Are you ready for TikTok’s “Automate Creative” rollout?

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are blowing smoke:

↘️ META: $8.44 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $5.03 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $10.82 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🛒 Testing, testing: Walmart 🤝 Vizio

• LinkedIn unveils a new “First Impression” 🌹

• ⏰  Are you ready for TikTok’s “Automate Creative” rollout?

But first…

🧠 Why smart cities are courting content creators

American cities are rightfully proud of their arts and culture. But often, content creators feel left out of the mix. Frankly, we think that’s short-sighted. And it’s why we were so pleased to host the City of Boston’s first-ever Content Creator Summit, which brought 70 of Boston’s top digital voices—across fashion, food, music, comedy, civic engagement, and more—to the Gupta Media offices this week.

The response was overwhelmingly positive: creators made real-life connections with longtime mutuals, swapped stories, and shared the challenges of building a brand in a media ecosystem that hasn’t always been inviting. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu—infant daughter in her arms—told creators they aren’t just building audiences: they’re shaping how people feel, how communities form, and how the city sees itself. But don’t take our word for it—check out these recaps from the creators themselves . . . and from the guest of honor.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

👻 Snapchat: At this week’s IAB NewFronts, Snapchat announced new ad options, including:

• AI-powerered “Snapchat Smart Campaign Solutions,” which include target CPA bidding and ad set budget optimization within a campaign.

• Updates to Sponsored Snaps, which are promotions that serve in user inboxes. They’ve added “First Snap,” a first-impression, single-day takeover. They’re also starting to deliver Sponsored Snaps via the ads auction for web conversion and app campaigns. And advertisers will now be able to send a Sponsored Snap directly from a creator’s handle to Snapchatters in the Chat Feed.

🔗 LinkedIn, meanwhile, unveiled “First Impression Ads,” which will enable marketers to ensure that theirs is the first video promotion their target audience sees in-stream. 

• LinkedIn also announced “BrandLink,” an expansion of the program formerly known as Wire, which enabled brands to place video ads alongside premium publisher content on LinkedIn. This expansion will include top influencer content in those premium placements as well.

🧵 Threads: In what’s becoming a weekly feature, we continue to gather string on how Threads ads are rolling out. Here are a few more details: 

• Ads are deliverable only on mobile

• Threads ads don’t support Meta’s Placement Asset Customization or ASC Catalog at this time

• There’s no call-to-action button on ads, so we expect click-through rate (CTR) to be lower than other Meta platforms

🔎 Google is rolling out a new beta later this month: AI Max for Search campaigns. The feature leans into Google’s AI-powered targeting, expanding your keywords and auto-customizing your ad text to better match how people actually search. 

• According to Google, its data shows that advertisers who activate AI Max in Search campaigns “will typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS. For campaigns that are still mostly using exact and phrase keywords, the typical uplift is even higher at 27%.”

🏷️ In Ads Transparency news, a policy update: starting this week, Google will display the payer name—pulled from your payment profile—if it’s different from your verified advertiser name. Beginning in June, you’ll be able to manually update it in your verification settings. For new accounts, the payment profile name will show by default unless changed during verification.

🔥 HOT TIP: Trying to upweight spend to desktops or mobile devices in your PMax campaign? According to these Redditors, there’s a workaround: if the campaign is set to tROAS, you can set conversion value rules on devices.

⏰ TikTok is planning to fully roll out “Automate Creative” on May 13th. The Automate Creative feature sounds eerily similar to Meta’s Advantage+ creative enhancements. TikTok’s version automatically optimizes your uploaded creative with “quality, music, and size enhancements” in non-smart+ campaigns.

• ⚠️This is default toggle-on for Traffic, App, Lead, Web, and Brand Auction.

• 📴 If you turn it off three times in a row during campaign creation, the system will update it to be auto toggle-off. 

• 💡If you want to switch the toggle status, you need to create a new campaign —  it can't be edited after campaign creation.

🎨 You may recall Meta’s catchphrase “Creative Is the New Targeting,” which launched a new wave of best-practices around creative diversification. Now TikTok is jumping on that bandwagon as well with their new “Creative 2Q Framework,” a recommended approach that emphasizes both quantity and quality when it comes to ad creatives. The new guidance may sound derivative, but it does come with some specific recommendations, such as: including 5-7 creative assets in a performance campaign and at least 3 in a brand campaign, as well as refreshing assets at least every two weeks.

🌀 A quick refresher: TikTok’s Pulse Premiere and Seasonal Pulses come with hard six-figure minimums. But there are lower minimums for Pulse Category Lineups—pre-built packages featuring top-trending TikTok content (based on Pulse Score) across categories like Beauty & Personal Care, Sports & Recreation, and more. These lineups help brands align with specific content genres and benefit from contextual priming.

📺 Tubi has announced new ad formats, including Wrappers (homepage takeovers), Carousels (product showcases), Prime (placement next to Tubi's "most popular, brand-safe content”), silent looping video Pause ads, and more.

🛒 Walmart-owned smart TV manufacturer Vizio is testing streaming ads that use Walmart’s vast amount of shopping data (with a six-figure minimum).

🔊 CORRECTION: Spotify’s Brand Lift for Ads Manager will not be available self-serve in the platform, as previously thought. Instead, it’s available via managed service with the following caveats: 

• Campaigns need a minimum of 4 million impressions to run Brand Lift

• Campaigns must run for at least two weeks

• We can measure the following: Ad Recall, Awareness, Top-of-Mind Awareness, Intent, Message Association, Preference, Favorability, Attribution

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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