New data: marketing AI just hit a tipping point

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are going off the rails on a crazy train:

↘️ META: $8.12 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $5.64 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $6.54 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🐦 Elon Musk’s X declares war on emojis

• How creators are gaming Meta’s “Trial Reels” ♾️

• 🚨 Buyer Beware: Google’s “optimized” targeting is no bueno

But first…

🤖 Report: Nearly half of marketers use AI for creative

And frankly, we’re worried about the other half. 

Newsflash: Marketers are now consistently relying on AI to generate images and videos. Now we have new data from Canva and Morning Consult showing that nearly half (49%) of marketers worldwide were doing so as of January 2025—a number that has likely surpassed 50% by now.

In terms of consumers, 43% use AI tools daily, and 75% use them more today than they did a year ago.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ META’s test reels are here. Back in December we reported that Instagram was rolling out a new feature called “Trial Reels” that would allow creators to share content to a group of non-followers to test resonance with a new audience. After 24 hours, creators could then view the initial organic performance data and choose whether or not to share the content with everyone. Last week, IG chief Adam Mosseri confirmed that Trial Reels are now available to all creators with at least 1,000 followers and an account set to “Public.

🧠 Already, some creators are using Trial Reels as a growth hack, by submitting older posts as “trials,” thereby pushing content to non-followers—and in some cases converting them to subscribers. 

💡Pro Tip: Did you know that shorter video ads on Facebook will auto-loop more times than longer ads? This is because Meta’s ads will loop based on total duration, not on the number of times an ad itself is played.

🔎 Google is now rolling out a new conversion type called Branded Searches, which track users who, within up to 30 days of viewing your ad, searched for your brand on Google Search or YouTube Search. 

• They’re available for YouTube, PMax, and Demand Gen campaign types.

• You can’t currently optimize for this, but Google suggests it could be added in the future.

• To be eligible, you’ll need to work with your rep to get brand mapping set up for your account.

💡Pro Tip: Brush up on Impression Share bidding with “Google Ads Target Impression Share explained: Pros, cons, and when to use it.” Among the takeaways: 

• This bidding strategy prioritizes showing your ad a set percentage of the time in a specific slot: “Top,” “Absolute Top,” or “anywhere on page.”

• Although it’s impression‑focused, you still pay per click. It ignores bid adjustments (like location or time), except for a −100% device exclusion, and lets you set a max CPC bid limit

• Ideal when you want to own visibility on your brand terms or critical searches, though conversion‑driven strategies (such as “maximize conversions”) are generally better for ROI

✏️ FYI: Brand inclusions and exclusions—a useful tool for controlling where ads appear—is now tied to enabling AI Max in new Search campaigns.

⏰ TikTok: We recently tested a Custom Pulse campaign. Some initial learnings for those considering one:

• Age targeting raised the fixed CPM

• You can’t run static ads in pulse campaigns 

👻 Snapchat has paused geo-fencing capabilities for AR Lenses and Filters on both the paid and organic sides. However, they’re planning to roll out a new geofencing product in 2026, so stay tuned. 

Looking to serve in Snapchat’s chat feed as a standalone placement? That option is currently only available for the awareness and engagement objectives, although you can still include a website attachment. 

• 🔐 You can still appear in the chat feed automatically (no opt-out option, includes other placements) under the Pixel Purchase, Pixel Sign Up, Pixel Page View, Pixel Add to Cart, or App Install objectives.

📊 Snapchat recently commissioned analytics firm Triple Whale to conduct a study of 20,000 ecommerce advertisers, looking at ~$3 billion in ad spend across platforms. The research revealed that Snapchat delivered better ROAS and CPA than most platforms, though at a smaller scale. This was especially true among apparel advertisers.

🐦 X copywriters beware: effective “shortly,” ads with more than one emoji in the ad copy or creative will have a lower quality score and may experience higher pricing. This comes on the heels of X’s ads banning hashtags and charging higher rates for vertical placements. 

📈The latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report shows that X is still a key source of news and information for both right and left politically leaning users. (Read highlights from the 171-page report here). Other highlights include:

• According to the data, X’s usage for news has increased in the U.S., Australia, and Poland.

• On Snapchat and TikTok, creators now have more presence as news resources than traditional media outlets

🚨 Buyer Beware: Google’s “optimized” targeting is no bueno 

Watch out for the “optimized targeting” setting in Google, which expands reach beyond your selected audiences. It lives in the ad group settings.

• YMMV, but in a recent campaign that was opted into optimized targeting, we saw 99% of spend diverted to expanded reach audiences, not our selected audiences. It was also mostly serving on questionable sites.

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next week to fill your inbox with more tips, tricks, and treats from the addressable universe.

In the meantime, stay up to date with the latest performance marketing intelligence by following us on Linkedin, Instagram, and X.