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Enshittification is a term where the meaning is exactly what it sounds like. It was coined by author Cory Doctorow in 2022, and it’s the concept where companies start off focusing on what the consumer wants, attract a large user or customer base, then shift to focusing solely on profits, often implementing unwanted features.

Imagine your favorite free-to-play game, one you’ve been playing for months, suddenly rolls out an update. Suddenly everything becomes locked behind a paywall and becomes pay-to-win. The game becomes infested with unskippable pop-up ads and banners to maximize profits. Congratulations, you’ve just witnessed enshittification.

But it’s actually pretty sad, because just like with the game or whatever product, service, or software you’re using, the consumer has no other choice but to keep using it, especially if the product is truly unique with no close alternatives, or has near-monopolized the entire industry.

This is the same with Meta, particularly Meta Ads Manager, which for a year or two now has been pushing unwanted AI features that supposedly “improve” your ad performance. But I think that’s not always the case, and I absolutely despise it.

The Worst Features I’ve Experienced

Here are just some of the worst features I’ve dealt with. It’s not the full list, but these are some of what I’ve had to deal with, and the ones I found most annoying.

On by Default Extensions and Features

This one’s really sneaky. When uploading your ad in the creative setup process, you can turn off all the creative setup options, and sometimes they even appear off by default, but once you click save, they’re suddenly on.

And if you don’t check that creative setup extension summary, you may end up with weird website highlight photos or promo codes that aren’t relevant to your ad.

Related Media

Related media is a feature that pulls images and videos from your past ad uploads and combines them with the ad you’re working on.

This is so diabolical because what if you had, say, a December Christmas sale, a campaign discount, or a giveaway that has already ended? Because this related media feature is sometimes on by default, and you forget to turn it off, your audience ends up seeing campaigns that have already ended.

Automatically Turned On for You

So you actually kept your eyes peeled and disabled the extra features Meta Ads rolled out. Well, Meta Ads reactivates them anyway, because they can “potentially” improve your ad’s performance.

And if you want to turn this off, it’s so well hidden in the settings that it’s like being Indiana Jones trying to find the next ancient relic. You have to open Meta Ads Manager, go to your Account Overview or Rules section, locate the automatic settings or creative enhancement toggles, and then switch them off manually.

Weird Cropping

When you create videos for your ad, you usually need square (1:1) and vertical (9:16) ratio sizes. Yet for some reason, some placements display a 4:5 ratio, especially for videos, which just creates blurred open space above and below the square video.

Also, uploading the correct sizes doesn’t necessarily mean Meta will display them properly. You’d think it would show your ads appropriately. No, it would still sometimes use your vertical images in a square placement.

So you have to fix this by going to Customize Media and adjusting it there.

Meta AI Generated Images and Videos

They’ve absolutely pushed their own AI image and video generation for ads when uploading media.

This is annoying because, again, it adds an extra layer of steps and extra time when setting up ads.

Besides that, it eats up so much of your computer’s resources that you can say goodbye to efficient ad setups if you’re using an older computer or laptop, since the page can crash every so often.

What They Actually Need to Fix

The number one fix would be to have these AI features off by default, and even if they are on by default, to create an easy-to-find way to toggle them off.

Facebook used to be way simpler back then, and while I’m all for modernizing the design and functionality, it doesn’t have to be so jam-packed with all these AI features.

Why Meta Just Keeps Getting Away with It

Well, Meta is still a pretty big platform, and you can’t just convince everybody to boycott this social media platform. There are a ton of brands and personalities already on the platform, and it’s embedded in some countries as the default go-to social media and messaging app, and I would agree. In the Philippines, Facebook remains one of the most popular social media platforms.

It’s simply the concept of enshittification. Since everyone is already hooked and trapped in it, people have no choice but to bear with the changes. An individual shifting away from the platform won’t have the power to easily encourage others and big brands to move elsewhere.

I’m guessing they keep pushing these AI features and the like because, with more placements, variations, and features, they’re able to display your ads more often, thus maximizing profits from your ad spend.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Meta Ads Manager is one heck of a mess. It’s slow, full of clunky and forced AI features, and if you’re not careful, you risk your ads having weird placements and cropping, an off-brand voice, and overall poorer conversions.

In fact, these AI features and generated media aren’t even good. From both a consumer and a marketing perspective, I can say without a doubt that blatantly obvious or easily identifiable AI content makes users want to buy less.

And it’s backed up by data. Marketing Brew at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity’s research found that 63%, more than half of people, are less likely to buy from a company with AI-generated ads, claiming these AI ads look “unauthentic” and make them feel “cringe.”

AI is helpful, whether we admit it or not. It makes some things easier, but using it for everything is just wrong. It’s training people to think less for themselves.

Meta needs to understand this. While they can still push their AI features and everything else, there should be a clear and easy-to-find option to opt out, not just within Meta Ads Manager, but across the Meta ecosystem as well, like how the Meta AI chatbot is so desperately being pushed in the Facebook Messenger app.

What do you think of Meta Ads Manager’s features and Meta’s overall ecosystem? Let me know in the comments below!