Google’s AI Mode is about to eat search. Are your ads ready?

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are seasonally chill:

↗️ META: $8.54 CPM | ⏸️ TIKTOK: $5.44 CPM | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $10.43 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🧵 This is how Meta says your Threads ads should look

• YouTube ads are about to get smarter 🧠

• 🔊 Why the TikTok 🤝 SoundCloud deal is good for music

But first…

🤖 Google’s AI Overviews are now everywhere—and they’ve got ads

Google is doubling down on AI-powered search and bringing ads along for the ride.

As of yesterday, U.S. desktop users began seeing Search and Shopping ads embedded within AI Overviews results. (And yes, we’re still seeing occasional examples of AI hallucination in those results.) Advertisers running Performance Max, Shopping, and Search campaigns with broad match—including AI Max for Search—are automatically eligible for these placements. These ads will be rolling out globally later this year on both desktop and mobile.

Simultaneously, Google is testing ads in AI Mode, a new conversational search experience powered by Gemini 2.5. In this mode, users can ask complex questions and receive detailed, AI-generated responses a la Chat GPT. Up until now, AI Mode has been available only through Google Labs—but this week it’s rolling out everywhere.

The message is loud and clear: Get ready for an acceleration of the trend away from traditional search and towards agentic AI. Will traditional search ads translate when they’re ported to these new, conversational experiences? We’re about to find out.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

🧵 Threads ads are continuing to roll out to more brands and advertisers. In related news, Meta confirmed this week that it’s testing the option to create a Threads profile without using an Instagram login with some users in the European Union. Here are some additional creative considerations and specs to keep in mind:

📺 YouTube announced new ad options at its BrandCast event, including: 

• “Peak Points” uses AI to identify the emotional peaks of video clips, then place ads within that moment, when users are most engaged. Currently in beta, expanded roll-out is expected later in the year.

• “Cultural Moments Sponsorships” allow advertisers to tap into key moments by providing expanded placement options, such as within the peak of awards season or during a major sporting event.

• YouTube is also making Masthead look more immersive on TV screens and testing Shoppable TV.

🎧 Also announced at BrandCast, YouTube is launching a weekly Top 100 podcast chart to spotlight the most popular shows among its 1 billion+ monthly podcast views.

🤳 YouTube also shared new Shorts engagement data highlighting a 20% increase in year-over-year Shorts viewing. 70% of YouTube channels now post Shorts, and Shorts now generate the same amount of revenue per hour watched as long-form YouTube videos do in the U.S.

⏰ TikTok has added SoundCloud to its “Add to Music” feature, which lets users save songs they discover in the app directly to their preferred streaming service. For music advertisers, that means new opportunities to drive discovery and grow audiences—especially for independent artists.

👻 Snapchat is testing a Smart Budget (CBO), currently available for impression or pixel purchase campaigns only. Note: at the moment, tests are subject to high minimums in addition to other limitations.

📺 Fubo introduced a hub for women’s sports content on its homepage earlier this month, where viewers can find programming including live games and documentaries. The first advertiser integration is set to roll out this weekend.

🛍️ Remember when Chinese online discount site Temu yanked its US advertising in April, responding to proposed tariffs? Smarter Ecommerce dug into what happened next. Spoiler alert: Etsy was one of the biggest winners, reportedly gaining as much as 20% in some categories.

📺 Amazon Prime Video is set to expand its contextual ad-targeting options. According to a pitch deck reviewed by Adweek, the streaming service plans to move beyond basic genre-level segments to offer advertisers categories like "Female Voices," "Top Trending," "High Income Households," and "Coviewing." This expansion aims to unlock greater value from Prime Video's extensive content library, providing marketers with more precise audience segmentation. In addition to these new targeting segments, Amazon said to be rolling out AI-powered ad formats, including contextual pause ads. 

👽 Reddit Advertising is having its moment. With 108 million daily active users, plus a very high number of casual visits (via Google referrals), Reddit is becoming a more important element in customer research journeys. And now they’ve published a new research report, in conjunction with Sensor Tower and Adjust, that credits Reddit with increased 30-day retention rate among new app downloads, as well as increased purchase consideration compared with other digital channels.

⚖️ Meta’s ongoing court battle against the FTC has led to some interesting data being presented during the trial. Check out some of the highlights here including:

• The shift away from public posting and toward DMing: 63x more messages are sent in Meta’s apps every day, versus public posts.

• The steady increase in time spent with Reels vs. Feed and Stories.

• The increase in usage among TikTok’s competitor apps while it was briefly banned.

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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