You won't believe where Google's AI is going next

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are in a situationship:

↗️ META: $8.34 CPM | ↘️ TIKTOK: $4.99 CPM | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $11.22 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• ⚠️ Instagram’s conversion campaigns have a sneaky setting

• Twitter/X will now let you pay for “organic” impressions 🐦

• 🔊 Spotify just unlocked 70+ new ways to target listeners

But first…

🤖  Guess where Google’s AI is going next?

Google is rolling out its Gemini AI assistant to all of Chrome’s U.S. desktop users, with agentic capabilities (think: booking appointments, organizing shopping, even comparing flights across tabs) coming soon. Gemini will also move directly into the Chrome address bar with “AI Mode,” letting users ask natural-language questions and refine searches on the fly.

Here’s what to expect next:

• AI-led browsing: Compare, summarize, and revisit sites across tabs, with Gemini steering the session.

• Address bar upgrades: Ask follow-ups, get AI Overviews, and query the page you’re already on.

• Deeper integrations: Calendar, YouTube, Maps, and more woven directly into browsing.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta reached a new milestone, as Instagram became the company’s third app to reach 3 billion users. That’s more than half of the world’s internet users (5.4 billion), and roughly equivalent to everyone alive on planet earth circa 1960.

🔗 Meta sitelinks have started serving as carousel cards rather than as standard sitelinks. They are selected by default, but you do have the ability to opt out:

⚠️ Buyer Beware: Running Instagram conversion campaigns? Our analysts have observed Instagram Direct turning itself on in that campaign type. The solution: double-check to make sure the selection is toggled off.

🔎 Google announced the following additions to Demand Gen:

• Conversion lift now works at lower spend levels and conversion volume. You can test an entire account or specific campaigns to understand the incrementality of running multiple campaign types at the same time.

• Platform comparable conversion columns help you measure campaigns in a way that matches the default attribution used on other platforms.

• Omni-channel bidding helps you optimize to total online and offline sales.

• Local offers showcase in-store offers to nearby shoppers.

• Promotion assets highlight special occasions and promotional text.

🔎A new Adalysis study of 16,825 search campaigns found that exact match is the most efficient match type, but broad match can deliver higher revenue per conversion despite higher CPAs. Search Engine Land recommends launching campaigns using exact match as best practice. Expand to broad if you want more volume and can handle higher CPAs. Phrase is best reserved for larger accounts with enough data to stabilize performance.

🧠 A “Smart Bidding Exploration” (in beta) toggle is now appearing for PMax campaigns. Turning on the toggle allows Google to “relax” ROAS targets when it sees fit, opening the door to higher volume but less efficiency. 

💅 Pro tip for all you Google Ads scripts power users: Google’s documentation is now easier for advertisers and developers to build, test, and customize automations. Guides are now grouped by experience level and campaign type, and there’s a dedicated reference tab that makes it easier to browse available script objects.

⏰ TikTok is still ticking, and its U.S. operations are still for sale, with reports that an official deal signing is imminent, perhaps within days. Here are the latest details to surface:

• 🤳 The App: Initial reporting claimed the sale would result in a new app for U.S. users, but the White House refuted that earlier this week, claiming the deal would retain “interoperability” by which Americans will be able to use the same app and see videos from other countries. (We’re intrigued—and curious to see how they pull it off.)

• 🧠 The Algorithm: According to the White House, TikTok’s algorithm will be "copied," secured in the U.S. by Oracle, and retrained on U.S. data. Some observers are skeptical of this approach, which “still leaves TikTok’s core code tied to Beijing,” as one U.S. diplomat told Politico, citing concerns over U.S. data security and user privacy on the app. “Unless the entire architecture and IP are severed, Washington hasn’t achieved independence, it’s just rebranded dependence.” John Moolenaar, the Republican Chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said he was “concerned” by the licensing deal because it “may involve ongoing reliance on a ByteDance algorithm and application that could allow continued [Chinese] control or influence.”

• 💰 U.S. Ownership: Previously, the Wall Street Journal reported that the ~80% U.S. ownership would be a consortium of investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, Susquehanna, KKR, General Lannick. This week, the White House added a few new names to that list, suggesting that Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch (through Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News), and Dell leader Michael Dell could be part of the new ownership group. The New York Times reports today that a non-US company—a United Arab Emirates-based AI firm called MGX—“is expected to join” the ownership group.

⚠️ Buyer Beware:  to prevent TikTok from running AI-generated content in your Smart+ campaigns, you need to turn off not one but two toggles—one under “Add Creatives,” the other under “Auto-generated for you.”

🎧 Spotify has started rolling out contextual-based targeting with more than 70 options to choose from across genres, playlist categories, podcast episode topics, activities, and settings:

💅 Pro Tip: Amazon DSP now offers Spotify audio and video inventory. Podcast inventory is coming soon. CPM pricing is biddable with a $9 floor.

🔗 LinkedIn and its parent company Microsoft have started sharing more data with each other, expanding LinkedIn to target ads using Microsoft data and Microsoft’s ability to target ads using LinkedIn data.  

💾 Microsoft has in the past offered an Ads for Social Impact program—similar to the Google Ad Grant program—that provides nonprofits with ad credits across its ad inventory. However, access has long been murky, with the credits proving difficult to tap into. This week, Microsoft confirmed that the program is still active, though there is currently a waitlist.

🐦 Twitter/X has rolled out a new “Boost” feature that lets Premium subscribers on iOS pay to amplify their individual posts. Pricing ranges from $50 for roughly 11K–27K impressions, up to $1,000 for 225K–543K impressions ($1.84 - $4.54 CPM). The option sits between organic reach and full ad campaigns, giving creators and brands a simpler way to extend reach. 

📊  By the Numbers: Influencer frequency = 🎁, fave platforms in the 🌍, teen boys ♥️ shorts

🛍️ According to a recent impact.com and eMarketer survey, 28% of worldwide consumers say they need to see a creator promote a product 3 to 4 times before making a purchase.

🎤 This week, Kantar released their Media Reactions report, which includes data from interviews with more than 21,000 consumers across 30 global markets and more than 1,000 senior marketers. Kantar ranked ad platforms based on the preferences of both consumers and marketers. For the first time in the report’s history, no platform appeared in the top five across both sets of rankings.

▶️ According to data from Precise TV, more than half (51%) of teen boys in the U.S. say they’ve made a purchase after watching a YouTube Shorts ad, compared with 44% who bought after watching a TikTok ad. And according to eMarketer’s May 2024 forecast, U.S. YouTube Shorts viewers will outnumber TikTok users this year.

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.