Social media giant Meta Platforms (META) has long run on the back of the advertising market, and with signs that the digital ad market is making a comeback, that is good news for Meta and its contemporaries. But Meta is also offering up something of a change that many advertisers are not so fond of, and it is meeting with some resistance. investors sent shares up fractionally in Friday afternoon’s trading.
While advertisers are making a comeback to digital advertising, apparently believing that people are ready to spend more on things that are not strict necessities, Meta wants to also shake up the way they buy advertising. Instead of being in complete control of the process, Meta wants advertisers to focus more on signing checks and letting artificial intelligence (AI) do the driving.
The AI tools in question do keep customers in the loop, asking for specific criteria, like goals and budget parameters, and from there, the AI makes decisions about where to place ads, what kind of targeting the ads engage in, and even how the ads are actually presented to users in some cases. While the ad buyers do not know exactly what decisions are being made, they can basically allow campaigns to run without intervention on their part. The AI campaigns are often successful, but that success could come at the expense of jobs. Who needs a marketing department, after all, to sign a check and tell Meta to advertise?
Quest Store Pared Back
And of course, Meta can scarcely advertise without content to advertise to, so it has recently done some paring back in its Quest Store. Reports note that Richie’s Plank Experience and Max Mustard are now both “unilaterally” delisted from the Quest Store.
So what prompted such a move? Apparently, the two games were participating in what Meta called “platform abuse,” as they violated policy around same. Some believed, initially, that this was a temporary thing. Apparently, something as simple as a forgotten Data Use Checkup system can get a game delisted, if only temporarily. Developer Toast Interactive, however, noted that it was no temporary ban, and the result left them feeling “…betrayed and powerless….”
Is Meta Platforms a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 44 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 24.07% rally in its share price over the past year, the average META price target of $764.61 per share implies 20.73% upside potential.
