For Advertising Week New York, Meta has introduced generative AI ad tools designed to help advertisers capitalize on changing user behavior across Facebook and Instagram; according to the tech giant, 60% of users' time on both platforms are now spent watching videos.

Due to “advertiser demand” and promising adoption of the company’s recent Image Expansion tool, Meta is unveiling a Video Expansion feature, which will automatically let advertisers adjust video creative assets by “generating unseen pixels in each video frame to expand the aspect ratio.”

The company says this will help create “a more immersive and native experience” for video ads on its two largest social media apps.

In addition, Meta is inviting advertisers to generate video creative from a single static image without the need for any existing video assets on Instagram Reels.

This Image Animation feature is designed to extend the shelf life of ad creative by allowing advertisers to repurpose ad images that performed well in past campaigns.

Meta says over 1 million advertisers have used at least one of its generative AI tools every month, with 15 million ads specifically created over the last month.

Recent campaigns created using Meta's generative AI ad features also resulted in an 11% higher click-through rate and a 7.6% higher conversion rate compared to campaigns that did not use the features, according to the company.

Meta's increased investment in video and AI-powered products follows heightened competition across the social-media landscape as companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and TikTok launch their own generative AI features.

Last week, for example, Google rolled out a host of new AI ad updates, following similar announcements from Amazon and Microsoft.

With Symphony, TikTok's generative AI ad suite, the ByteDance-owned social platform also allows marketers to upload product images and generate videos with multi-language voiceovers based on prompts.  

Meta's new AI video tools will be integrated into Ads Manager per the Advantage+ creative suite, with a launch date estimated for early next year.