Your Facebook Ads Are About to Get Even More Personalized

More than 1 billion people use Meta AI every month, according to the company. (Dreamstime)

Key Points

• Meta Platforms will personalize ads and content using interactions with its generative AI products.
• Advertising is Meta’s main business, generating $160.6 billion of its $164.5 billion total revenue in 2024, with a projected increase to $193.6 billion in 2025.
• Meta is significantly increasing its AI investments, with 2025 capital expenditures forecast to be between $66 billion and $72 billion.

The advertisements you see on Facebook, Instagram, and other apps owned by Meta Platforms are about to get even more personalized.

Meta said on Wednesday that the ads and content it shows people will soon be influenced by the interactions those users have with the Facebook parent’s generative artificial intelligence products.

“Whether it’s a voice chat or a text exchange with our AI features, this update will help us improve the recommendations we provide for people across our platforms so they’re more likely to see content they’re actually interested in — and less of the content they’re not,” Meta said in a blog post.

More than 1 billion people use Meta AI every month, according to the company.

Users will be notified of this update on Oct. 7 and the change will go into effect on Dec. 16. Afterward, if someone asks Meta AI for advice about something like the best food to feed their puppy, those users should expect ads about dog food to appear in their social media feeds.

This type of ad experience is typical for Meta. The company has long personalized the posts and ads it shows users based on the interactions people have while using Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta apps.

Meta has also been focused on improving its advertising business through the use of AI. For example, brands can target their ads using AI tools.

“We are particularly bullish on the online advertising space broadly, driven by several themes, most notably AI driving more user engagement, better advertising efficacy, helping expand the addressable market, and on the cusp of benefiting from a wave of customer acquisition spending from AI native companies,” Mizuho analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote in a research note on Monday.

The Information reported on Sept. 25 that Meta has had discussions with Google about the possibility of using Gemini models to improve Meta’s ad business. Barron’s has reached out to Meta and Alphabet for comment.

Advertising is Meta’s primary business. The company generated $164.5 billion in total revenue in 2024, of which $160.6 billion was from advertising. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect advertising revenue to jump to $193.6 billion in 2025, with total revenue rising to $196.7 billion.

Meta is investing heavily in AI. In July, management updated its forecast for 2025 capital expenditures to a range of $66 billion to $72 billion versus a prior outlook of $60 billion to $65 billion.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com