Big Budgets, Small Wins

Today's News

• Big Budgets Chasing Small Wins

• Pinterest Updates Performance+ Ad Products

• Meta Lures Influencers to Cash In on Facebook

• Threads Adds 10 Minutes to the Space-Time Continuu …

• X’s Bold Move is to… Remove Bold

Big Budgets Chasing Small Wins

Brands are going all-in on budget-friendly products to grab younger audiences, and social platforms are cashing in.

According to a new eMarketer report today, most industries diving into social advertising are directing their ad dollars toward younger audiences by pushing affordable products.

Industries are flocking to social platforms where their audience spends most of their time, prompting the platforms to expand their offerings of direct-response shopping, game install ads, and branding video formats.

Entertainment’s social play

The media and entertainment industry is still feeling the impact of ongoing strikes, leading to cuts in high-cost media buys like TV. However, social media has proven a cost-effective alternative for driving game installs and building brand awareness through video ads.

Retail and CPG lead the charge

Retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) dominate social ad spending, accounting for nearly half of the total spend this year — retail accounts for 30% and CPG nearly 20%.

• Fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu are leading the charge, pushing other retailers to up their social media ad budgets.

• Meanwhile, consumer packaged goods companies are heavily investing in social ads to fend off competition from direct-to-consumer brands and white-label players.

Pinterest Updates Performance+ Ad Products

Pinterest rolled out its new Pinterest Performance+ suite yesterday, featuring a range of new AI tools for advertisers.

GenAI creative tools

Some of the new tools feature generative AI capabilities. For example, a product image with a plain background can be enhanced with relevant “lifestyle” imagery that places the product shot in context.

Enhanced bidding for ROAS

Pinterest Performance+ also offers a new bidding option that goes beyond traditional click and conversion optimization. Advertisers can now target shoppers using Pinterest's predictive analytics, which analyzes thousands of signals to assess the potential value of a conversion in real time.

Personalized promotions

Pinterest also enhanced its Search and Home Feeds, with personalized, branded shopping recommendations.

• Personalized promotions serve shoppers promotions and sales based on what they’ve searched and pinned.

• While the Deals ads module makes ads more visible to consumers in their Home Feeds.

Meta Lures Influencers to Cash In on Facebook

Meta is looking to lure more influencers to Facebook by making it easier for them to “get that bag.”

The company launched its new Facebook Content Monetization beta today, which merges its three existing programs—In-stream ads, Ads on Reels, and the Performance bonus—into a single offering that pays creators for Reels, longer videos, photos, and text posts.

With Facebook Content Monetization, creators need to join just one program, compared to the previous model, which required multiple sign-up processes for different programs.

Same payout model

The payout model remains unchanged, still based on performance. Creators can expect to earn from content that performs well, just as they did with the previous programs.

Who can join?

Meta is inviting one million existing creators to the beta this week, with more invitations to follow. Open enrolment is set for sometime next year.

Threads Adds 10 Minutes to the Space-Time Continuum

Threads is giving brands and users some nice upgrades, including more time to edit posts.

• You now have 15 minutes to edit your posts, up from the previous five-minute limit.

• If you have fediverse sharing enabled, your post won’t appear on Mastodon and other platforms until the 15 minutes have passed.

• Threads will also now let you see who follows you and likes your posts from other fediverse servers like Mastodon, making it easier to keep track of new followers and engagement.

Expanded API

The platform is also expanding its API, which was released in June for developers building third-party integrations and apps.

• Now, when users make posts via the API, Threads can automatically share them with the wider fediverse.

• The update also makes it easier to attach links to posts, introduces real-time notifications for replies, and lets users add alt text to pictures and videos.

X’s Bold Move is to… Remove Bold

Meanwhile, on X, Elon Musk has made the decision to ban... checks notes... bold and italic fonts.

In his own words:

Remember, bold and italics text is one of the benefits to X’s paid upgrade.

The investment firm Fidelity says X — which was valued at $44 billion when Musk acquired it — is now worth less than $9.5 billion.

A recent international survey by Kantar found that 26% of marketers plan to decrease their spending on X next year, the sharpest decline in advertiser spending on a major global digital platform.

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