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AI Shifts Ad Targeting
Google, Meta, and TikTok are automating audience targeting, making creative content the strongest signal for ad visibility. This change affects local businesses' ad spend and reach. Local businesses must adapt their ad creative to improve targeting.
Background: Local businesses rely on targeted advertising to reach their audience. Platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok offer various targeting options to ensure ads are seen by the right people.
What changed: The automation of audience targeting means that ad creative, such as headlines, images, and videos, now plays a crucial role in determining who sees the ads. This shift requires local businesses to focus on creating high-quality, relevant ad content.
Why it matters: The change in targeting methodology can significantly impact local businesses' ad spend and reach. By optimizing their ad creative, businesses can improve their ad performance and increase their return on investment.
Niche breakdown: For example, a hair salon running Instagram ads would need to focus on creating visually appealing content to attract their target audience. A coffee shop relying on Google Ads would need to craft compelling headlines and descriptions to entice customers.
What to watch: Local businesses should monitor their ad performance and adjust their creative content accordingly. They should also keep an eye on platform updates and best practices for creating effective ad content.
To adapt to this change, local businesses should review their ad creative and ensure it is high-quality, relevant, and engaging. They should also experiment with different ad formats and targeting options to find what works best for their audience. Specifically, businesses should enable 'ad creative asset feedback' in their Google Ads account to receive feedback on their ad creative and make data-driven decisions to improve it.
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Source: MarTech · 2026-06-30
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