TikTok Gets Behind the Music

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are six feet high and rising:

↘️ YOUTUBE: $4.85 CPM |  ↘️ META: $7.76 CPM | ↘️ TIKTOK: $4.03 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🚀 YouTube gets a boost

• TikTok calls the cops on AI

• Why we’re not hitting pause ⏸️ on Prime Video’s new ads

But first…

🎵 TikTok Gets Behind The Music

Now that relations between music labels and TikTok seem to be on the mend, the platform is rolling out a new Artist Account, which comes with a suite of tools aimed at helping “to forge a closer relationship between artist and fan on TikTok.” Any performer who has uploaded at least four songs to the platform can get an “Artist” tag that displays just below their username, and a Music tab on the profile page “will curate your catalog for fans to easily access and discover your music on TikTok.” A “New Release” tool—debuted by BTS earlier this year—helps call out new music up to 30 days after a release (and up to 14 days before, for pre-saves). And, in its own version of the old MTV Behind the Music or VH1’s Storytellers, TikTok is rolling out a “Behind the Song” feature that “enables artists to share the stories and inspirations behind their songs, fostering a deeper connection with fans.” Check out full details on the new Artist Account features from TikTok. 

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

🚀 YouTube has rolled out a way for creators to “boost” their YouTube videos directly in YouTube Studio. Similarly to boosting options on other platforms, this new YouTube workflow will have a simplified offering of objectives, formats, and targeting relative to Google Ads. Note: to qualify for the boost, accounts must have over 1000 subscribers and meet conditions for YouTube’s advanced features.

🚨 TikTok is requiring advertisers to use a disclosure if an advertisement “is completely AI-generated or significantly modified by AI.” For now, TikTok is asking advertisers to self-police their use of AI-generated content by providing a toggle switch that, when used, will trigger a label on the ad that says “advertiser labeled as AI-generated.” The platform says it’s also acceptable to include “another clear form of disclosure, like a caption or sticker on the content.”

That’s cool and all, but y’know what our media teams are more excited about? TikTok has improved their Attribution Analytics reporting within the Analytics dropdown to give us more insights into conversion data. 🙏

💡 Closing the attribution loop between CTV and D2C is one of the holy grails of performance marketing. Are we getting closer?

⏸️ Amazon's Prime Video will soon start showing shoppable ads with “add to cart” and “learn more” options when viewers press pause on the shows they’re watching. As Marketing Brew points out, these new units highlight Amazon’s advantage over platforms like Netflix and Hulu, which don’t directly own marketplaces to connect viewers to products. In addition to this new format, called interactive pause ads, Amazon is also planning carousel ads, where consumers can browse different items for sale during ad breaks, along with brand trivia ads. These are scheduled to be available to all advertisers in Q3/Q4.

🎬  Roku has rolled out Action Ads under its self-serve ad platform. These interactive CTV ads allow you to add a call-to-action overlay (such as “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up”) to your video creative serving on The Roku Channel. Viewers who click “OK” on the ads with their Roku remotes will get a text message with more info.

🔍 Google: Demand Gen ads will now allow you to set an ad format preference of In-stream, In-feed, or Shorts for video ads. Think of this like Meta’s placement asset customization. If you don’t select at least one video for each possible format, your video may serve in all formats.

Shopping Ads can now opt in to “conversion annotations” via Merchant Center. This feature helps establish social proof through notes like “best selling”, “100+ shopped here recently,” and more. Google’s helpful instructions on how to enable these annotations are here.

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

It’s all anyone could talk about after Google’s annual I/O developer conference this week. Wired declared: “It’s the End of Google Search As We Know It.” The reason? Simple: Google announced that it doubling down on AI-summarized search results — which it calls “AI Overviews” — and rolling out the feature to all U.S. users this week. As the Wall Street Journal noted: “The rollout will be watched closely for how it affects Google’s hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising sales and its relationship with online publishers that rely on the search engine for valuable traffic.”

The industry has known this was coming for some time: Back in March, experts told Ad Age that Google’s AI could slash organic search traffic by somewhere between 20% and 60%. 

Is SEO really dead? Are we all going to end up searching on TikTok instead? Will the death of “organic” search — oh, and also cookies, eventually — drive more brands to pay for search traffic? We noted one section of the Wired recap, which suggests that branded search is one of the few areas that may be spared from AI summaries:

What do you think: Is Google about to kill SEO? Place your bets below, we’ll share the results next week.

 🏆 Pick of the Week: Are you ready for…Bundle-palooza?

🦚 Unbundled from traditional cable, premium streamers are suddenly looking to re-bundle themselves again. Peacock, the Comcast-owned streaming service, will soon be bundled with Apple TV+ and Netflix in a package for Comcast customers. The bundle, called StreamSaver, will roll out later this month, and it “will come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today,” according to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. And last week, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery said Disney+, Hulu, and Max would be bundled together this summer, with both an ad-supported version and an ad-free version. Earlier this year, WBD, Disney-owned ESPN, and Fox announced that they were working on a joint streaming sports service slated to roll out this fall.

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next Thursday 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.