Advertising industry faces disruption with Google's Merlin and Meta's AI tools taking over ad agency roles
In a groundbreaking development for the digital advertising industry, the arrival of Google's Merlin and Meta's Advantage+ AI platforms marks the beginning of a new era. This new era is characterised by the synergy of human creativity and machine efficiency, creating the smartest campaigns.
Marketers using Meta's Advantage+ AI platform are moving into a review role, where they approve or fine-tune the AI's suggestions, refresh strategic parameters, and provide brand-specific guidance. Similarly, Google's Merlin AI platform takes care of the entire campaign workflow, generating ad headlines, descriptions, selecting or creating imagery, drafting short-form video clips, and deploying these assets across Search, Display, YouTube, and Discovery channels.
These third-party solutions ingest data from multiple ad networks and analyze a brand's historical performance. Google's Merlin AI platform learns which creative elements resonate with specific demographics, adjusting messaging and spend on the fly. Meta's Advantage+ AI platform offers automated asset personalization, audience targeting, and bid optimization.
Independent AI platforms offer agency-style capabilities without tying users to a single ad platform. With the rollout of Meta's Andromeda initiative, advertisers can define campaign objectives, upload core branding assets, and let the system craft ad copy and creatives.
As the traditional ad creation and optimization process is automated, teams will reorganize around functions like prompt engineering, AI governance, and ethical oversight, ensuring that automated campaigns remain aligned with corporate values and regulatory standards.
The marketer's expertise is now measured less by their command of spreadsheets and more by their ability to interrogate AI outputs, infuse them with brand authenticity, and guide the machine toward ever-better results. By providing an alternative to platform-native AI, independent platforms allow marketers to retain flexibility and avoid dependency on one provider's algorithms.
The rise of AI toolboxes may seem like a looming threat to traditional agencies, but those who embrace these platforms can reorient their value proposition. Agencies that recognise this shift and recalibrate their roles accordingly will not only survive but thrive in the age of autonomous ad creation.
With Merlin and Advantage+, digital marketing roles are transformed from manual asset creation and optimization towards strategic direction and AI management. This evolution presents new opportunities for agencies to deliver rapid, data-driven campaigns while dedicating their human talent to brand storytelling, market insight, and creative concepting.
Moreover, independent AI platforms surface generative creative options alongside strategic recommendations. Meta's new streamlined campaign creation for Advantage+ Sales, App, and Leads objectives still allows for customizations but eliminates the need to switch to original audiences. Meta's Advantage+ AI platform allows for faster turnaround times, more creative variants served to different audience segments, and the ability to iterate in near real-time.
In conclusion, the integration of AI into digital marketing is set to revolutionise the industry, shifting roles and offering new opportunities for growth and innovation.
Technology continues to transform the digital marketing industry as the integration of AI platforms like Google's Merlin and Meta's Advantage+ reshapes roles, with marketers focusing more on strategic direction and AI management rather than manual asset creation and optimization.
The evolution of these third-party AI solutions doesn't only present opportunities for rapid, data-driven campaigns, but also presents creative options for generative branding and advertisements, enabling agencies to dedicate their human talent to brand storytelling, market insight, and creative concepting.
