If Meta Is in Your Mix, Advertising Week Just Dropped New AI Tools You Should Test

Meta and TikTok used Advertising Week to announce new AI tools for creative, campaign management and customer conversations, giving businesses and digital marketing agencies more options to test. Reddit also expanded its lead generation offering, although Australian advertisers will need to check which features are available in their accounts.

Meanwhile, reports of Google manual actions picked up, and new research highlighted how often social platforms appear in AI answers. Whether you manage campaigns in-house or work with a digital marketing agency, this week’s updates call for a closer look at content quality, automation settings and what counts as a useful result.

Meta Expands Its AI Ad Tools at Advertising Week

Meta’s Advertising Week announcements cover creative production, campaign management and shopping. Its business assistant is gaining more context for recommendations, including past activity, seasonality and advertiser goals. Meta is also testing uploads of brand guidelines, conversational changes to targeting and budgets, and scheduled reports.

On the creative side, Meta says generating video from static assets in Advantage+ creative is now generally available. Ads Creative Studio is expanding to more advertisers, with tools for developing video variations and editing hooks, audio, captions and end scenes. Customer Lifecycle Strategy is also becoming available to all advertisers.

The announcement combines available features, expanding access and tests. Australian advertisers should check their accounts before building plans around the full lineup.

The gurus’ take

The most useful starting point is a task that currently slows your team down. If producing video variations takes weeks, turning approved static assets into testable videos could make a practical difference.

But faster production needs a clear testing question. Five variations of the same weak message will tell you less than two distinct approaches built around different customer concerns.

Working with a Meta Ads agency can help connect those creative choices with campaign objectives and commercial results. Our recommendation is to start with a contained experiment, review the outputs and expand only when the evidence supports it.

Conversational campaign changes deserve the same discipline. Being able to request a budget adjustment quickly makes approval rules and change tracking more useful, especially when several people manage an account.

Your action plan

• Check access first: Confirm which features are available in your Australian ad account and which remain in testing.
• Choose one production bottleneck: Test static-to-video generation or creative variations against your existing process, recording both time saved and campaign results.
• Review every output: Check product accuracy, brand voice, captions and offer details before an asset goes live.
• Set campaign controls: Decide who can approve targeting and budget changes, then assess performance against your usual acquisition or revenue measures.

TikTok Adds AI Tools Across Search, Creative and Lead Generation

TikTok’s Advertising Week updates extend beyond making more ad creative. The platform announced Smart+ automation for Search Ads Campaigns, covering keywords and creative, alongside Smart+ Creative Selection.

Creative Selection brings advertiser assets, AI-generated material and creator content into a single approval workflow, recommending groups of assets for the campaign objective while letting advertisers control what goes live.

TikTok also introduced Agentic Leads for AI-guided lead conversations, plus Shopping Assistant and Buy Direct experiences for product discovery and checkout. Its Ad Network announcement specifically concerns expansion to US advertisers, so Australian brands should distinguish that rollout from features they can access locally.

The gurus’ take

The search update is worth watching because it connects the creative with what someone is actively looking for. That creates a different planning task from placing an entertaining video in the feed.

A person searching for a product comparison may need evidence, a demonstration or a clear explanation of suitability. Reusing broad awareness creative without considering that question could waste the opportunity, even if the campaign setup becomes easier.

For TikTok advertising, our recommendation is to organise assets by the questions they answer. Give the system useful options, then evaluate which messages bring people closer to an enquiry or purchase.

The same thinking applies to automated lead conversations. Before testing them, define what makes an enquiry useful and what information your team needs to follow up. A conversation that gathers contact details but leaves buying intent unclear still creates work for sales.

Your action plan

• Confirm local eligibility: Check feature access, supported objectives and rollout conditions before committing production time or budget.
• Separate search and feed tests: Build search creatives around relevant customer questions rather than assuming your strongest feed ad will suit every query.
• Prepare the asset library: Group approved demonstrations, comparisons and creator content by product, message and campaign objective.
• Define lead quality: For any available lead automation, agree on qualification questions and handover steps. Assess useful enquiries and sales outcomes alongside cost per lead.

Google May Be Issuing More Manual Action Penalties

Reports of Google manual actions have picked up, according to Search Engine Roundtable’s October 8 coverage. SEO consultants Marie Haynes and Daniel Foley Carter reported more cases recently, with Haynes highlighting thin content, pure spam and scaled content issues. Some affected sites were established businesses.

That deserves attention, but the evidence remains anecdotal. Consultant enquiries and help forum complaints do not establish a Google-wide increase, and the report does not confirm a new enforcement campaign.

A manual action also requires a different response from ordinary ranking volatility. Google’s reconsideration process involves fixing the problems identified in the notice before requesting another review. Waiting for an algorithm update to settle is not a recovery plan for an existing manual action.

The gurus’ take

The useful question is whether your team would spot a manual action quickly and know who owns the response.

For businesses investing in search engine optimisation, this is a good prompt to review how content gets approved, especially when production has accelerated. Publishing hundreds of pages can outpace editorial oversight, leaving repeated claims, shallow answers or pages whose purpose is difficult to explain.

Our view: Focus the review on what customers actually gain from each page. A long publishing history should not replace a current quality check, and deleting content in bulk without understanding the problem can create more work.

Your action plan

• Check Search Console: Review the Manual Actions report and messages, and assign someone to monitor them regularly.
• Review content produced at scale: Sample templated service pages, location pages and outsourced articles. Look for useful distinctions, accurate information and answers that justify each page’s existence.
• Follow the notice if one appears: Establish which pages and policies are affected, address the underlying issue and document the changes before submitting a reconsideration request.
• Avoid panic edits: Use evidence from your own site to guide changes. Industry chatter alone is not a reason to remove an entire blog.

Social Platforms Feature in AI Answers, But Posting More Is No Guarantee

New coverage of SE Ranking research highlights social media’s presence in AI-generated answers. Across an analysis of 100,000 keywords, social platform links appeared in 67.66% of Google AI Overviews, 32.39% of Google AI Mode responses and 8.4% of ChatGPT answers.

Platform preferences differed, too. YouTube was the most commonly cited social source in Google AI Overviews, while Reddit and LinkedIn led the social sources referenced by ChatGPT.

These findings show that social content can become a source for AI answers. However, they don’t establish that frequent posting causes a brand to receive more mentions, or that an active account is a confirmed ranking signal.

The gurus’ take

For Generative Engine Optimisation or GEO, the opportunity is to connect the questions your audience asks with useful content across your website and relevant social channels.

Think product demonstrations, expert explanations and practical comparisons. A video that shows how something works gives people a reason to watch and share it, regardless of whether an AI engine later cites it.

An AI search agency can help assess where your brand appears and which sources support those answers. Our recommendation is to use that evidence to choose channels, rather than spreading effort evenly across every platform.

Your action plan

• Check answers to relevant questions: Review a consistent set of branded and non-branded queries across AI tools. Record mentions, citations and source platforms.
• Build around customer questions: Turn useful website explanations into demonstrations, expert posts or comparisons suited to each channel.
• Keep information consistent: Check that profiles, posts and website pages agree on product details, services and brand descriptions.
• Measure beyond posting volume: Track engagement, referral visits and enquiries alongside AI visibility. Repeat checks over time, since a single answer provides a limited snapshot.

Reddit Expands Lead Generation and Tests In-Market Audiences

Reddit’s lead generation update adds Max campaigns for lead generation, using automation to optimise campaign settings and creative rotation. Advertisers can direct prospects to website landing pages or forms and connect lead data with CRM workflows.

Reddit is also testing in-market audiences through Max, including enterprise, business AI and cybersecurity categories. These audiences aim to reach people researching or considering purchases.

A HubSpot partnership is in open beta for attribution, reporting and account setup. Reddit’s announcement says Pixel and Conversions API implementation is planned for later in the year, so the integration should not be treated as complete.

Reddit reports nearly a 7% improvement in CPA from early in-market audience data. That is a platform-reported result, rather than a forecast for an Australian campaign.

The gurus’ take

Reddit deserves a closer look when your audience spends time comparing options and asking detailed questions before buying. The new tools give advertisers more ways to act on that interest, but the offer still needs to match the research stage.

Someone exploring cybersecurity options may respond to a practical evaluation guide before they are ready to book a sales call. Asking for a demo too early could limit response, while an overly broad download could attract enquiries your team cannot use.

Our approach to paid social advertising is to judge the full path from ad to sales outcome. Reddit should earn its place alongside Google Ads and other channels through qualified demand, rather than inexpensive form submissions alone.

Your action plan

• Check audience fit: Review relevant communities and recurring questions to understand whether your offer addresses a real research need.
• Match the offer to intent: Test a useful guide, assessment or consultation with a clear reason to share contact details.
• Verify the lead handover: Check where submissions arrive, who follows up and which CRM capabilities are currently supported.
• Measure qualified demand: Track contactable leads, sales acceptance and opportunities. Compare those outcomes with existing channels before increasing spend, and keep beta audience results separate from established campaign benchmarks.

Give the New Tools a Clear Job to Do

This week gives marketers more ways to produce creative, automate campaigns and capture interest. The useful next step is choosing a problem each tool can solve, then checking whether it improves the result. Faster production and cheaper enquiries mean little if the message misses the customer or the leads go nowhere.

Online Marketing Gurus helps businesses connect Google Ads, search engine optimisation, Generative Engine Optimisation and paid social around commercial goals. If these updates have raised questions about your content, campaign settings or next test, our specialists can help you prioritise. Get in touch for a free strategy session and explore how our approach to digital marketing in Australia can turn platform changes into practical opportunities.

About the author

Andrew Raso

Andrew Raso is the Founder & Global CEO of Online Marketing Gurus (OMG), one of Australia’s most successful independent digital agencies & a recognised leader in data-driven growth marketing. Featured by Commonwealth Bank for insights on AI in digital marketing. Since founding OMG in 2012 with a vision to make world-class digital strategy accessible to every business, Andrew has scaled the company to a global team of more than 200 specialists operating across Australia, the U.S., Singapore and the UAE. Under his leadership, OMG has partnered with over 1,000 brands, including Vodafone, LG, Calvin Klein and Fujitsu, & earned 60+ industry awards for innovation & performance. A respected voice in digital transformation & modern entrepreneurship, Andrew is known for his straight-talking approach on Never Not Building podcast, about leadership, work ethic, a commitment to continuous learning, & an ability to turn insight into sustained commercial growth.