospecting and broad reach, while maintaining manual campaigns for retargeting and control. The data was clear: ASC campaigns delivered 12% lower CPA for cold audiences but 8% higher CPA for warm audiences compared to manual campaigns.
The key was understanding when to use each. We also saw the expansion of Meta Verified subscriptions for businesses, adding credibility badges that improved click-through rates by 6% on average. WhatsApp Channels launched for businesses, creating a broadcast messaging layer that complemented the existing conversational commerce flow.
