Meta has expanded its augmented reality (AR) advertising offering by integrating it with Facebook Reels Ads and Facebook Stories.

This launch will enable advertisers to create more immersive experiences and AR filters for Meta's younger Gen Z audience.  

Meta also stated that it has been testing sponsored links in its AI chatbot feature, My AI, reports TechChrunch.

With this move, the social media giant aims to compete with Snap for advertisers' ad budgets as they look for new ways to reach younger demographics.  

Try out your own augmented reality (AR) experience

The announcement comes after Snap unveiled its own set of new ad products, including those for Stories and Spotlight.

Meta had previously offered AR ads in Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, and Instagram Stories before the latest announcement.  

According to Meta's data, these ads outperformed non-AR-enabled ads in driving incremental ad recall with the 18 to 24-year-old demographic 87% of the time.  

The latest update enables the ads to run in other prominent places across Meta's platform, including Facebook, Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories.

READ MORE: How Snap’s ARES suite is boosting business AR takeup

Meta's AR Reels ads offer interactive features to make them more engaging, including a larger "call to action" button with additional advertiser information on Facebook and Instagram Reels ads.  

The button includes an ad thumbnail, headline, and additional business details, such as the website URL, to help direct interested customers to click.  

Reels also introduces new multi-destination product ads, enabling ads to point to multiple product images in a carousel without leaving the Reel they're watching.

Meta is testing a Reels Viewability reporting option that will later roll out to advertisers when testing is complete. The company is also working with select third-party measurement firms on Reels Ads campaigns, including Double Verify, IAS, and MOAT.  

READ MORE: Is the future of retail VR or AR? What's the difference?

Meta's investments in AI are being used to improve ads ranking by learning which ads work and which do not, as well as to better predict which ads will be most relevant.

Meta's head of Global Business Group, Nicola Mendelsohn, said that Meta's investments in AI are “already paying off”, particularly with Meta Advantage: the company's brand name for its portfolio of AI products.  

"It's also driving efficiency for a suite of ad products, eliminating many of the manual and tedious steps of creating an ad," she said.

The majority of Meta advertisers are already using Advantage+ Shopping, launched in August 2021. The AI technology allows advertisers to execute millions of iterations of targeting performance scenarios within milliseconds to send the best ad to the right person at the right time.