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Today's News

• Why Does Threads Like Engagement Bait? AI, Of Cour …

• Meta Ads Bug Changing Conversion Location

• Google Unveils 'Confidential Matching'

• Streaming Ads Frustrate Viewers

• Google Sued Over 'Gemini' Name

• Meta Starts Hiding ‘Made by AI’ labels

Why Does Threads Like Engagement Bait? AI, Of Course

A couple of nights ago, on my personal Threads account (@todmaffin), I posted the question:

Nobody replied. So I followed up a minute later with:

Still nothing. So I added about a dozen more questions:

Nobody ever replied to the posts (except for my friend Rob who liked all of them), but I was proud of them. It felt like an art piece.

None of this will make sense to you, unless you’ve spent a decent amount of time on the platform in the last month or two.

It’s become clear that simple, low-effort engagement bait — questions like “What one SEO tactic should I avoid?” — really gain traction.

A tech columnist at Business Insider tested this by posting a series of provocative questions on Threads to see how users would react.

It’s more the A than the Q.

The outcome? Her posts attracted a surge of comments, indicating that posting basic, simple questions like can significantly boost your visibility on the platform.

Or to be more precise, simple questions often attract a lot of comment replies — and that’s what Threads seems to prioritize: posts with lots of comments, compared to those with many likes or shares.

The AI connection

But there's another layer. Meta is working on its own AI chatbot and needs real human conversations to train it.

By encouraging posts that spark discussions, Meta gathers valuable data for its AI models. This might be why question-driven posts get an extra push in the algorithm.

So if you're trying to expand your brand’s reach on Threads, posing thoughtful questions could be your best bet.

Meta Ads Bug Changing Conversion Location

A good friend of this newsletter, Rok Hladnik of Flat Circle Ads, reports on social media today that there seems to be a nasty bug in the Meta ads manager.

He says the bug is changing ad sets’ Conversion locations from whatever you’ve set, like Website, and forcing it to Messaging Apps instead.

He says this is happening to newly created ad sets and old ones.

Meta’s (unreliable) status page reports A-OK

At our deadline, Meta’s status update page was reporting that everything was fine, though take that page with a grain of salt since it’s frequently either behind the time or goes unaware that bugs are happening.

Either way, might be a good idea to check your campaigns to make this this hasn’t happened to you.

Bugs a-plenty

For what it’s worth, people do complain about bugs alot on the big platforms, but in the last day, we have definitely noticed an uptick in people reporting on social about new bugs they’re finding in Meta’s ad manager.

We reached out to Meta for comment. They tend to not reply to specific questions about their ad platform, but we’ll update if there’s any big news.

Google Unveils 'Confidential Matching'

While Google's legal battle with the U.S. government grabs headlines, the company continues to launch new tools.

This week, Google Ads introduced "confidential matching” for your uploaded first-party data.

What is confidential matching?

Google says this tool uses a "Trusted Execution Environments" (TEE) — essentially, better data protection for uploaded customer lists.

It says this should make the data less likely to be vulnerable to hacks. (Which, my first thought was — wait, this stuff wasn’t protected before? No, it was, but this is stronger.)

E2E for customer lists

Google says it’s sort of like end-to-end encryption in that it isolates business information during processing so that no one—including Google—can access the data. And, this new system is now turned on by default.

Google also offers "attestation," meaning third-party audits verify that data is processed according to regulations.

Why does it matter?

Advertisers do worry about data leaks when uploading valuable customer data. With stricter regulations on consumer information, data security is a growing concern.

Some media agencies told Digiday, which reported on this today, that confidential matching might encourage more ad spending from cautious marketers, especially “within tightly regulated industries, such as the finance or pharmaceutical sectors.”

Streaming Ads Frustrate Viewers

A new study by Freewheel [PDF] reveals that issues like latency and poor ad placement are annoying viewers and impacting advertisers on streaming platforms.

Latency and ad breaks

Freewheel surveyed 420 participants about different ad experiences: no ads, latency issues, and unnatural ad breaks.

Nearly 80% found delayed ad load times annoying, affecting how they perceived the program, ads, and brands. Shows without latency were rated 8% higher, and ads and brands saw quality boosts.

Unnatural ad breaks bothered 71% of viewers, making ads seem more intrusive and reducing brand recall by 14%. Advertisers are paying the same but getting less impact.

Ads don't always hurt enjoyment

Interestingly, ads didn't reduce program enjoyment. Viewers rated shows with and without ads equally at 6.3 out of 7.

The ad slate problem

Viewers were frustrated by ad slates—blank screens saying "we'll be right back" when ads fail to load. Up to 25% of ad slots on FAST channels go unfilled due to these issues.

Ads near slates were rated lower, hurting brand perception. Programs without slates saw a 31% increase in joy, measured by facial coding.

Recommendations

Freewheel suggests optimizing supply paths and connecting directly with publishers to reduce slates and latency. Buying ad space from suppliers with better technology can speed up ad delivery.

Study by Freewheel, analyzing reactions of 420 participants to various ad experiences, including no ads, latency issues, and unnatural ad breaks.

Google Sued Over 'Gemini' Name

Gemini Data, an enterprise AI platform provider, has sued Google for using the name "Gemini" for its AI services.

Earlier this year, Google rebranded its generative AI from "Bard" to "Gemini," after introducing the Gemini model family. Gemini Data claims that Google did this despite knowing that "Gemini" was already their registered trademark.

Trademark troubles

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) doesn't allow companies in the same industry to use the same name if it might confuse consumers.

Google tried to trademark "Gemini" but was provisionally denied. The USPTO said the name was too similar to existing trademarks like Gemini Data's.

After the refusal, Gemini Data alleges that Google secretly tried to buy the rights to the name. They were contacted by an "anonymous" party about acquiring the "Gemini" brand, which they suspect was acting on Google's behalf.

A history of conflicts

Interestingly, if you ask Google's Gemini chatbot about the trademark issue, it acknowledges the conflict.

This isn't the first time Google has faced such issues. Back in 2009, they named their programming language "Go," even though there was already a language called "Go!"

And Google isn't alone in this. Meta recently settled a trademark lawsuit after changing its name from Facebook, showing that big tech companies often tread on existing trademarks.

Meta Starts Hiding ‘Made by AI’ labels

Meta is updating how it marks content on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads that has been edited or created with generative AI — and by updating, I mean hiding.

Instead of placing the "AI Info" tag directly under a user's name, as in the past, the label will now appear under a menu at the top-right corner of images and videos.

Users will have to tap this menu to see if AI was used.

Creators hated the old way

This change follows complaints from creators and photographers who said their real photos were incorrectly tagged as AI-generated.

Previously, Meta applied the "AI Info" tag to all AI-related content, whether it was slightly edited using tools like Photoshop or entirely generated from a prompt.

The company says the update aims to "better reflect the extent of AI used" across images and videos on its platforms.

The arms race continues

As AI editing tools become more advanced, distinguishing between real and altered images could become more challenging. Meta hasn't disclosed which detection systems it uses but mentioned industry signals like Adobe's Content Credentials metadata.

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