What's The META?

The Meta Evolution: Human Connection in an AI World

We sat down with performance specialist Jurelle Govender to cut through the noise of Meta’s latest updates. For the brand managers and entrepreneurs at Yahno, this is how you turn "AI slop" into a competitive advantage and why your human touch is officially a luxury asset.

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Meta Platform & AI Trends

Questions

Is there anything off the top of your head that you've experienced in the last couple of weeks that you feel is really important for everyone to know about what's happening with Meta?

And the quality of this creative that Meta is coming up with?

With the constant improvements in AI, do you see our role as creatives or yours as a paid media specialist becoming redundant?

What are you excited about for Meta and for businesses in the next year?

Answers

The main thing this year has been the heavy rollout of AI features. Meta is pushing in-platform AI that can sync with Shopify catalogues to generate ads from a single product image. It’s a massive push toward generating assets within Meta itself to reduce reliance on external creative.

Last year it was trash, but this year has materially improved. It’s not at the level a professional agency would produce, but for a business just starting with limited resources, it is "good enough to get going".

It actually makes a creative agency more valuable because you can stand out from the "AI slop". I’ve found that founder-led UGC and product-focused videos still consistently outperform AI styles. On the technical side, while Meta is trying to make campaign setup "five clicks" simple, that simplicity often leads to wasted budget. Performance specialists are still needed to fix accounts, run tests, and understand the nuances that AI-automated workflows obscure.

Mostly the e-commerce space. Meta’s targeting algorithms are getting so much smarter that you no longer have to be hyper-niche with manual targeting. The competitive advantage is shifting away from technical targeting and back to how good your actual creative and product offer are.

Strategy: Offers & Boosting

Questions

What makes a good offer? Can you give us some examples?

Are there any words you wish people would stop using?

What is the difference between boosting and paid media?

Do you feel that a lot of people are wasting money boosting posts?

Is there any ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) if you're boosting? Can you track it?

Is there an instance where boosting is something we should do?

So would you say for someone just starting, it's okay to boost for a short term to widen the top of the funnel?

Answers

It’s about being competitive and knowing your industry. Pricing is the main factor; if your pricing or product features aren't competitive compared to what else is in the market, your ads will struggle regardless of how well they are set up.

I hate the word "boosting".

Boosting is just hitting a button on a post to set a budget. Full ads management happens in the Ads Manager, where you set specific objectives, control placements, and utilize all the AI and targeting features. Boosting lacks the control and strategic depth of a real campaign.

I know it for a fact. Many clients think they are "running ads," but they are just boosting posts and seeing no real return.

You can track it, but I rarely see a good return from a boosted post. Most businesses that boost don't even know what ROAS is, which is the main problem.

It’s good for short-term engagement or awareness, like an event-specific post where you don't necessarily care about sales metrics.

It’s perfectly fine for growing a page following from zero or quick awareness. But for mid-to-bottom funnel goals (sales/leads), it makes no sense.

Practical Advice for SMEs

Questions

Do you have any "quick win" suggestions?

So the goal should be to get started with roughly R1,500 monthly and always have at least one ad running?

Is it true that the longer you have ads running, the more Meta learns about your brand over time?

What has Meta done in the last year that really pissed you off?

Answers

Every business should have at least one continuous Meta campaign running, even at a minimum spend of R20 a day. Whether it's an awareness ad or a profile-visit objective, it's better than doing nothing because it starts the process of building audiences and data.

Exactly. I have a brand selling kids' activity books on a R1,500 monthly budget, and they see an 8 to 9.5 ROAS. Don't wait for a bigger budget; just get going.

Yes, you're collecting data on engagement and building audiences. When you are finally ready to scale, you can fast-track your results because you already have those learnings and retargeting pools ready.

The constant interface changes are annoying, but the forced AI defaults are the biggest pain point. If you don't manually switch them off, Meta might generate its own ad copy or overlays on your images, which can be a "compliance disaster" for some brands.

Market Trends & AI Tools

Questions

Where are you seeing the biggest growth vs. saturation?

When you say finance products, do you mean insurance and banking?

Are there any markets that are completely open and underserved?

Is Claude your favorite AI at the moment?

Is Meta penalizing AI-generated copy or creative?

Do we even need logos on social media anymore?

Do you have a closing thought for entrepreneurs?

Answers

E-commerce is the growth leader across Meta, Google, and TikTok. On the flip side, the financial and gambling sectors in South Africa are becoming oversaturated with declining ad quality.

Yes, and I’d include the unregulated gambling industry where everyone is spending like crazy.

Niche e-commerce micro-brands. Single-product stores can scale on tiny budgets now because Meta’s algorithm has become so effective at finding niche audiences.

By far. I use Claude Pro to create per-client projects where I store all their brand documents and notes. This way, every new chat automatically references the brand context without me having to re-prompt it. I find ChatGPT much less useful recently.

Not at all. Many clients use AI-generated content without issue, but you have to be careful about the "emotional disconnect" that obviously AI work can create with your audience.

Yes, especially because you can now input a brand guide into Meta. The AI features use that brand guide to try and stick to your visual identity.

Start as soon as possible to get ahead of your competitors. AI tools have removed the excuses regarding lack of resources. The sooner you start, the more data you'll have to win later.

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If AI "slop" is giving you the chills or you've just realized boosting is a budget burn, let’s chat about how we can make things with Meta a bit more lekker.

Stop wasting spend and start building a real data advantage.

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