Mumbai: Meta has announced a new suite of commerce and advertising innovations designed to transform how consumers discover and purchase products across its platforms, introducing expanded affiliate partnerships, live video advertising capabilities and secure virtual card-enabled checkout experiences.
Announced ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the updates reflect Meta’s broader strategy to make product discovery increasingly seamless within content experiences powered by artificial intelligence.
With 3.5 billion people engaging across Meta’s apps globally, the company said AI-driven discovery is reshaping consumer journeys by helping users find products through creators, conversations and content consumption.
Among the key announcements is the expansion of Live Video Ads, which will now be introduced on Instagram and scaled globally across Facebook. The move is intended to help businesses promote livestream content, attract new audiences and drive shopping activity directly within live video environments.
To support live commerce experiences, Meta is also extending Live Shopping Tools on Facebook, enabling users to browse products, view pricing and discover items without leaving the livestream.
In the United States, Meta is collaborating with live commerce platforms including CommentSold, Firework, LiveMeUp, Sprii and TalkShopLive to allow eligible livestreams to be converted into promotional ad units that reach broader audiences.
Further strengthening the purchase journey, Meta is introducing Virtual Cards for Checkout, a new shopping capability rolling out this summer across Facebook and Instagram.
Built in partnership with Mastercard and Visa, the feature generates temporary, one-time virtual card numbers linked to existing payment accounts, allowing consumers to complete transactions without directly sharing their credit card details with merchants. The initiative aims to improve transaction security and increase consumer confidence at checkout.
Meta also announced an expansion of its Affiliate Partner programme, bringing Flipkart to Facebook creators in India while extending Mercado Libre across Brazil and Mexico. In the coming months, Flipkart affiliate capabilities will also become available to Instagram creators in India, alongside Lazada’s integration for Facebook creators across Asia.
The update enables creators to connect affiliate accounts directly with Facebook and Instagram and embed affiliate product links into their content. Creators earn commissions when purchases are completed through their recommendations, creating additional monetisation opportunities while simplifying product discovery for users.
Meta is also expanding creator commerce capabilities with Add Products on Instagram, enabling creators across 22 countries to tag products directly from business catalogues or include affiliate links within Reels and Feed content.
The company additionally outlined major enhancements to advertising performance through broader use of product data across Sales campaigns.
Rather than requiring advertisers to select different ad formats manually, Meta said product catalog data — including pricing, availability, titles and descriptions — will become a foundational input across campaign creation. Meta’s AI systems will then dynamically assemble and serve the most effective creative combination for each consumer in real time.
According to Meta, richer product data will also improve visibility across its broader ecosystem of AI-powered shopping experiences, including Meta AI Shopping mode in the United States, recommendations generated by Business Agents and creator-led commerce experiences.
The latest announcements underscore Meta’s focus on turning discovery into purchase by combining AI-powered recommendation systems, creator commerce, live shopping and frictionless checkout into a more connected commerce ecosystem.
Meta said additional demonstrations around these capabilities and their impact on business outcomes will be showcased during Cannes Lions next week.
