The new TikTok is already in trouble

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are first-ballot hall of fame material:

↘️ META: $6.36 | ↗️ TIKTOK: $4.26 | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $7.64

In this week’s edition: 

• 🧠 OpenAI wants HOW MUCH for ads with no conversion tracking?

• The hidden cost of TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns ⏰ 

• 📺 How AI’s pivot to video is putting YouTube in the lead

But first…

⏰ The new TikTok is already in trouble

We’re only a few days into the new ownership regime of American TikTok, and things are already…not great.  

On the user side, the platform is visibly degrading. Creators have reported new posts stuck in review and stale content resurfacing in "For You" feeds. Users are up in arms about the platform’s new privacy policy, according to CBS News. The New York Times reports that TikTok users “accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about ICE or limiting the reach of those videos.” California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an investigation into whether TikTok “is violating state law by censoring” content critical of President Donald Trump. 

TikTok denies those allegations, and has blamed data center outages for the disruptions, but already there are signs some users are looking for the exits. Daily app deletions have reportedly risen by 150% since the ownership change was announced, according to analytics from Sensor Tower. Mark Cuban-backed competitor app Skylight saw a 150% jump in new user sign-ups over the weekend, and Yope, a visual messaging app, is seeing U.S. growth.

On the agency side, we initially saw slower reporting, trouble scaling spend, and unpredictable campaign performance across client accounts. We’ve since seen performance return to normal, consistent with TikTok’s explanation of a temporary outage. 

TikTok users love TikTok, and they’re hyper-sensitive to changes—or even perceived changes—in the algorithm. We’re still in early days, and it remains to be seen whether these early disruptions are handoff-related hiccups or something more invasive. If the current trend holds, our ad dollars will likely work harder elsewhere.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta says Reels now make up about 20% of Instagram's ad impressions, with the placement jumping in popularity over the past year. Organically, Reels account for roughly 46% of total time spent on the platform, underscoring how much both users and advertisers are gravitating toward the short-form video placement.

💰 In a major reversal, Meta has announced plans to test subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, keeping the core apps free but unlocking exclusive features for paid users. The new tiers are expected to include advanced AI tools, including Manus, the AI agent Meta recently acquired, along with other AI-powered perks. On Instagram, the new subscription will give users the ability to create unlimited audience lists, see a list of followers who don't follow you back, and view a Story without the poster seeing that you viewed it. Meta has previously launched ad-free subscriptions in Europe in response to regulatory concerns around user privacy.  

🎯 If you’re following Meta’s gravitational shift towards “Creative Is the New Targeting,” you need to pay attention to Andromeda, Meta’s AI-powered ad-retrieval system, launched in late 2024, that is transforming performance in the age of generative AI. Last week, the platform gave us an inside look at the latest best-practices for creative strategy under Meta's ad auction. Key takeaways: 

• They recommend running 5–10 creatives at a time with a mix of hi-fi/lo-fi assets and both static and video formats, and refreshing creative every 30 days to avoid fatigue. 

• For Reels in particular, they encourage sound-on creative to boost engagement. 

• They also shared broader campaign-setup recommendations, including using campaign-level budgets with ad-set minimums for greater control, enabling account-level placements for Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns.

• When using flexible media, all assets should adhere to Meta's safe-zone guidelines so key elements are not cropped across placements.

😎 We’re getting some new details about advertising opportunities on Meta Quest, the platform’s line of VR headsets: 

• Currently, only a limited number of Quest apps have opted into advertising, as the ecosystem is still evolving and not all apps support in-VR ads yet. 

• However, to be eligible for placement on the available apps, advertisers must opt into the Audience Network placement, which does not guarantee delivery.

🔎 Google has rolled out new Demand Gen product features:

• Interactive Shoppable CTV on YouTube is now available globally, with the ability to browse a product feed and scan QR codes for specific products, as well as an option to let viewers stay on your ad and send a notification to their phone.

• Attributed Branded Searches is now available for Demand Gen, showing the volume of your campaign's branded searches on Google/YouTube to help quantify your impact. Reach out to your Google representative to activate.

• You can now turn browsing into booking faster with Travel Feeds in Demand Gen by connecting your Hotel Center feed to build dynamic video ads featuring hotel pricing, ratings, and availability.

📺 YouTube is now the top social platform cited in AI search results, overtaking Reddit: AI marketing platform Bluefish reports YouTube as a cited source in 16% of chat answers over the past six months, versus 10% for Reddit. Is that a sign AI is getting smarter at parsing video? Partially, but it’s also because YouTube’s transcripts, text around videos, and how-to and product explainers are being pulled into answers more often. This means brands may want to focus on clear, educational video content to improve visibility in AI search—and also that you want to pay just as much attention to the semantic data attached your video as the video itself. 

💬 What about getting your search ads to show up in AI Overviews? There’s no secret sauce, but Google recommends leveraging: 

• AI Max (we recommend starting with SearchEngineLand’s checklist)

• Broad match keywords

• Dynamic search ads

⏰ TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns are getting more sophisticated—and also more complicated. The platform just released a new 23-page guide on its AI-powered solution, which is increasingly central to its campaigns. That said…

🚨 Buyer Beware: we’ve seen mixed performance from Smart+, with some clients seeing consistently stronger performance while others have seen better results with manual campaigns. 

• Regardless of potential performance gains, keep an eye out for AI-generated creatives appearing in your creative library. You can manually delete them, but they will be generated every time you make a creative edit within your campaign.

• Also beware of unwanted product catalogs attaching to your ads—as a result of a Q4 product release that mixes carousels with video assets.

🎯 This week, TikTok announced new ad solutions targeted toward entertainment advertisers:

• TikTok Streaming Ads (powered by Smart+) are designed to deliver ads to users who have shown an interest in entertainment-specific content, tailored to the user's demonstrated interests. They will have two formats: a video carousel that displays four video titles from one service's catalog, and a Media Card interactive add-on that highlights multiple titles.

• New Title Launch is aimed at driving subscriptions and ticket sales. The format uses specific signals, such as favorite movie genre or pricing sensitivity, to reach high-intent users and boost subscriptions and ticket sales.

⚽ Reminder: TikTok is an official partner of the FIFA World Cup. The platform has compiled advertising opportunities for brands looking to tie into the event.

💅 Pro Tip: Advertisers can now serve on Lemon8 using the Auction Reach objective. The placement will be automatically enabled, with the option to toggle off. Lemon8 performance is included within TikTok reporting and is not reported separately.

🎧 Spotify has expanded device targeting in Spotify Ads Manager. You can now select to serve on web, in-car, and connected devices in addition to mobile and desktop. This gives advertisers more flexibility and control over how and where they reach users.

🐦 X appears poised to add a new partnership tag (it’s been spotted in the app's back-end code), which could be helpful in retaining creators. The change would allow creators to label paid promotions directly, replacing manual disclosures like using #ad in the copy itself.

🧠 OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as a premium ad product—and pricing it that way. With ads set to roll out in the next few weeks, we’re getting our first look at pricing and placement. 

• 💸 Advertisers will pay roughly a $60 CPM to run ChatGPT ads, and reporting will be limited to basic metrics like impressions and clicks, with no conversion tracking or detailed performance data available at this time. For context, Meta CPMs are currently sitting at $6.36.

• 🎯 The first ads will roll out in the coming weeks to users on ChatGPT's free and lower-cost Go tiers, excluding users under 18 and conversations involving sensitive topics such as mental health or politics. The initial test is expected to be limited, with advertisers committing "under $1 million" each.

💡 Artificial intelligence proved to be a widely used tool during the 2025 holiday season, with retail, travel, financial services, and the tech and software industries seeing 693% growth in AI referral traffic year over year in November and December, according to Adobe data.

🍎 Apple Ads will begin showing additional ads per search query in the UK starting March 3rd, followed by Japan. The expansion is expected to roll out to all Apple Ads markets by the end of March.

• After March 3rd, ad positions will include the existing top slot as well as new placements further down the results. 

• Advertisers don't need to make any changes to access the new inventory. Any existing search results campaign will automatically be eligible to appear in all available positions. However, advertisers can't choose or bid for specific placements.

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, Mariya Samardzhieva, Lara Spijkerman, and Carly Carioli.