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The Top Three 🏆

The industry’s most important stories today.

🥇 GOOGLE GREENLIGHTS DIGITAL FINGERPRINTING

Starting February 16, Google will let advertisers use digital fingerprinting for targeted ads, a method of collecting data from devices and browsers to track users. Google called this a move toward “less prescriptive” ad targeting, backed by privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) for safer data use.

This is a major U-turn for the company, which previously labelled fingerprinting as “wrong.” more

• 🚩 The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has already raised red flags, warning businesses to tread carefully with fingerprinting or face consequences.

• Because fingerprinting is such a widespread practice, enforcement is tricky. Google plans to invest in PETs to make data collection safer but hasn't said how exactly these tools will protect user privacy.

• A big W for marketers, a big L for consumer privacy: Still, for advertisers, this shift opens the door to better cross-device measurement, particularly for connected TV, where conversions often happen on other devices.

🥈 GOOGLE WARNS AGAINST AI-GENERATED CONTENT

Google’s John Mueller slammed the use of generative AI for creating blog posts for backlinks, saying it is “almost certainly against Google’s spam policies.” This warning came after a complaint about an SEO firm outsourcing link-building to a third party using AI which generated misleading, factually incorrect content. more

• Mueller responded, advising that the content should be deleted immediately, as it violated Google’s guidelines.

• 💡 This serves as a reminder: always be in the loop about what your SEO or marketing team is doing.

🥉 META’S VIP AD MODERATION FOR BIG SPENDERS

More money = less moderation: In 2023, Meta reportedly rolled out “guardrails” for high-spending advertisers, giving them special treatment by bypassing automatic content moderation and sending their content straight to human reviewers. The catch? Only advertisers dropping $1,500+ per day got this VIP pass. more

• Internal docs show a two-tiered system that benefits big spenders while leaving smaller advertisers stuck with automated moderation.

• The system helped protect Meta’s revenue streams but raises questions about fairness and transparency.

• The news comes as Mark Zuckerberg announced an end to third-party fact-checking and cuts back on automated moderation.

Today’s Other News ☑︎

Everything else that matters.

Advertising 📣

• Google Ads may finally be rolling out the ability to manage negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns, with some users reporting seeing the feature in their accounts. more

• Amazon Ads announced a new product called Amazon Retail Ad Service today, letting retailers use its tools to sell product ads on their e-commerce sites. Built on Amazon Web Services, the service places ads on search, browsing, and product pages across retailer websites. more

• Hyundai's new ad campaign, called "Add to Cart," shows that its cars are now available for purchase through Amazon. more

  • 🛒 The ad shows just how simple it is to add a $40K+ car to your cart.

Search & Commerce 🔍

• Reddit may be seeing a decline in Google rankings, with noticeable drops in search visibility since January 7th. Tools like Semrush and Sistrix show the shift, with user-generated content sites, including Reddit, experiencing volatility. more 

  • 😳 Google recently signed a deal to use Reddit content. Did the deal go south? Or is this just a glitch?

• Is live shopping finally going to work? Whatnot, the live shopping platform and marketplace, where users can sell trading cards, vinyl records, and other collectibles just raised $265M in Series E funding, bringing its valuation to nearly $5B. more

Social Media 📱

• Bluesky is reportedly eyeing a $700M valuation, with Bain Capital Ventures leading the funding round. The boost follows a surge in users, spurred by Musk’s Trump campaign, which pushed some X users to seek alternatives. more

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• TikTok has published its annual “What’s Next” report; the platform breaks down three big trends brands should watch for in 2025: more

  1. AI is a marketer's friend, not a foe

  2. Leverage influencers to reach niche communities

  3. Brands should treat life stages differently to resonate with consumers

• Meta is exploring a new partnership with eBay that would see eBay listings displayed on Facebook Marketplace. This move is reportedly to align with EU antitrust regulations on marketplace listings. more

• Targeting Japanese consumers? LinkedIn has a new guide that looks into marketing strategies, audience preferences, key dates, and ad formats for Japan. more

  • 🎯 Pretty niche, but worth checking out if you're looking to reach new audiences in this market.

• YouTube is testing another tool that lets creators turn long-form content into Shorts, details, however, are limited. If you’re part of the experiment, you'll see the option to ‘Create a video highlight’ in the video editor tool in YouTube Studio Desktop. more

Privacy & Legal ⚖️ 

• Apple is shutting down rumours that it let advertisers target users based on Siri recordings. The rumour came after Apple settled a $95M lawsuit over claims that Siri captured user conversations, potentially overheard by employees. However, the company says it never used Siri data for marketing. more 

• Project Liberty, the organization founded by billionaire Frank McCourt, has officially offered to buy TikTok's U.S. assets. The proposal aims to keep TikTok active in the U.S. without its current algorithm, avoiding China’s export control restrictions. The price remains undisclosed. more

AI 🤖 

• Microsoft is rolling back its Bing Image Creator upgrade after users complained about the DALL-E 3 model’s poor performance since the December update. The company confirmed it’s reverting to an older version of the model for now, but it could take weeks to fix. more

• Oh Lawrd, Google's AI Overview is at it again: This time it’s not telling people to eat rocks... it’s suggesting vibrators(!?) for kids' behavioural therapy. more

  • A Reddit user uncovered a bizarre search result for “magic wand pregnancy,” linking a well-known sex toy to “fun and engaging” parenting tips for behaviour changes. 🪄 Seriously.

    

Marketing Tool of the Day 🔨

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

Yesterday, I forgot to put a link to the Chrome extension that takes AI slop out of Google results — here it is.

As an apology, I present this bonus Chrome extension which replaces any mention of Elon Musk with a nickname like Space Karen.

- - -

Came across this tool this week called SheepScript.ai, which creates social media posts from your brand’s podcast or videos. One nice touch is it creates them separately for each platform, which honours their particular style, message length, etc.

I know we’re always scrambling to turn podcasts or videos into posts, and this seems like a solid solution that we’re certainly going to play with. A few other features:

• You can also generate full articles from your media, not just posts.

• No need to transcribe or edit. The AI handles that.

• It’s free to try for up to 10-minute videos

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