Perfection42 says Meta’s new AI ad tools have failed to meet e-commerce needs due to a lack of alignment with what truly drives consumer engagement and conversions: authentic user-generated content (UGC).
Meta’s AI tools, announced recently, focus on superficial enhancements, like adjusting video borders and swapping backgrounds, which fall short of the industry’s need for genuine content that resonates with consumers. E-commerce brands thrive on UGC — content made by actual users — because it establishes trust and authenticity, influencing purchase decisions much more effectively than branded content or AI-generated imagery.
Studies show that UGC leads to significantly higher conversion rates and brand trust, with consumers perceiving it as 29 percent more likely to convert than non-UGC campaigns. The size of the global UGC market revenue will reach $32.6 billion by 2028.
AI tools from Meta overlook the emerging trend of dynamic, AI-enhanced UGC, which combines the authenticity of user content with the engagement power of video. Unlike Meta’s offerings, which primarily alter ad visuals, some AI tools animate static UGC images to give them video-like engagement without compromising the user-generated authenticity that consumers crave.
Existing AI-powered image-to-video tools transform ordinary images into unique animations by adding movement and visual effects to static content. Thousands of iterations can be done to match the brand’s needs.
AI tools like Arcads even allow creators to license their profiles for ad usage, enabling brands to produce highly authentic yet adaptable ad content.
Given a text prompt, Meta says it can leverage a joint model that has been optimized for both text-to-image and text-to-video to create high-quality and high-definition images and videos. This 30B parameter transformer model has the ability to generate videos of up to 16 seconds at a rate of 16 frames per second.
Furthermore, while Meta’s AI tools are aimed at enhancing ad visuals, they don’t address the increasing demand for dynamic UGC that speaks directly to audiences. AI experts like Simona Vasytė, CEO of Perfection42, suggest focusing on tools that support UGC creators instead of replacing them. For example, predictive AI can enhance static UGC into dynamic animations, increasing engagement rates while staying true to the realness consumers seek.
