Meta Tries to Lure Advertisers With Reels Discounts, AI Tools

After suffering its first-ever drop in ad sales, Meta Platforms has abandoned its once-brash tone with advertisers in favor of a more flexible approach to winning business.

Instead of demanding that ad agencies commit to increases in spending of 20% or more, as they typically did in past years, Meta's salespeople are signaling they’re content with spending staying level with last year, according to two senior ad agency executives. Meta is offering advertisers sweeteners, such as discounts of as much as 25% for those willing to spend a certain amount testing different ad products on its TikTok-rival feature, Reels, according to an ad executive whose firm spends more than $200 million annually with Meta. While Meta frequently offers discounts to encourage usage of new ad products, this one is unusually large, the executive said.