Generative AI Tools Revolutionizing Paid Social Strategies

Generative AI has made its way into many facets of media, and social platforms have been no exception. The gen AI landscape is ever-changing as top platforms have rolled out new AI tools for audiences, campaign creation, creative, and more! Below is a peek into what AI capabilities advertisers could be using to enhance campaign performance on Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Pinterest has been slightly behind the times in terms of AI products. However, they are beginning to catch up to competitors with the upcoming launches of Pinterest Ad Labs and Pinterest Performance+ campaigns. Let’s take a look at how these two features will come to life.

Pinterest Ad Labs

Pinterest Ad Labs is still in alpha testing; however, it has plans to provide advertisers with new, innovative ways to test different creative types and improve overall creative performance. Ad Labs products include:

Personalized background generation

A tool built specifically for product pins to generate backgrounds for products based on a user’s historical aesthetics. The use of these backgrounds will prompt users to see products in a space similar to theirs, prompting a higher purchase rate

Collages as an ad unit for advertisers

Users on Pinterest are now able to create collages by cutting and pasting products, ideas, and pins into one “mood board”-like collage. This feature has allowed users to mix and match ideas into one place to explore ideas and creativity. This feature is now coming to advertisers to remix and cut out products attached to the product feed into a collage. This ad type will be available in either a showcase or collection ad unit to propel users to select and learn more about specific products and brands. In collaboration with Pinterest, Wayfair tested “Showcase Shoppable Collage” ads, which proved to decrease CPC by 28% and drive a 5.4x higher engagement rate. This new ad unit could help advertisers from all industries transition to a more “user-generated” content style

Performance+ campaigns

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns are also in closed beta testing, preparing for advertiser use in the near future for consideration, conversion, and catalog sales campaign types. The Performance+ campaign type will combine all Pinterest AI products to create a simplified campaign build experience with 50% fewer inputs. Features of Performance+ include simplified campaign set-up, automatic ad group creation, creative optimizations for catalog sales campaigns, simplified targeting options, and Performance+ bidding.

These AI products will help Pinterest advertisers elevate creative and campaign structure to improve overall performance.

LinkedIn, much like Pinterest, has been slower to release generative AI products for advertisers. That said, LinkedIn has recently released an AI campaign generator called “Accelerate” to make campaign builds smart and simple.

Accelerate campaign builder

LinkedIn “Accelerate” campaigns are a feature much like Advantage+ in Meta and Performance+ in Pinterest. Accelerate campaigns are designed to maximize results with efficient campaign set-up. Users start this process by sharing the URL of the advertised product or service. LinkedIn AI then generates copy and an audience profile for the ideal customer base. After the AI-generated audience is created, advertisers can adjust inclusions and exclusions and create or reuse ads. Upon launch, Accelerate campaigns enter an optimization phase, which allows the platform to learn and adjust targeting and budgeting based on high-performing placements.

Accelerate’s AI campaign set-up is extremely tempting for busy advertisers; however, with fully automated targeting and placements, advertisers with drilled-down audiences and placement restrictions should be cautious in this space to maintain refined audience parameters and brand-safe placements.

TikTok

TikTok released a new tool suite called “TikTok Symphony.” These tools are designed to support the video creation journey for both advertisers and creators to adhere to creative best practices and make creative content stand out. With TikTok’s ever-changing landscape, this tool can help advertisers “keep up with the times” and keep users engaging with video and slide content. TikTok Symphony products include:

Symphony Assistant

Symphony Assistant is a virtual assistant created by TikTok that has the ability to summarize trends, brainstorm creative concepts, give insight into creative best practices, and more. The software works like a chatbot, prompting advertisers to “ask me anything” and providing the best possible insightful answer. Users can ask this chatbot anything from “What beauty products are trending in California?” to “What’s the top trending hashtag on TikTok today?” — the possibilities are endless. Because TikTok is a user-based platform, responses to questions asked to Symphony could include political and/or unreliable information, so it is cautioned to fact check responses.

Symphony script generator

The Symphony Script Generator is a tool used to automatically write scripts and set scenes for videos. Each script contains content for a three-part video: the hook, the scene, and the call to action. Users can input the industry, a 50-character product name, and 1,000-character product description for the tool to scrape and then generate three versions of scripted content. This tool has the potential to revolutionize the rate at which advertisers are able to produce content, completely negating the script-writing process.

But this new feature isn’t without warning. TikTok warns that advertisers “are solely responsible for any content created using Script Generator, including ensuring such content is accurate and complies with applicable laws and regulations, and this content is not endorsed, sponsored, or approved by TikTok.” This underscores the importance of advertisers being mindful when it comes to AI-generated content to ensure that it adheres to brand guidelines and best practices.

Symphony Video Generator

The Symphony Video Generator is an interactive, creative tool that helps advertisers edit, create, and add on to videos. The “Video Editor” portion of this tool allows advertisers to cut and paste portions of videos, add music and text, create transitions, and add effects and stickers. Each of these edits can make monumental changes to videos to increase engagement and total performance

Within this suite, TikTok also provides video templates that can be selected based on industries, video duration, countries, as well as popular and most viewed templates. Advertisers can select a template and then move into an editor to replace content and text and manipulate the content to make it their own

There’s also an “Interactive Add-On” portion of the video generator suite that prompts advertisers to include new video add-ons including shake surprise, gesture slides, surprise pop-ups, or multi-video screens. Each of these add-ons can help increase creative engagement, and in turn, total campaign performance

What do these upgrades mean for advertisers?

These new AI products are revolutionizing the social media landscape with not only campaign, budget, and placement AI models, but solutions for creative as well. As AI products are relatively new for each of these social platforms, advertisers must execute caution to ensure campaign success and brand safety aren’t hindered. A “test and learn” approach is best when using these new products as they could each have a different effect on performance based on industry, product, and goal. The future is here and ready to revolutionize social campaigns today!