Social Media Platforms Are Expanding The Way Marketers Can Use Generative AI Design Tools For Ad Purposes

A variety of social media platforms have released generative AI design tools over the past year, in a bid to entice marketers.  

Social media platforms are using these new offerings to draw marketers in, promising them faster advertising and better results. 

However, marketers are raising eyebrows on whether these tools are truly made for them, or, for profit. 

With AI still very much in its infancy, especially in the form of generative-AI creative tools, can social media platforms convince marketers to put all their eggs in the AI basket?

AI DESIGN TOOLS ON OFFER

From TikTok to Pinterest, social media platforms everywhere have been creating new generative AI design tools in the hopes of simplifying marketers’ efforts when it comes to advertising on their apps. 

In August, Snapchat announced that it was creating generative AI ad tools for marketers. These new tools include AI powered lenses and an AI copy generator. The generator should have the ability to create ad headlines, saving marketers time. 

Over the summer, TikTok launched Symphony, its creative AI suite. Symphony is designed to help create on TikTok, drawing information from TikTok ads that already exist on the platform. Through the assistant, marketers can receive help on inspiration, script creation, best practices, solution suggestions, and insights. 

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In May, Meta expanded its generative AI ad tool offerings. Marketers can now upload reference images to create AI variations. Through the system, advertisers can also expand their audience, serve the perfect products to interested customers at scale, direct consumers to where they are most likely to buy, and more. 

Finally, Pinterest joined the fray with its Pinterest Ad Labs. The program (which is only available to selected brands) allows marketers to test out the platform’s prototype tools, which include ad tools, new creative tools, and a variety of generative AI features. 

Clearly, the trend of the moment is for social media platforms to create a variety of generative AI design tools aimed at marketers. 

Yet, are they really worth it? 

Marketers appear to still be on the fence when it comes to actually using these tools, and who they truly benefit.  

THE IMPACT OF AI DESIGN TOOLS ON MARKETERS 

With seemingly endless tools being released onto the world, one would assume that marketers have been integrating these programs into their lives; streamlining their advertising processes and reaching new heights. 

From a look at the industry, this is not exactly the case. 

Marketers have expressed confusion at this sudden influx of tools, with many believing that it is for ulterior motives; rather than for their benefit as many platforms are claiming. 

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It seems that the focus is largely on small businesses. Marketers have even gone as far as to label these AI design tools as “BFF Features”, standing for beginner friendly or budget friendly. For small businesses, these tools could be a quick and easy way to come up with ideas on how to promote to consumers. 

As a small business, these tools are simple and easy to use, meaning they can quickly pull together the basics of a campaign if you are well and truly lost. 

For more established marketers, however, these tools simply do not make the cut. Many believe that this new rush to offer up AI powered creative tools is merely a matter of keeping up with the competition; plugging out as many tools as possible so that your offerings are the same as everyone else. 

Another possibility is platforms trying to keep AI capabilities in-house. Social media platforms are trying to reduce marketers’ reliance on partnerships with companies like Microsoft or OpenAI, and provide them with more business as a result. 

@brandnat

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Another key factor is the desire to retain ad dollars from small and medium-sized businesses, which have long been the “secret sauce” for social media platforms. These smaller businesses provide quick and easy profit to platforms, as the apps offer them a way to reach their target audience without needing massive budgets. In the past, small businesses would have needed a media buyer or agency to navigate the advertising landscape, but advancements in AI design tools have eliminated this barrier to entry.

Ultimately, whilst these tools are a good start, for marketers they are simply not advanced enough to truly speed things up, nor rely on them fully.

For any marketer who is not a true beginner, these tools do not provide enough “oomph”. One could use them to generate some general ideas, topline ideas, simple images, or short copy, but they are not yet well built enough to be a marketer’s go to. 

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Especially, when it comes to brand specifics. A major question on marketers minds is when these tools will be able to learn from brands to produce a product. In their current state, these tool offerings cannot learn a brand’s tone of voice, ethos, personality and then create content that aligns with this information. 

As such, they are largely useless. Unless they can create content, for example copy, that is in line with a brand’s existing image, a pair of human eyes will always have to comb over the results. 

This brings up the question of how these tools will source such data. Will they have free roam over a brand’s public persona? Just how much data will they need? 

At the end of the day, social media platforms are going to continue to push out new AI design tools as quickly as they can; whether marketers want them or not. 

Marketers are aware that these tools have immense potential, but until they are developed further, and created with marketers rather than profit in mind, it is unlikely that they will make much of a splash.

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