Who needs Super Bowl TV ads, anyway?

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are rooting against a three-peat:

↘️ META: $7.63 CPM | ↗️ TIKTOK: $3.70 CPM | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $9.66 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 🏈 It’s not too late for TikTok Super Bowl ads 

• Criteo’s new AI ads are 🔥 to GO!

• 👽 5 reasons Reddit ads will be even better in 2025 

But first…

🏈 Who needs Super Bowl TV ads, anyway?

The going rate for a 30-second Super Bowl ad started in the $7 million range this year but eventually topped $8 million—and sold out well in advance. Is it worth it? Digiday started crunching the numbers—using Gupta Media’s data—to see what that kind of money would buy you in the addressable universe. Here’s what they came up with: 

• 1.35 billion TikTok impressions

• 1.6 billion Instagram Reels impressions

• 214 million impressions on Amazon Prime Video

• 10 million clicks on Walmart Connect

• 700 million impressions on Spotify

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

⏰ TikTok: And speaking of the Super Bowl, it’s not too late to get in the game on TikTok. They’ve just rolled out a Super placement among a few other upcoming seasonal offerings: 

• 🏈 Super Bowl Premium Placement: Your ad will be presented alongside the NFL's verified TikTok account, featuring Super Bowl content. Minimum spends apply, with a flat-rate CPM.

• 💘 Valentines Day Top Feed: Be the first in-feed ad on users' “For You” page. And the Top Feed CPMs we’ve seen are unusually efficient in the week leading up to V-Day. 

• 🏀 Men's March Madness Premium Placement: Your ad will be presented alongside Turner Sports accounts, featuring Men's March Madness content. Same deal as the Super Bowl: minimums apply, flat-rate pricing.

🕚 15-second focused view is back! One year ago, TikTok put restrictions on which advertisers could access this option. Now, everyone can optimize for users that are more likely to watch videos for at least 15 seconds or engage with your videos.

🚨 Watch out for this confusing name change: TikTok Video Shopping Ads (VSAs) have been renamed to Catalog Ads only within the Product Sales objective. VSAs under TikTok Shop are still known as Video Shopping Ads.

⌨️ Keyword expansion for TikTok Product Shopping Ads (PSAs) and VSAs is now widely available. Keyword expansion lets advertisers add relevant keywords, opening up their ads to show within search results.

🔎 Google is testing AI-generated backgrounds for Shopping Ad product listings. Advertisers can opt out of the test if they prefer to maintain complete control over their product imagery. The system will: 

• Generate contextual background scenes for existing product images.

• Maintain the original product appearance without alterations.

• Require human review and approval before ads go live.

🔁 Criteo is joining the ranks of platforms offering AI-driven ad products. As performance media gets more complicated, platforms are at pains to simplify.

The commerce media platform rolled out a new campaign type called GO!, which promises to “empower marketers to launch high-performing campaigns with just a few clicks—no expertise required.”

❗Experienced media managers already know our caveat with AI-powered black boxes: YMMV. Watch Criteo’s on-demand webinar to learn more.

👽 Reddit has been a bright spot in our campaigns over the past few months, so we’re excited to see them share a roadmap for 2025 improvements to their ad products and platform. Here’s the TL;DR:

• 💰 Better performance, less work. Say hello to Campaign Budget Optimization (H1 ‘25) and Target CPA Bidding, so your budget stretches further while Reddit’s AI does the heavy lifting. Plus, View-Through Optimization is coming to catch those indirect conversions you’d otherwise miss.

• 🛍 Shop ‘til you drop. Reddit is supercharging Dynamic Product Ads, letting you track up to 5 million SKUs. Plus, Reddit Conversion Lift will help you measure whether those ads are actually working.

• 🎥 More video, more fun. Looping video, animated Conversation Ads, and video in Carousels (H1-H2 ‘25) are all rolling out.

• 👀 Takeovers getting a glow-up. Expect video support in all Takeover placements, a brand-new hero spot for Category Takeovers, and AMA Ads (H1 ‘25) to drive engagement for big launches and events.

• 📈 Ad setup, easier than ever. Campaign Import (H1 ‘25) lets you bring in your existing campaigns from other platforms, while the new Asset Library organizes all your ad creatives in one place.

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

Returning to our top item, which would you rather?

📊 Last edition’s poll results: AI choose your fighter: Who you got? 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ChatGPT 

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ DeepSeek 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Gemini

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Grok

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ LLaMa

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.