How Meta now really gets your creative
(and how we got there first)

Meta is getting better…meaning digital creative strategy matters more than ever.

Meta recently announced an update to how its advertising works. In simple terms, it now looks at the on-screen text and context of your ad creative to understand your production.

It can then identify interests and match the ads with the best audience for you. The more information your creative provides, the more Meta can optimise how your ads are delivered.

As the platform evolves, and the better AI becomes at understanding creative, the quality, context, and clarity of messaging within each asset will become ever more essential for optimising your campaign.

How does this affect theatreland?

It’s crucial now that every asset – static, photo, video, animation – tells Meta exactly what it’s seeing so that it knows who to serve it to. We might know it’s a fabulous new musical, or a hilarious night out…but does the platform?

A great example is production photography. As theatre folk, we all love a fabulous photo of the action, right? But this latest update means that a photo won’t get results on its own; it needs words and context.

Why? Because the on-screen text is no longer there just to engage; it enables Meta to understand what your production is and who’ll be interested in buying a ticket.

New to Meta...but not to Dewynters

Meta’s new approach is one we’ve already been applying across our campaigns for some time.

By continually testing, we’ve learned how different creative approaches, messaging and contextual overlays influence an ad’s performance. We’ve looked at the data, seen how different audiences have responded, and then refined our strategy to get better results.

For example, we found that within 24 hours, a video of rehearsal footage drove 177% more sales than a polished EPK clip.

Our campaign performances have improved and our creative now works harder – for both audiences and the platform. You can see some examples above.