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The Top Three 🏆

The industry’s most important stories today.

🥇 IS YOUR AD DATA PLAYING YOU?

A new Journal of Marketing study has uncovered a big flaw in A-B testing on digital ad platforms, revealing that the data you rely on might be misleading.

When you run an A-B test, you're trying to see which ad performs better. But what's really happening, according to the study's researchers is a phenomenon called “divergent delivery." This occurs when platforms like Meta and Google use their targeting algorithms to show different ads to different user groups. The platform isn't splitting your audience 50/50, instead, it's choosing which users see which ad. more

• The “winning” ad might not actually be better, it just reached the audience most likely to engage with it.

• Ad performance could be influenced by the audience mix, not the creative.

• 🎯 If you’re making big decisions based on these tests, it may be worth reading the paper.

🥈 META ABANDONS FACT-CHECKING

Meta’s enTrumpification begins: Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers for a user-driven approach called Community Notes, inspired by X/Twitter’s version. The feature, rolling out in the U.S. over the next couple of months, will replace full-screen warnings with a small label indicating additional info on posts. more

• Meta is also lifting restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity, and will begin reintroducing political content into users' feeds.

• Meta will still rely on automated moderation for serious violations like terrorism, fraud, and abuse.

• But for less severe infractions [ed: like, you know, hate speech], they’ll depend on community reports.

• 🧯 Without third-party checks, there’s potential for unchecked misinformation to spread, putting brand safety at risk.

🥉 GETTY IMAGES 🤝 SHUTTERSTOCK

Getty Images and Shutterstock have agreed to merge, creating a $3.7 billion visual content powerhouse. The deal highlights the growing demand for images from content creators and platforms. more

• Getty CEO Craig Peters will lead the combined company.

• The companies estimate synergies between $150M-$200M.

• The merger is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Google for Marketing: In Depth

with our columnist Jyll Saskin Gales

Jyll Saskin Gales joins me today to discuss the evolving landscape of AI in marketing, particularly focusing on Google's Gemini and its implications for advertisers.

We chatted about the user experience of Gemini and its capabilities in content creation.

We also touched on alternative search engines like Kagi and their potential impact on the market.

Today’s Other News ☑︎

Everything else that matters.

Advertising 📣

• Two ad platforms announced new retail media partnerships today. more

  1. Albertsons Media Collective, the retail arm of the grocery company, teamed with TransUnion to launch an API, letting advertisers integrate campaign data with TruAudience for cross-retailer performance comparison.

  2. DoorDash has teamed up with The Trade Desk to integrate its data for targeted, measurable campaigns across multiple channels.

• Disney has launched an ad certification for live entertainment and sports, offering biddable deals for sports through its ad server with certified partners. Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo DSP are the first demand-side platforms certified, while Magnite is the exclusive supply-side partner. more

• Omnicom has partnered with Amazon Ads and its Flywheel product, unlocking five years of purchase data through Amazon's Marketing Cloud clean-room solution, expanding beyond the current 13 months of data. The deal gives Omnicom Media Group and Flywheel first-to-market access in the U.S. to the expanded data, with plans for a global rollout. more

Search 🔍

• New year, new data: Google now lets you export 24-hour hourly data from the performance report in Search Console, so now you can export data on an hourly basis. more

Social Media 📱

• Instagram, fueled by Reels, is set to overtake Facebook as the top U.S. social ad platform in 2025, with ad revenues projected to rise 16% year-over-year to $37B. eMarketer estimates that more than 25% of Instagram’s ad revenue will come from Reels and ad formats other than Feed and Stories this year. more

• TikTok has a new report about the app's growing value as a product discovery and shopping tool, showing how U.S. users are increasingly relying on it for making purchases. That'll stop the ban, right??? more

  • 2 in 3 shoppers say TikTok makes them feel connected to the story behind the brands and products.

  • Shoppers on TikTok are more likely to agree it excels in discovery and authenticity, driving purchases compared to other platforms.

• Should you hop on the AR bandwagon to promote your products? Snapchat's new report says AR outperforms video campaigns in boosting user attention and driving targeted outcomes. It also leads to slower, more intentional decision-making. more

  • 🎯 Keep in mind, these results come from Snap’s own study—so take that for what you will.

Commerce 🛒 

• U.S. holiday retail sales hit $282 billion, up 4%, while global sales soared to $1.2 trillion, a 3% rise. Mobile and social commerce powered a holiday sales surge that outpaced predictions. more

  • 🙏 Thank you, robot overlords: AI boosted the shopping experience with product recommendations, targeted offers, and personalized customer order support, influencing 20% ($229 billion) of online holiday orders.

Trends & Insights 💻️ 

• Search Engine Journal predicts the marketing trends set to shape the industry in 2025. more

  • Agentic LLM Models Hit 100M Users: AI agents will break through 100M users, automating tasks like purchases.

  • More AI Victims: AI will disrupt entire industries, eroding margins and leaving slow-moving companies behind.

  • AI Automation Dominates Marketing Teams: AI tools will automate marketing workflows, leading to smaller teams.

Security Breach 🔒️ 

• Hackers claim to have breached Gravy Analytics, the parent company of Venntel, which has sold large amounts of smartphone location data to the U.S. government. The hackers said they have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data, including customer lists, industry insights, and precise smartphone location tracking, and are threatening to release it publicly. more

Marketing Tool of the Day 🔨

Cool stuff we found on the web (not a paid placement)

We all know that pop-ups on web sites—despite bothering users—do, in fact, work.

For our clients’ sites, we’ve used Hello Bar [not an affiliate link] for years.

It’s worked with every site, every framework, and every theme. Plus, it’s pretty robust in terms of marketing functions: built-in A/B testing, connections to Shopify and 30 other platforms, and “smart” triggers (like popping up when someone’s about to leave your site).

They claim up to 83% higher conversion rates. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that, but I have absolutely noticed an uplift whenever we put it on.

Today’s Trivia Question 🧠

Tap your guess and you could win!

Spotted on Social 🔍

The social web’s best posts in the last 24 hours.

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