21: Ad Manager Rant and Cautionary tale

In this episode, Stacy Covitz shares her experiences and concerns regarding the integration of AI in Facebook Ads Manager. She recounts a personal incident where AI features unexpectedly altered her ad settings, leading to a loss of control over her campaign optimization. 

Stacy emphasizes the importance of manual control in ad management and expresses her apprehensions about the default AI settings that may hinder advertisers' ability to manage their campaigns effectively. 

She also offers to audit listeners' ad accounts as a way to provide assistance and insights into better ad management practices.

Takeaways

Stacy prefers manual control over AI in ad management.
Unexpected AI changes can disrupt ad campaigns.
It's crucial to monitor ad settings regularly.
AI features in Ads Manager  default to 'on'.
Stacy's experience highlights the need for caution with AI.
Advertisers should be aware of AI's impact on optimization.
Communication about AI changes is essential for users.

Stacy is offering a  free ad audit to 3 listeners to thank you for listening. 

Click here

Sound bites

"I was so upset by this."
"People need to know."
"Why are they all on?"


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI in Ad Management
00:03 Real-Life Experience with Ad Manager
03:20 The Impact of AI on Ad Optimization
04:43 Concerns About AI Default Settings
06:07 Offering Help with Ad Audits

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Transcript

Stacy Covitz (00:30)
Meta, meta, you've done it again.

I'm going start with a ad manager real life story.

I was getting ready to go on a trip and I wanted to do one last thing before I left. It was for a client's campaign and I didn't want to go to my desk. I didn't want to sit at my desk because I was getting ready to go kind of in vacation mode so I thought, I'll just go onto my phone. I didn't use the app if you want me to elaborate on the app,

I can do that in another episode, I just went to business.facebook.com on my phone. So on my phone's browser, browser, and was checking the campaign I don't know what happened, but all of sudden I see your changes are going to be made. Your changes are updating.

And I thought, what in the world? I didn't make any changes. What is happening? I don't like this. I was panicking because I turn every single AI function off when I am creating campaigns. Now that is what I'm doing right now. That could change. That could change. Right now I still want control because

I've tried a couple of the AI functions and I'm just not crazy about the results, but that's me. And if I, if I want control, I turn everything off. And then that way I can also keep better track of, you know, what's working and what's not. this campaign was doing really well. It had been running for about two or three days.

starting to really optimize, get start to get, better results, better costs, I was pleased, but I just wanted to get a quick check before I got on the road. I was going to be in my car for about eight hours. And now what? So now I'm getting this, your ads are being updated. Something, I don't know.

Now I have to stop what I'm doing because I can't trust what's going on on my phone because it's, don't know. trying not to panic. I go to my desktop, I sit down, I log on and I go to ads manager and I look and sure enough, there are every single one of my ads now has AI. ⁓

in a few in a few areas. It was improve color. I don't know. I don't even know. I was so I was in such a hurry and I was so flustered that I just went in. I edit, edit, edit, click off, click off, click off, which is what I do in the first place. And then I update and publish.

Why I'm so upset by this and felt the need and this was, guess, a good thing because I thought, my gosh, I gotta get on my microphone right now and make a podcast episode about this because people need to know.

here's the thing. once your ads are optimizing and doing better, anytime you make a change, it starts over. So whatever happened on my phone made changes. I was able to fix it. I was able to stop it. Luckily I saw that it said your ads are updating, but

Now my ads after, you know, spending two or three days optimizing have to start over. So I thought, no, people need, people need to know. if you're, if you're wanting to, and maybe this is just my phone. I don't know if you, if you're able to manage your ad account on your iPhone, let me know. Cause mine is wonky. And again, I'm not using the app. am just

using my browser. Yes, I have tried the app. I have tried the app and that is even wonkier. this is for you if you want control of your ads and you don't want any of the AI capabilities toggled on.

Don't log on using your iPhone. Oh, so that's my lesson today. that's just my little public service announcement.

we all know or we're starting to imagine we've even heard, I think Zuckerberg saying that everything's going to be AI. Everything that you do on ads manager is going to be AI.

I don't think that's a good thing. I don't necessarily think that's really gonna happen. this is kind of a follow-up to episode 10. Episode 10 is all about things in Ads Manager that bother me that I don't like.

And this is one of them and it is literally having to turn off manually every AI function because it's defaulting. It's defaulting to all of them being on. I think that's my problem. Why are they all on? Why can't we just turn them on? Hmm. I guess I could have made this rant into just

one sentence. All right. I'd love to know what you think about this. I have some great resources in the show notes. And I also want to let you know that I am offering an audit. I would like to audit someone's ad account and we can either chat about it on the podcast.

You can come on and we can chat about it. We don't have to do it live. And I am wanting to help you. And this is, this is a free gift for being a listener.