Meta's AI Investments: What They Mean for Advertisers in 2026
In February 2024 I wrote about Meta putting AI at the centre of its plans. At the time it had just reported fourth-quarter 2023 advertising revenue of $38.7 billion, up 24% on the year before. Two and a half years later, it is worth looking at what that bet turned into, using Meta's own figures.
What happened to the money
Revenue kept climbing. Meta's full-year 2025 revenue was $200.97 billion. In the second quarter of 2026, advertising revenue reached $59.36 billion, up 27% on a year earlier, with ad impressions up 14% and the average price per ad up 12%.
The spending grew faster still. Capital expenditure was $72.22 billion in 2025, and Meta now expects $130 billion to $145 billion in 2026, which it puts down to investment in its AI work and core business. Its operating margin in the second quarter of 2026 was 31%, down from 43% a year earlier.
What changed for advertisers
For anyone running ads, the practical change is automation. Meta's Advantage+ products can automate the audience, budget and placements of a campaign, and for leads campaigns Advantage+ is now the default setting in Ads Manager.
Generative AI now helps make the ad creative too. Meta says the combined revenue run-rate of its video generation tools reached $10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it has been testing a business AI assistant that helps advertisers with optimisation and account support.
In plain terms: you give Meta a goal, a budget and some creative, and its systems decide who sees what. The levers advertisers used to pull by hand matter less. What you feed the system matters more.
What this means for a small firm
- Your offer and creative carry the weight. When targeting is automated, a clear offer to a clear audience is the main thing you still control. A vague message gets shown to vague people.
- Measure what happens after the click. An automated system optimises for whatever result you tell it to. Ask for form fills and you will get form fills, so track whether those leads become clients.
- Ads are one route among several. They can suit practitioners whose clients are members of the public. If your clients are other businesses, you can also reach a defined list of decision makers directly, with a message written for each person.
That direct route is where we focus. So far it has meant 15,282 decision makers contacted across four client accounts, with every message checked against the client's own rules before it goes.
The basics have not moved
Meta's AI spending has made its ad system more automated and, for most advertisers, simpler to run. The basics are the same as in 2024: know exactly who you want to reach, have something specific to say, and measure the result that matters to your business.
If reaching a defined list directly sounds like a better fit than ads, here is how our done-for-you outreach works.
