Meta Upgrades Live Shopping Tools, Expands AI-Driven Promotions and Affiliate Marketing

Meta recently announced a series of updates to its live shopping promotion tools, focusing on driving shopping activities during live streams. At the same time, the company also unveiled new advancements in AI-driven promotions aimed at optimizing audience feedback.

Live video ad expansion

First, Meta is expanding live video ads to Instagram and rolling them out globally on Facebook. Facebook previously had various live ad formats, and the latest version offers promotions that link to actual live streams, as well as in-stream product tags that point to purchase options on other websites.

This expansion will provide live streamers with more ways to drive audience engagement and boost in-stream promotions and shopping activities.

Partnerships and live shopping tools

Meta is also partnering with several live commerce platforms, including CommentSold, Firework, LiveMeUp, Sprii, and TalkShopLive, to support shopping promotions during live streams.

Additionally, Meta has added new live shopping tools on Facebook, enabling marketers to showcase featured promotional products during live streams.

This will allow viewers to browse featured products, view prices, and discover purchasable items without leaving the live stream.

Virtual card support

Meta has also introduced virtual card support, enabling shoppers to use temporary one-time card numbers generated from their existing Mastercard or Visa accounts. Meta stated: "By allowing transactions without sharing credit card details directly with merchants, this aims to enhance consumer security and increase purchase confidence."

Affiliate marketing expansion

Meta has also expanded its affiliate marketing partnerships. Facebook affiliate partners will now include Flipkart in India and Mercado Libre in Brazil and Mexico. Additionally, Lazada will soon be available to Facebook creators in Asia, and Flipkart will soon be available to Instagram creators in India. These updates will enable Facebook and Instagram creators to directly add affiliate product links from these businesses to their content, and creators can earn commissions from resulting sales.

Meta also announced that creators in 22 countries can now directly add affiliate links or tag products from business catalogs on Instagram. Meta stated: "Businesses can make their catalogs discoverable to creators for searching and tagging, and creators can add affiliate links to direct people to specific products. When creators showcase products in Reels and Feed, people discover and purchase products while browsing, and creators can earn commissions through their shared affiliate links."

Previously, Meta expanded its affiliate program in the U.S. in March, allowing eligible creators to link to product listings from Amazon, Shopee, eBay, and Temu.

AI-driven ad assembly

Finally, Meta is updating how it uses product data in sales campaigns to help Meta's AI systems match the right products and promotions to the right users. Meta stated: "Instead of manually selecting different ad types, advertisers provide their product data and creative assets, and our ad system will assemble the best-performing ad for each viewer in real time."

This will provide advertisers with greater flexibility through automated matching, potentially helping to improve response rates.

Live shopping is gradually rising, especially as TikTok actively promotes live commerce, which can drive impulse purchases. Combined with Meta's AI product matching, these updates could be valuable additions, ensuring that more relevant and engaging promotions are shown to viewers during live streams.