Running up the score against social media

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are suborbital:

↗️ META: $8.38 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $4.13 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $11.62 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 📷 Which IG friends will you “blend” with now?

• Apple’s search ads get a glow up 🍎

• 📌 New badge alert at Pinterest Academy

But first…

🧑‍⚖️  Running up the score against social media

This week, as Google lost its second monopoly trial in less than a year, Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in yet another antitrust suit—one in which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking as much as $30 billion, and/or Meta’s divestment from Instagram and WhatsApp. That would shatter the record-breaking $5 billion that Meta (then Facebook) shelled out for consumer privacy violations in 2019. Meanwhile, negotiations for a sale of TikTok have been stalled by a deepening U.S.–China trade standoff. That same trade war reportedly led one of Meta’s largest advertisers to slash its digital ads budget. But surely, you say, there must be good news? Well, sort of: the Financial Times reported that brands are returning to X—but only with nominal sums, and only “to keep Elon Musk happy.”

Let’s take the counterpoint, for a second: Google’s “loss” last week wasn’t a total bust —a judge found Google has a monopoly on sell-side ad tools (“both the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets,” which it illegally tied together, as Digiday explains), but not buy-side tools. Google is appealing, and there’s still been no penalty handed down in its last monopoly trial—so this could go on for a while. Meanwhile, most analysts concede the government has a tough road ahead against Meta—after all, the FTC, which is bringing the suit, approved the Facebook-Instagram merger more than a decade ago, in 2012.

Still, it’s worth pausing for a moment and reflecting on where we sit in a broader historical context:

• The vibe has shifted in America. Both political parties have come to support regulatory and judicial scrutiny of an industry that has largely escaped it. That scrutiny has survived a turbulent political transition. It is likely here to stay.

• What will that look like? Hard to say. It’s unlikely we’ll end up with the type of legislation that exists in Europe, where the focus is primarily on consumer protection and privacy. But it’s not out of the question that some of the government’s anti-trust action actually sticks. Even one breakup would dramatically reshape the balance of power in social media.

• No technological era lasts forever. If ever there was a time when the digital advertising industry was ripe for reinvention, it’s the period stretching from right now through the next 36 months. 

💡Our take: Don’t wait for regulation to redraw the map—begin future-proofing your media mix now. Diversify channels, reduce overreliance on any one platform, and invest in measurement frameworks built for instability.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

🔎 In better news, Google released its 2024 Ads Safety Report yesterday, which showed a 200% YoY increase in account suspensions, which were largely detected via AI.

🍎 Apple is rebranding its Search Ads as Apple Ads to better reflect its expanding placements. In addition to ads showing at the top of App Store search results, they’ll also appear in the Today tab and in app listings under “You Might Also Like.”

📷 Instagram continues to shake up your feed — and has now officially launched a feature that lets you “blend” your recommended content with your friends. Think of it as a personalized Reels feed tailored for you and your crew, sent via DM invite. By tapping the Blend icon in a chat, you'll get a daily-updated mix of Reels curated based on everyone's shared interests. Which just leaves one question: who are you gonna Blend with?

⏰ TikTok launched two new ad placement controls that give advertisers the power to block specific videos and user profiles from appearing alongside their ads. As brand safety becomes a bigger concern across a wider swath of social media, expect to see platforms spending more time on tools like this.

📌 Got your Pinterest Academy diploma yet? Trick question: there’s no diploma—but they do have some cool badges. The platform’s refreshed ad-platform portal—which features lessons on everything from ad formats and campaign objectives to targeting and bidding—has added a new tier. Level up to get your certification and earn your “Performance Essentials” badge over there now.

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.