Here’s what Google’s new AI Mode search looks like

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are electric:

↗️ META: $8.45 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $3.80 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $10.19 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• ♾️ Meta just added business ratings—will they show up on ads? 

• Is Roblox + Google Ads Manager a … game changer? 🥸

• ⏰ Poll: Who’s going to end up owning TikTok?

But first…

🔎 Here’s what Google’s new AI Mode search looks like 

Google is now testing an entirely new paradigm called AI Mode in Google Search. This isn’t just AI Overviews: the new beta creates a search experience that’s similar to using ChatGPT but with Google’s AI response on the left of the SERP,  and something approximating “traditional” search results on the right.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta has begun to ask users to rate and review their purchase experience after converting from an ad. Once a brand’s Page has generated enough reviews to make a “meaningful rating score,” the reviews will become publicly visible—and “will be visible within the ads experience.” Community managers: start your engines. 🏁

✂️ Just in time for the next TikTok deadline, you say? Edits—which is essentially Instagram’s version of CapCut—should be available for free within the next two weeks.

🔎 Google’s new Bidding Exploration beta is a new back-end optimization system that provides Smart Bidding with more flexibility. The goal: to identify new pockets of conversion volume by looking at a ton of low traffic queries that aren’t currently covered by Smart Bidding. To be eligible for the beta, campaigns must be:

• Search campaigns, using a target return on advertising (tROAS) bid strategy.

• NOT Limited by Budget. Bidding Exploration will be deactivated if the budget becomes limited. Exploration may result in increased campaign spend, so you’ll want to monitor to ensure it remains uncapped.

• Leveraging some degree of expanded targeting (i.e., broad match and/or Dynamic Search Ads).

⏰ TikTok has a new creative bulk-editing alpha test that lets you bulk-edit single video, single image, and carousel non-spark ads—as well as spark ads. It’s available by allowlist for the following objectives: traffic, app promotion, lead generation, website conversions, auction reach, and video views.

🍸 Cheers! TikTok has also updated its alcohol policy as of today:

• Minimum age-targeting requirement: 25+ (18+ in Puerto Rico)

• No alcohol allowed in UGC content, including spark ads

• Alcohol advertisers must be allowlisted

• Landing pages cannot be a promotion page or a single product page, but they can feature or mention promotions/discounts—provided they do not specify the exact amount or value. (Age verification pages do not count as landing pages; it’s the page that appears afterward.)

🎠 The TikTok carousel ads format is now available for the auction reach objective.

🧠 You can now preview TikTok’s Smart+ ads on your phone.

• Previews will be generated using one randomly-selected text from the campaign. You can’t choose which text it selects.

• Unlike Manual Campaigns, where preview is available in Campaign View, Smart+ Preview is accessible through the “View Data” section.

• Smart+ ad review process typically takes several hours longer than Manual.

🧱 Roblox is introducing rewarded video ads up to 30 seconds long. In addition, Roblox and Google announced a strategic partnership between Roblox and Ad Manager—a significant expansion of Google’s immersive ads offerings.

🔊Spotify has launched a new Website Traffic objective in open beta this week. If brands have the Spotify Pixel installed, it lets them optimize to find people most likely to view their website. 

👽 Reddit announced that all advertisers are now eligible to serve ads between comments on conversation pages when running conversation ads.

💸 Media agencies (including, uh, us) are reporting that Amazon DSP platform reps have been offering compelling incentives to woo them away from competing programmatic power houses like the Trade Desk and Google’s DV360.

🐘 The Elephant In The Room: Our weekly poll!

With the next ☠️ TikTok Death Watch ☠️ deadline looming this weekend, let’s all take a guess at who’ll end up “owning” the most radioactive social media app in the world. To recap: President Donald Trump met on Wednesday to hear proposals gathered by Vice President J.D. Vance. As we predicted months ago, the President also told reporters he expects to tie Chinese concessions on TikTok to global trade in the form of tariffs announced this week.

Instead of news on a potential deal or an extension on the ban, we got a slew of updates on last-minute entries into the TikTok sweepstakes—including an apparently doomed bid by Amazon to acquire the app in full, some savvy PR “proposals” by the likes of OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely, and a new bid by mobile-gaming-ad platform AppLovin that’s being financed by casino mogul Steve Wynn. 

Meanwhile, Oracle’s bid—by all accounts the frontrunner—has ballooned into a Wu-Tang Clan of investors including BlackRock and unnamed others. 

The elephant in the room? Most reports indicate that the deal under consideration is illegal, because ByteDance will maintain some connection to the algorithm—a detail explicitly outlawed in the ban passed by Congress and confirmed by the Supreme Court.  

Choose your fighter: In this game of Succession…

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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