It's starting to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, at least in department stores, with plastic fake trees lining the aisles and blinking lights strewn overhead. And that also means social platforms are now rolling out their big ad updates for the festive push - and today, it's Meta's turn to announce a whole range of new ad updates for lead-based campaigns in order to help you gather more direct contacts with your seasonal campaigns.

First, Meta is looking to tap into that rising use of DMs and of WhatsApp in particular by expanding its lead objective to Facebook and Instagram ads that click to start a WhatsApp chat. And selected advertisers will also be able to add a Q&A flow in Ads Manager.
Lead objective ads for Messenger and Instagram Direct are already there, and now, you'll also be able to drive engagement on WhatsApp from your promotions.

And another messaging ads update:

Advertisers who are choosing to reach people through click to message ads on Instagram Direct can now provide those same people with a coupon for completing the question-and-answer flow, and that discount can be redeemed on their next purchase or service.
more people are now messaging others via DMs rather than posting on social apps and so on, and so this is a fantastic update that can help brands seek their space within the changing landscape and reach out to potential customers more directly.

Meta is also testing a new "Instant Form" ad format, which enables users to select multiple businesses to submit information to all at once.

Meta:

"Imagine seeing an ad to sign up for a bridal hair trial. Once a person completes filling out the form, she is encouraged to share her contact information to other businesses-for example, a nail salon that may also be relevant. This, of course, means added convenience for people and for small businesses, more opportunities to be discovered by people who may be interested in your business."

As you see in the example, related businesses will be featured in this showcase as though they are paying for the benefit. Which would be concerning because it may not necessarily be the best or most popular businesses represented, but rather those who have paid for their right to be there. But it may spike more inquires into those brands, and maybe, that could be something substantial.

Meta is also testing the feature where businesses can call potential customers through Facebook, and the procedures will be flashing the business name and information on the screen.
Yeah, I don't think this is going to be a huge success, given some 75% of Millennials hate phone calls. But maybe for older audiences, this would be a good alternative to connect, though even then, I don't know that people really want to be called via Facebook.

We'll see.
It's also testing "full campaign automation for lead generation campaigns," which will enable advertisers to start using Meta's developing AI systems to effectively manage every aspect-targeting, creative, placements, and budget. It will be a while before the brands are comfortable enough to give it all over to AI; however, if it does work, I can see more opening up to this idea over time.

Finally, Meta is also testing a new feature that dynamically creates instant forms for Facebook using already existing content on an advertiser's website.

Some useful updates that will hopefully figure in many subsequent experiments with a view to maximising responses from your Meta campaigns, and potentially very valuable, although-as always-will depend on the campaign strategy and approach as much as here.

But, of course, Meta will quickly enough automate the entire lead generation process for you so you won't have to bother with that either.

It's still a long way off, but day by day is getting closer.