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Here’s what Google Ads’ AI human-maker looks like

Plus: Why Ikea and Meta are sliding into your DMs

Author

Gupta Media
February 21, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are slushy with a chance of slushier:

↘️ META: $7.55 CPM | ↘️ TIKTOK: $3.36 CPM | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $7.39 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

  • ⏰ How TikTok is taking over music, in 7 stats

  • Here’s how to buy Google TV’s new masthead 📺

  • 💌 Why Ikea and Meta are sliding into your DMs 

But first…

🤖 Google is now generating AI humans for your ads

Google Ads just announced new creative tools that use AI to generate human images. For example, advertisers can request “middle-aged man chopping carrots,” with options to customize age, gender, race, and ethnicity. According to Google:

  • Advertisers have final approval over creatives.

  • There are a variety of safeguards in place, such as AI labels, no politicians or celebrities, and no minors.

  • This new capability could dramatically reduce the cost and time required for traditional lifestyle photo shoots.

Here’s what that looks like:

🔎 In the past few months, Google Ads has also been rolling out a new Advanced Plans tool within the Reach Planner that recommends a specific mix of ad types based on your goals, budget, ad formats, and buying method. Advanced Plans can create specific plans for both demand generation and capture:

📺 Channel Factory has been selected as the exclusive selling partner for Google TV Mastheads for any brands outside of the music-and-entertainment vertical. 

  • This new, high-impact opportunity reaches 20MM+ living rooms on Android-powered devices across the US

  • Unlike YouTube ads, which rely on user engagement, this placement greets viewers immediately, ensuring visibility.

  • About 20% of Google TV users don’t regularly open YouTube, meaning this format reaches a segment that might otherwise be missed.

  • Viewers can jump straight into a YouTube video, app, or Play Store page, potentially improving engagement.

⏰ TikTok has announced 3 new beta & alpha opportunities:

  • Brand safety solutions that allow advertisers to avoid serving within specific profile feeds and adjacent to specific videos. Restrictions apply—including that this isn’t available for auction.

  • Integration with Triple Whale. 

  • Google Analytics integration and data passback. 

🤘TikTok released its 2024 Music Impact Report, based on research conducted by Luminate. You can read the full report here, but a few key highlights:

👻 Last week we told you that Snapchat is rolling out Sponsored Snaps. We’re now getting some more details on how they’ll work:

  • Sponsored Snaps are currently being utilized as a new inventory source on Snap for campaigns utilizing a 7/0 optimization window—that is, looking at the past seven days of data to predict and optimize conversions happening on the same day—while bidding on Pixel Purchase. 

  • Currently, up to 10% of ads may be served within the Sponsored Snap inventory. However, you are unable to break this out or run a campaign that solely uses Sponsored Snap without booking a full takeover.

  • Sponsored Snaps will likely be available for "Sign Up" advertisers in the coming months.

🥂 Shot/Chaser: What happens when brands slide into your DMs?

🥃 Shot: Ikea slides into its followers’ Instagram DMs in the middle of the night to ask “u up?”—and offers mattress discounts to anyone who replies. 

🥂 Takeaway: We’re in the middle of transformative period in social, when user behaviors and platform expectations are wildly in flux. The change in user behavior? The kinds of personal engagement that used to take place by posting and seeing our friends’ posts is now switching to 1:1 and group-chat messaging: more personal, less public. Platforms, taking note, are now bringing ads and lots of other functionality to messaging—a place that users consider more private. That means the stakes for brands and advertisers are getting higher: imagine the massive difference between Ikea’s cheeky “u up” campaign and getting a rando 15%-off coupon in your DMs. And, as Meta’s announcement makes clear, user anxiety is likely to go up, not down, as platforms bring machine learning and advertising to spaces that users previously considered a sanctuary.

🐘The Elephant In the Room: Our weekly office poll!

Sure, TikTok is back in the app store, but the drama around the band and the will-they-or-won’t-they sale of the company’s U.S. business has started to chip away at TikTok’s pre-eminence among Gen-Z. The question is: Who stands to benefit the most from a weakened TikTok? Digiday has its own answer (using some of our data), but tell us your thoughts:

Which platform will benefit most from TikTok's decline?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

📊 Last edition’s poll results: Which advertiser won this year's Super Bowl? 

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Budweiser 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ T-Mobile 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Novartis 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Google 

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nike 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Duolingo

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

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