Editor’s Note: We’re updating our Live Marketing & Advertising Earnings Tracker in real time. Check out how Meta fits into the advertising landscape—and what each company’s earnings say about the state of advertising.

The news: Meta’s growing investment in AI-powered advertising is raising the stakes for the company to prove that its tools deliver enough value to justify rising ad costs.

The company now estimates 2026 capital expenditures of up to $145 billion and total expenses between $175 billion and $179 billion. Q3 costs and expenses alone grew 68% YoY.

Meanwhile, the average price per ad increased a notable 14% YoY in Q3.

Zooming out: Meta is touting early gains from its AI ad tools, but reports of errors raise questions about whether the tech translates into meaningfully better campaigns.

• Meta claimed earlier this year that its average revenues per ad have increased 25% since 2022, crediting AI-driven improvements. But marketers still need to determine whether those improvements are making campaigns more efficient relative to their growing costs.
• That question is especially important because marketers and agency executives have reported errors ranging from AI-generated recommendations that alter the advertised product to audience-targeting mistakes.

Forcing marketers to spend more time monitoring campaigns and correcting errors erodes the efficiency AI is meant to deliver—while still raising prices. Meta needs to show that its AI tools generate measurable performance gains that outweigh their costs and management overhead.

Recommendations for marketers: Meta’s platforms are some of the most important touchpoints in social advertising, making it difficult for marketers to pull back solely because of rising costs and AI-related errors.

Instead, marketers should set clear performance benchmarks for AI-powered campaigns, pairing automation with regular creative and targeting checks to catch errors early. Monitoring conversion rates and ROAS will also help determine whether Meta’s AI push delivers enough value to justify higher prices.