TikTok unleashes army of social AI influencers

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are scorched earth:

↗️ YOUTUBE: $3.35 CPM |  ↗️ META: $8.48 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $4.70 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🤖 Here comes TikTok’s AI influencer army

• 7 LinkedIn ad tips you didn’t know you needed 🔗

• 🤳 Google ROAS calculator? Yes, please!

But first…

☠️  Don’t complain to us when Google deletes your data on Monday

As we’ve been reminding you for months: Google will delete all data in standard Universal Analytics (UA) properties this Monday. While GA4 may be collecting your current data, if you’ve got any historical data in Universal Analytics properties, that data will no longer be accessible via the user interface and API—it will be lost and gone forever unless you take action now. 

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

🕰️ TikTok is taking us even deeper into uncanny valley: Its brand-new TikTok Symphony provides a suite of AI-generated “digital avatars,” allowing advertisers to enter a script and make the avatars say whatever they’d like—within TikTok’s guidelines. (CNN found a leaked version of the product last week and made the avatars say horrible things, but the new version—available to anyone with a TikTok Ads account—has reportedly been cleaned up.)

• The AI influencers come in two flavors. Off-the-shelf “stock” models, “from a diverse range of backgrounds,” can speak over 30 languages. Or brands can build their own Custom Avatars. While it remains to be seen how viewers will react to Symphony content, we suspect this will resonate most with brands who are using creator platforms like Billo.

🕵️ As Gen-Z continues to turn to TikTok as a search engine, we’ve been digging deeper into TikTok Search Ads. Now, we’re told that Standalone Search Ads—not just the toggle button TikTok gives you to bundle Search alongside your In-Feed Ads—should be generally available at some point next quarter. That means it’s a good time to dig in with TikTok’s Search One-Sheet and Search Ads Best Practices. Two important points:   

• Search campaigns do have an additional layer of brand safety: “in addition to the ability to add 10,000 negative keywords per ad group, the TikTok search results page goes through an additional round of organic moderation to ensure search results are in line with TikTok moderation policy.”

• Make sure you brush up on using negative keywords on TikTok. They have 3 different match types, although we’ve noticed some excluded terms making their way into our campaigns anyway.

🛒 Since its launch in September 2023, over 11% of US households have purchased items via TikTok Shop, according to data from a recent Earnest Analytics’ report. And those who buy via TikTok Shop keep coming back—81.3% of TikTok Shop sales came from existing customers in February 2024.

• And now, according to TechCrunch, TikTok “is gearing up to challenge Amazon’s Prime Day event in July.” Amazon’s annual summer sale runs July 16 and 17; TikTok just announced a “Deals For You Days” event launching on July 9, offering exclusive deals on beauty products, BookTok faves, and more.

🍼 TikTok’s Family & Parenting Pulse is moving into open beta on July 1. It will place your ads immediately after the top 4% of trending content related to general parenting, baby care, family moments and celebrations, motherhood, and fatherhood. There’s no minimum spend requirement, but TikTok recommends at least $200,000, which is the Reservation Brand Lift Study minimum.

🔎 Google is rolling out more Target ROAS (tROAS) insights for PMax and Standard Shopping campaigns. The new feature displays whether your actual return on ad spend is within the expected range, and the graph shows weekly ROAS averages including projected conversions. Google calculates the typical variation based on your campaign's historical data.

🤫 We hear that QR-code capabilities for Amazon Prime Video ads supposedly launched this week. This was previously only available for Amazon Streaming TV (STV). We’ve got access to a Beta test—reach out if you’re interested.

♥️ Useful list alert: 7 LinkedIn Ad settings and tactics you didn’t know you needed.” A couple of highlights:

• LinkedIn added a new Average Dwell Time metric, which measures the time users spend (dwell) on ads. You can check if it’s available for you on LinkedIn by setting your columns to Engagement. If you have access, average dwell time should appear as one of the columns.

• Hybrid CTV Brand Lift Tests are brand new and are English only, available only in the US and Canada. When a user is served a CTV impression, a survey measuring brand lift is delivered through web or mobile devices, either on the LinkedIn feed or through the LinkedIn Audience Network.

🐘 The Elephant In the Room: Our weekly office poll!

We’re not kidding: Google is really deleting your Universal Analytics data on Monday. So this week’s poll is simple:

🐦 Last week’s poll results: Are advertisers ready to return to Twitter/X?

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yep, worth trying out! 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Nope, still a mess!

Thanks for reading, we’ll be back in two weeks on July 11 — because The Thread will be OOO for the Fourth of July holiday 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.