Today’s Social Media advertising rates are coming in hot:

↗️ META: $7.42 CPM | ↘️ TIKTOK: $4.73 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $7.94 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🔎 Here’s what Google’s AI Max ads look like

• ESPN’s streaming app launches this month. Ads are available now. 🏈

• 👻 Snapchat rolls out more Sponsored Snaps

But first…

🧠 Here’s what you missed at Meta’s ‘Mastering Full Funnel’ webinar

Meta’s full-funnel playbook just got an upgrade, from creative-led targeting to TikTok-style Reels placements. If you missed the platform’s “Masting Full-Funnel” webinar,” here’s what the platform wants advertisers to be thinking about now:

• If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: Creative is the new targeting. According to Meta, “Creative is the driving force behind 57% of auction wins on Meta.” 

• We’ve told you about these in the past, but Reels Trending Ads—which deliver reels ads among the most trending, creator-created reels—are now in beta testing. (And yes, this is basically TikTok Pulse for Reels.)

• Meta continues to push Meta Moment Maker (M3) to large advertisers looking to make a splash. It enables marketers to use all of Meta’s existing video products plus a comprehensive measurement solution in one easy buy, and delivers the ads across every available video placement that Meta offers during a three-day burst. 

• Meta has rolled out a new product called Meta Story Builder, a strategy that combines two delivery features called “ad sequencing” and “target frequency” to tell longer, episodic brand stories across multiple assets on Meta apps for the first time.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta’s Q2 performance report credits its AI recommendations with a 5% increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6% increase on Instagram this year. In Q2 specifically, Instagram video time was up more than 20% year-over-year globally, while Facebook video time was up more than 20% YoY in the U.S. 

💸 Closer to home, Meta is also thanking AI for driving roughly 5% more ad conversions on Instagram and 3% more on Facebook.

🤳Instagram is now restricting live streaming to creators with at least 1,000 followers. While this is unwelcome news to smaller creators, it’s more in line with other platforms, such as TikTok, which also has a 1,000-followers minimum, and YouTube, which has a 50-subscribers minimum.

🎯 We’ve talked about Meta’s Value Rules a few times, but they’re worth revisiting now that they’ve rolled out to more accounts. Value Rules allow you to increase or decrease your bids on certain audiences that are either more or less valuable to a business. Value Rules can be based on user age, gender, operating system, location, and placement (such as Instagram feed, Facebook feed, and so on). Read more from Meta here.

🔎  Google AI Max search ads have been spotted in the wild, and they feature longer headlines and pull content from your entire site (such as blog articles), not just your landing page.

💡 Pro Tip: Google Ads now counts sitelinks toward ad strength in Performance Max, so make sure they’re in your PMax campaigns and are set up properly.

⏰ TikTok is turning back the clock on its Engaged Sessions optimization. Last week, the platform advised partners (including us) that Engaged Sessions — which reaches users who will click on an ad and then spend at least 10 seconds on the page or navigate to a secondary page — would be rolling out July 31. 

But that date came and went, and now TikTok appears to be hedging. The feature isn’t live in all accounts, and TikTok gave a cryptic statement to Social Media Today: “We regularly experiment with a variety of features and tests to gather feedback and learn from our community, and some of the tests don’t always end up as final products.” Stay tuned.

👻 Snapchat missed Q2 sales expectations after a problem with its advertising platform caused some advertisers to win marketing bids at “substantially reduced prices.” The change that caused this price drop has since been reversed, but not before hurting Snap’s topline growth.

☝️You might remember that during IAB NewFronts in May, Snapchat teased “First Snap” — a first-impression, single-day ad takeover in the chat feed. Snap has now introduced new pricing for the format. Snapchat is positioning it as a “more affordable price point,” but note that the minimum is still in the six-figures.

✌️First is the worst, second is the best? Snapchat has moved Second Story into general availability (GA). Second Story is a single day, second impression takeover that allows a brand to own the second ad a user sees within Stories with a single story ad. Second Story is the most efficient takeover that Snap currently offers—again, still in the six-figures—and is available in 24 countries.

💬 Sponsored Snaps, which are ads that serve in a user’s private chat feed, are rolling out to more optimizations. Here’s what to know: 

• They’re already available for purchase, add to cart, sign up, page view, app install, and app purchase optimizations.

• They’re in open beta for goal-based bidding impressions optimization.

• They’re currently in alpha and will open to beta in Q3 for “opens” objective.

🐭 Disney unveiled a series of blockbusters this week. Hulu and Disney+ are being combined into a single, standalone app. As of August 21, ESPN—which is acquiring NFL Network and NFL RedZone, as well as the NFL’s fantasy sports product—is rolling out a $29.99/month streaming app, to be bundled with the NFL’s streaming service, NFL+ Premium.

For advertisers, the buying has already begun: ESPN inventory will be available on Disney Campaign Manager starting August 23 and can be submitted now.

📺 Why you should press play on Pause: According to April data from MAGNA Media Trials and DIRECTV Advertising, most U.S. adults who are open to pause ads say the ability to save offers/reminders would make the ads better. In addition, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) reports that 51% of viewers have taken some sort of action after seeing a pause ad.

🤖 Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed this week that the company is exploring ways to bring ads to Alexa Plus, its new generative-AI-powered voice assistant.

🚲 Don’t take our word for it

"We worked with Gupta Media because of the decades of paid media strategy that they brought. The results were explosive and exceeded all expectations. We heard positive feedback across the board. We ended up with a campaign as revolutionary as the City of Boston itself."

— Ellen Foord, Chief Creative Officer for the City of Boston

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