580 million views. Now comes the media buy.

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are having second thoughts about inviting Nathan to the beach house:

↘️ META: $8.92 | ↘️ TIKTOK: $1.89 | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $18.06

In this week’s edition: 

• 💼 Pre-roll is coming to LinkedIn’s creator video

• ChatGPT will start editing your ads by default 🚨

• ♾️ It’s almost October 28: Check what’s switched on

But first…

🤑 580 million views. Now comes the media buy.

Issa Rae’s Hoorae is turning microdramas into formal media buys. Following the 580-million-view success of its microdrama Screen Time, Hoorae is treating short-form serialization as a premium ad unit rather than organic social content.

Partnerships have already been secured with DoorDash and e.l.f., and Hoorae is reportedly offering packages that include:

• In-show product placement.

• Custom content.

• Paid amplification.

• Brand-lift studies.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta has been ordered to pay a $25 billion penalty by a New Mexico judge for deceiving users about its data privacy practices, reports The Wall Street Journal. The case stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the ruling follows a jury finding that the company committed 43 million violations of state consumer protection laws. The fine adds to a string of recent legal defeats for Meta in New Mexico, reinforcing that consumer protection laws can be an effective strategy for holding tech companies accountable.

🛍️ Product Browsing will auto-activate on existing Meta ads on October 28, according to notices users have seen in Ads Manager. The notice seen in some accounts gives advertisers the option to opt out through the banner. Watch for it in your accounts, or be ready to check your ads on October 28.

🎞️ Meta introduced new formats and expanded existing offerings at its Brand Building Summit. These changes focus on awareness tactics like Reels Trending and changes to video views.

• Ads Super Burst: Book a window of 3–24 hours for “TV-like scale” in your audience. Category exclusivity is possible, with no other advertisers in your category able to overlap in your window. Available to plan in Reach Planner.

• Reels Trending expansion: Available categories have expanded to include Home & Garden and Spanish-language content, increasing the standard available topics to 15. Meta also announced seasonal lineups around the holidays and sports seasons. Perhaps most exciting, it will introduce custom audience exclusions to further fine-tune who you reach in this placement.

• Updated video view time—aggregated view time: Meta is testing a product called aggregated view time, which aims to measure the impact of a user’s views over time. Meta cites its own research claiming that “five seconds of attention over a week drove 32% more offline sales than one continuous five second view.”

🎯 Meta also introduced First Impression Ads, which let brands book the first impression someone sees when they open the app. Currently, this is limited to one brand per day in the U.S. only, and Gupta clients have access to an early Alpha test—let us know if you’re interested.

🧠 OpenAI rolled out new measurement tools and visual ad formats, aimed at making its ad platform easier to manage and optimize:

• Expanded MMP support now includes Northbeam, DV Rockerbox, INCRMNTAL, Kochava, Tenjin, and Airbridge.

• A redesigned conversions page offers real-time event trends, optimization statuses, and diagnostic warnings.

• New visual formats are in testing, featuring larger images and wider ad cards on desktop and mobile, with multi-image formats coming soon to select U.S. advertisers.

🚨 Buyer Beware: On October 30, creative enhancements will switch on for new and existing self-serve campaigns within ChatGPT, and the resulting ads can run without your review or approval.

The feature can revise headlines and descriptions, resize images, optimize destination URLs, and translate ad copy. Variations may be generated beforehand or during a conversation. Want to approve what runs? Opt out before October 30. You can also change the setting afterward. Here’s what to look for:

🔎 Google is rolling out AI-driven shopping updates ahead of Q4:

• “When to Buy” guides: Use historical trend data to advise shoppers on the optimal times to find deals.

• Universal Cart: Now live for all U.S. users, allowing shoppers to add cross-merchant items into a single cart using Gemini and Ask Google. Users can check out once via Google Pay or individually on merchant sites.

• Smart shopping notifications: Track in-cart items to alert users about price drops, restocks, and promo codes.

🤖 AI Max has reportedly been found enabled in some Google Ad Grants Search campaigns without advertisers manually switching it on. If you’re managing a Grants account and don’t want AI Max running, check your campaigns.

▶️ YouTube is testing a creator-invite-only bonus program for Shorts. That’s good news for Shorts creators. Here’s what we know:

• Creators must meet strict posting volume and frequency requirements to earn payouts.

• New Shopping Affiliate bonuses allow brands to offer extra commission incentives to creators who tag specific products.

• Upgraded YouTube Studio analytics provide better visibility into product clicks, sales data, and seller breakdowns.

💬 YouTube is testing AI replies directly in its search bar. For queries requiring context, an AI-generated “Ask YouTube” response will top the results page. Users can expand the response, ask follow-up questions, or scroll past it to standard video listings.

💼 LinkedIn is testing pre-roll ads on creator content to unlock new monetization options. Building on BrandLink and Thought Leader Ads, creators can opt in to make their content eligible for brand promotions without requiring a pre-established partnership. LinkedIn’s Creator Marketplace is also adding new search tools to help brands identify relevant partners.

👽 Reddit introduced a suite of AI-powered campaign tools, rolling out this month:

• Campaign Planner: Forecasts reach, impressions, and costs while providing insights into subreddit conversation volume.

• Optimization Score: Grades campaigns from 0–100% and flags actionable improvements. Reddit claims scores above 80% correlate with a 19.6% lower blended CPA.

• Campaign Budget Optimization: Automatically shifts spend toward top-performing ad groups.

🐦 X no longer shows how many followers were added by a paid campaign, according to our team’s observations. Even though X still displays a followers metric, it will show as 0.

When users click the follow button from an ad, it now takes them to the profile page rather than making them a follower. To drive social growth, the guidance our team has received is to use an engagement campaign directing people to the profile page, or a reach campaign.

🍿Netflix is overhauling its in-house ad platform to improve reach and attribution:

• Performance measurement: An enhanced Conversion API and Netflix Pixel now give advertisers access to 20+ lower-funnel conversion metrics to measure ROI, lift, and A/B tests.

• Programmatic access: Expanded to The Trade Desk.

• DSP reporting: Single-publisher attribution reporting is live for Yahoo DSP. The Trade Desk integration is coming soon.

• Global scale: Netflix is preparing to roll out the platform to 15 new countries.

🌎 Universal Ads now lets advertisers book creator-driven inventory featuring influencers like Trey Kennedy and King Bach. Placements run across networks including Creator TV, BIZARRE, and Tastemade.

🧹Universal Ads’ Halloween inventory is live through October 31, with a holiday package targeting thematic content across DirecTV, Xumo, Vevo, Tubi, and AMC Networks.

🦚 NBCUniversal launched “Your Bravoverse” on Peacock, an AI-powered video feed featuring curated Bravo content and guided by an AI Andy Cohen avatar. Wendy’s signed on as the exclusive launch sponsor, securing embedded native placements and AI-avatar shoutouts within the hub.

🎮 Discord teased in its latest email: “We plan to bring self-serve campaign creation and management to more advertisers in early 2027.”

⭕ Target is cautiously exploring in-store digital ad screens. The retailer is evaluating the move carefully to ensure new retail media inventory doesn’t clutter or negatively affect the physical shopping experience.

📊 By the numbers

Comscore released its monthly Score Report, which reveals how measured advertising exposure is distributed across the TV landscape, and how that distribution changes over time. Take a look at the August report.

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.

This week’s edition of the Thread was created by Jess Dashner, Anoushka Madan, Kayleigh McDonald, Kiara Quigley, Lara Spijkerman, Liana Giacobbe, Mariya Samardzhieva, and Carly Carioli.