Meta has a recent-ish feature on its ads where it automatically adds music to your ads – yet another AI-generated feature no-one asked for. This would be something we could happily ignore, except that Meta in its wisdom, pre-selects this option. It’s really easy to miss, and it absolutely destroys ad campaigns. Some examples I’ve seen just recently:
- An appeal for donations for a humanitarian crisis overlaid with bouncy hectic Euro-pop
- An ad for a charity bereavement service overlaid with mumbled hip-hop
- A charity event ad using the same aggravating music that appears on Shein and Temu ads
Plus many more. The ‘add music’ option cycles through different types of music using AI, so your ad can appear with lots of different inappropriate tunes, and it’s impossible to check what’s being used.
The toggle appears in the ad creation stage of a Meta ad campaign and looks like this:
‘At no cost to you’, like they’re doing you a favour by adding completely inappropriate music to your ads. Anyway, keep an eye out for this. It’s also worth checking active ads to make sure it’s turned off. If you do want to add music to your ads, use the ‘select music’ option and choose a specific track, so you can be sure the music has the right tone for your ad’s message.