Some marketers worry that Meta's AI-based Advantage+ ad tool, added after Apple's ATT to automatically generate multiple ads, forces them to relinquish control
Social network claims successes with tool to counteract Apple's privacy changes that resulted in billions in lost revenue
Context & Ripple Effects
This story is the payoff of a three-year arc that began with the industry bracing for Apple's privacy-focused IDFA changes in late 2020 (advertisers scrambling for new targeting methods ahead of IDFA). After ATT landed and cost Meta billions in lost revenue, reporting showed iOS developers like Meta and Snap kept collecting anonymized, aggregated data anyway (continued data collection despite ATT) — and Advantage+ is Meta's productized answer: automation that generates multiple ads to recover targeting signal it can no longer buy directly.
Why it matters now: the control marketers are being asked to hand over is only expanding. Meta has already upgraded the tools to generate full images, not just backgrounds (AI ad tools that create complete new images), and reports say it aims for fully AI-created and targeted ads by the end of 2026 (plans for brands to fully create and target ads with AI by 2026).
First-order effects
- Marketers using Advantage+ cede creative decisions to Meta's algorithms — multiple auto-generated ads replace brand-controlled assets, so the immediate cost is reduced oversight of how their brands appear.
- Meta gets what it needs most post-ATT: fresh conversion signal generated inside its own system, which it says offsets billions in ATT-driven revenue losses.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers' trust becomes the battleground: worries about ads near offensive content under the new content moderation approach (advertiser concerns about adjacency under looser moderation) compound the unease about automated placement, giving rivals an opening on transparency and control.
- The UK tribunal allegation that Meta inflated Shops ads metrics and bypassed ATT sharpens advertiser scrutiny of exactly these black-box tools (Purkayastha's tribunal allegations) — performance claims from automated systems face harder questioning.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds toward fully AI-generated, AI-targeted campaigns, platforms like Meta capture the entire ad stack — creative, targeting, and budget — turning agencies and creative tooling into optional layers and concentrating pricing power with whoever owns the audience data.
- Regulatory exposure grows with the automation: measurement opacity and privacy workarounds alleged in filings give regulators a concrete case study as AI-driven advertising becomes the default rather than the opt-in.
The trend: Post-ATT, ad platforms are converting privacy-driven signal loss into a land grab for the full ad workflow, trading advertisers' control for automated performance.