Fried Bids, Digital News | 7-12 Oct 2024
Andrea Girelli
MarTech Director | Adjunct Lecturer | Exploring AdTech Innovations, Driving Martech Strategies, Bridging Marketing & IT, and Championing Digital Transformation to Unlock Business Growth and Future-Ready Solutions
This is my personal selection of the most interesting stories published from 7th-12th October 2024.
Meta Enhances AI Ads and Video Tools
Meta announced significant updates to its advertising platform during Advertising Week, focusing on video content, AI-generated ads, and creator partnerships. A new dedicated video tab on Facebook will consolidate Reels, longer videos, and live content, reflecting the trend that 60% of user time on the platform is spent watching videos. Meta is expanding its AI ad creation tools, which are already utilized by over 1 million advertisers monthly, introducing features like Video Expansion and Image Animation to enhance ad effectiveness. Additionally, new tools for creator partnerships aim to integrate creator content into ads, which have shown to reduce costs per action by 19%. These updates position Meta to better support advertisers in adapting to the growing demand for video content.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/meta-announces-new-video-ai-features-at-advertising-week/529574/
TikTok Introduces SMART+ Automated Ad Campaign
TikTok announced new automated ad targeting options aimed at enhancing advertiser engagement for the holiday season. The platform introduced "Smart+," a fully automated ad solution that streamlines ad creation, placement, and bidding. Advertisers simply input their assets and budget, while Smart+ optimizes targeting and creative selection, reportedly improving return on ad spend by 52% for users of its Web Campaigns. Additionally, TikTok launched "GMV Max," which automates campaign creation for TikTok Shop, simplifying ad operations and maximizing exposure across shoppable placements. These features, along with new privacy-enhancing technologies and conversion lift studies, aim to improve overall advertising effectiveness and align with user shopping behaviors.
ChatGPT to Integrate SearchGPT by Late 2024
OpenAI announced plans to integrate SearchGPT into ChatGPT by the end of 2024. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, revealed this at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit in Brussels, emphasizing the goal of driving significant traffic to publishers’ sites rather than sharing ad revenue. The integration aims to satisfy user demand for direct answers instead of merely providing links, enhancing the overall information experience. Shetty highlighted the potential for increased audience engagement, stating that users would likely click through for verification and deeper understanding. Additionally, generative AI will assist journalists with content creation, although there remains skepticism regarding AI-generated news.
TikTok Pushes In-Stream Shopping with Fall Promotions
TikTok launched a new in-stream shopping initiative to boost sales as the holiday season approaches. Despite slower momentum than anticipated, TikTok reported significant purchases from nearly half a million merchants, with millions of items sold over the past year. The platform introduced the “Fall Deals For You” promotion, featuring discounts on trending products from well-known brands such as Dyson and e.l.f. Cosmetics. TikTok is also hosting live shopping events to enhance engagement. This push mirrors the success of Douyin, TikTok's Chinese counterpart, which generated substantial revenue from in-app sales, highlighting TikTok's efforts to replicate this success amid challenges in Western markets.
Threads Tops iOS Downloads in September
Meta's Threads app has gained significant traction by reaching the top spot on the iOS downloads chart for September 2024, despite overall app downloads declining in previous months. While Threads' rapid growth is partly attributed to the recent ban of X in Brazil, leading to increased downloads for both Threads and Bluesky, it still only moved up one position overall, ranking fifth. Although many users may download the app without becoming active participants, its rise suggests potential as a competitor to X, which currently sits at 42nd in U.S. iOS downloads. With 200 million users, Threads is positioned to challenge X in the real-time social space, particularly after the upcoming U.S. elections, when political discourse may diminish.
领英推荐
PayPal Launches Ad Business Leveraging Data from 400 Million Users
PayPal has officially launched its ad business, PayPal Ads, aimed at leveraging extensive shopping data from its 400 million active users to attract advertisers. Led by Mark Grether, who previously built ad businesses for Uber and Amazon, PayPal Ads will sell digital display ads across its properties, including the PayPal app, Venmo, and Honey. The service allows advertisers to target consumers based on aggregated transaction data, providing insights into shopping patterns across multiple retailers. This initiative addresses a gap in retail advertising by offering a broader view of consumer behavior, distinguishing PayPal from traditional retail ad networks. Future expansions will include video ads and placements on retailers' websites, enhancing market share strategies for brands.
The Trade Desk Partners with Adelaide for Attention-Based Targeting
Adelaide has launched attention-based segments for pre-bid targeting within The Trade Desk, allowing buyers to focus on high-, medium-, and low-attention inventory. This move shifts attention metrics from post-campaign measurement to a pre-campaign targeting parameter, potentially affecting ad inventory pricing much like viewability metrics do. The integration aims to help advertisers avoid low-quality inventory, such as made-for-advertising sites, which often manipulate viewability standards. Initial tests showed significant improvements, with advertisers reporting a 58% increase in return on ad spend and 62% higher click-through rates. The new system also allows campaigns to auto-optimize based on the targeted attention level, enhancing overall media quality and effectiveness.
Instagram and Threads Face Moderation Issues
Users on Instagram and Threads are experiencing heightened moderation issues, with many accounts being deleted or restricted for seemingly innocuous reasons, such as linking to controversial articles. Adam Mosseri, head of both platforms, has acknowledged these concerns and is "looking into it." Reports of accounts being mistakenly flagged as underage or having posts removed for trivial mentions, such as "cracker jacks," have surfaced. Users have complained that the automated moderation system is overly sensitive, often triggering bans based on jokes or factual content. This strict moderation has led to frustrations, making the platforms less effective for sharing information and engaging with audiences.
14 US States Sue TikTok Over Children's Mental Health
Attorneys general from 14 states have filed lawsuits against TikTok, alleging that the platform harms children's mental health and misleads the public about its safety. Led by New York's Letitia James and California's Rob Bonta, the lawsuits claim TikTok employs addictive features, such as autoplay videos and temporary content, to keep children engaged, which violates various state laws. The AGs argue that TikTok has failed to comply with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by inadequately protecting minors and has misrepresented its screen time limits. The lawsuits seek to halt these practices and impose financial penalties, reflecting a growing trend among state AGs to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety. TikTok has expressed disappointment, asserting its commitment to protecting teens.
DOJ Proposes Google Breakup to Address Monopoly
The U.S. Justice Department has proposed a historic breakup of Google, aiming to address its monopolies in search and search advertising. This sweeping 32-page filing, submitted to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, outlines various remedies, including separating Google’s services like Chrome and Android from its core search operations. The proposal seeks to eliminate default search agreements and enhance transparency in advertising practices, while also mandating shared access to Google's data and algorithms. The DOJ argues that these measures are necessary to foster competition and mitigate Google's exclusionary conduct. Google has criticized the proposal as radical, warning it could stifle innovation and harm consumers.
Google Launches AI-Generated Video Tool in Product Studio
Google has launched an AI-generated video creation tool within Product Studio, now available to U.S.-based merchants. This new feature allows merchants to easily create high-quality product videos by transforming existing product images into dynamic video content with just a few clicks. Users can select a product, choose a video theme, and customize the output by adding audio and headlines to promote sales or brand values. The videos can be downloaded for use across various marketing channels, including Google Ads and websites. Google aims to save merchants time and resources while enhancing their marketing efforts, with plans to expand this tool to more countries in the future.
SEO Director @ Jellyfish
5 个月searchGPT is the new toy I desperately want to play with! It will be fun, but most importantly I want to see how much it differs from Perplexity and what more it brings to the table.
Head of Commerce at Omnicom Media Group
5 个月Ciao Andrea! I was very inspired by Mark Hardy, data ventures SVP at Walmart, when he stated that - words are mine - it is time to move away from data monetization as a business goal, and start seeing it as an outcome: data can and will be sumptuously monetized as long as they unlock incremental business outcomes. This to say that, while I’m aware that PayPal has hired top talents for their ad business, and this surely adds to the already enormous excitement around retail media, it remains to be seen which part of these data will be relevant and granular enough to propel incremental growth vs retailer data. I’d venture to predict that, if they execute quickly enough, they will enjoy a short term availability advantage over retailers, at least against those retailers who are still thinking through their retail media business strategy. Interesting times ahead??????
Digital Performance Supervisor at OMD Italy | Digital Humanist | Innovation Enthusiast | DEI Activist
5 个月Hi Andrea! We're testing Smart+ Campaigns on a client of ours, to compare their performance with Meta ASC. I think this campaign type can be a real game changer for advertisers who want to maximize results abandoning hypersegmentation and total control over campaign settings. What I like the most, so far, is the opportunity to work on different goals with a single campaign. I'll share first insights in a few weeks