The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 ADAPTING TO AI SEARCH

As search habits shift, advertisers face new challenges in reaching consumers. Google still owns 89% of the search market, but its grip is slipping as user behaviour changes. Digiday has a great piece up today about how brands are adapting to this AI-driven search landscape.

AI tools like Google’s Gemini are replacing traditional search results with AI overviews, meaning fewer clicks to websites. Meanwhile, younger audiences are ditching Google in favour of social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for their info.

For some marketers, this means rethinking SEO strategies and reallocating paid search budgets:

• Media buyers are shifting ad spend to platforms like Reddit and TikTok.

• SEO strategies are being adjusted to align with AI-driven search behaviors.

🥈 SUPER BOWL AD RECALL TAKES A HIT

🏈 Super Bowl = Super Forgettable: The blowout victory by the Philadelphia Eagles in this year’s Super Bowl didn’t just crush the competition… it also tanked ad recall. Preliminary data shows a drop in ad recall, with average unaided brand awareness declining from 10% in 2024 to 8.5% this year. Attribution scores, or the ability to name a brand based on its ad, dropped even more. more

• While some brands saw slight increases, others like Dunkin’ took a major hit, from 20% in 2024 to 9.5% this year.

• Several factors could be at play, but marketing expert Rick Miller pins the blame on the lopsided game: "A bad game can be bad for brands."

🥉 META & X GIVE NAZI-THEMED ADS THE GREEN LIGHT

Meta and X approved AI-generated ads referencing Nazi war crimes ahead of Germany’s federal elections, according to new research from the non-profit organization Ekō. The ads called for the gassing of immigrants in concentration camps and the burning of synagogues. more

• The watchdog submitted 10 extremist ads filled with hate speech to both platforms last week:

  • Meta approved 5 within 12 hours.

  • X approved all 10 ads immediately.

• A Meta spokesperson said the ads violated its policies and were disabled before publication, while X did not respond to requests for comment.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• Google Ads is making changes to offline conversion quality in Smart and PMax campaigns with Store Goals. Starting February 28, the platform will prioritize locally engaged users on high-local-intent channels like Search and Maps. Google says this shift may reduce conversion volume but increase cost-per-conversion. more

• Several updates are coming soon to Display & Video 360's brand suitability features:

  • "Brand safety" on DV360 and "Category exclusions" on YouTube will be renamed "Brand suitability."

  • Most controls will move to the advertiser level, with exceptions for third-party verification and keyword exclusions.

  • Unified controls will apply across platforms, with new bypass controls for non-programmatic guaranteed deals. more

• 💸 Lookin' to win those ad dollars back: X is jumping on the AI ad train with some new tools. more

  • Prefill with Grok: brands can input their website URL, and Grok will generate ad copy, imagery, and a CTA headline. You can edit the copy or swap out the image.

  • Analyze Campaign with Grok: Grok can analyze campaign performance and provide insights.

• 📉”A buyers market”: Amazon’s influence is driving streaming ad costs down, with advertisers currently paying around $40 per 1,000 viewers on Prime Video, comparable to Netflix. Digiday reports that since Prime launched ads last January, it has reshaped the ad market by offering cheaper inventory, forcing competitors to lower prices. more

Ad Tech 💻️ 

• 👀 More ad impressions coming?: Google has officially started removing Manifest V2-based extensions in Chrome, including disabling popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin. The change, part of the shift to Manifest V3, has been in the works for months. more

Social Media 📱

• A new study reveals most “Community notes” never get displayed on X. Despite the higher trust in community notes citing fact checks, 85% of notes remain invisible to users, with only 8% of proposed notes making it to public view. more

  • 😡 Agreeing is hard: The study notes the low visibility rate is because Community Notes requires consensus among users with differing political views before it is shown, often leaving notes hidden due to differing opinions.

• DMs 🤝 to-do lists: Instagram is testing letting users create tasks directly from messages using Meta AI. The ‘Create Task’ prompt within its DM options lets users generate actions based on the content of a message. more 

Commerce 🛒 

• 💰️ Customer loyalty has a price... and it's a coupon: Nearly half of consumers would switch retailers for a better deal. more

  • Why shoppers switch: Lower prices (65%) and coupons/offers (45%).

  • Top offers: BOGO (70%) and markdowns (65%).

  • Preferred deal delivery: Email (60%) and snail mail (50%).

• 🪣 A drop in the big blue bucket: Walmart’s ad business grew 30% globally in Q4, with Walmart Connect rising 25% in the U.S., bringing it to $4.5 billion for the year, a 27% YoY increase. Despite this growth, it remains a small portion of the retailer’s total revenue of $681 billion, which rose 5% YoY. more

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