The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 LESS ISN’T MORE (IN PRICING)

💰️ Simple sells… for less: When it comes to pricing, making your product more complex can pay off. New research shows that customers tend to view more intricate products as higher value and are willing to pay almost 15% more for them. more

• Consumers associate complexity with quality, assuming that more time and effort went into creating a higher-end product, according to the study’s researchers.

• This bias leads to undervaluing simpler designs, as we assume "more" is more expensive than "less."

• Visual complexity is a key factor when judging products.

🥈 WHY AGENCY REVIEWS ARE GOING SILENT AF

🤫 No press, no problem: Big brands are making agency reviews a quiet affair. In an era where discretion rules, Digiday has a great piece up today about how advertisers are ditching the spectacle of public requests for proposals in favour of behind-the-scenes deals: no press, no fanfare... just quiet deals behind closed doors.

Take Coca-Cola $KO ( ▼ 1.04% ) , for example: Its North American media review unfolded with little hype. Publicis Media seems poised to win, and only after that did the news break. Now, Coca-Cola is quietly ironing out the transition from GroupM.

• This trend reflects a bigger shift in the way CMOs handle agency relationships.

• While not all pitches will follow suit, there's a growing demand for confidentiality.

• As one exec put it, CMOs are becoming more attuned to the attention their decisions attract, avoiding unwanted scrutiny from the press, competitors, and stakeholders.

🥉 WHEN TO HIT “POST”

Wondering when to post on social? Hootsuite has a new report breaking down the best times to post for each platform in 2025.

Of course, the best time to post depends on several factors like your business type, target audience, region, and the content you’re sharing. But overall, 8:00 AM on Wednesdays is the sweet spot for social media. more

• Facebook: 4 AM to 6 AM on Saturdays.

• Instagram: 4 AM to 6 AM on Wednesdays.

• LinkedIn: 12 AM to 6 AM on Fridays.

• TikTok: 11 AM on Saturdays.

• Threads: 8:00 AM on Tuesdays.

• Pinterest: 12:00 PM on Fridays.

• X: 5 AM to 6 AM on Mondays.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• 🤖 AdGPT?: OpenAI is hinting at adding ads to its AI products. The company's CFO told media the platform is exploring advertising as a potential revenue stream, though later clarified there are no immediate plans to implement it. Despite this, OpenAI is still hiring ad pros, including the former Google Search ad VP, suggesting ads might be coming soon. more

• Google $GOOGL ( ▲ 0.55% ) notified advertisers yesterday of a Tag Manager update starting April 10th, requiring Google Ads and Floodlight tags to load a Google tag before sending events. While the tech giant calls it a "small change" with no impact on performance, many advertisers are skeptical. more

  • Some question the timing, speculating it could be a workaround for Enhanced Conversions. Others wonder if may be tied to regulatory pressures, including the forced sale of Chrome.

• Google is testing a new shopping ad format that expands product listings available within a store. This format displays products with larger images and detailed info and lets users swipe through a carousel of items. While we've seen similar formats, this version is more expansive, resembling local expanding image ads, but with added features. more

• The tech giant is also now displaying a "price at checkout" label within Google Shopping listings, both for paid and organic results. more

• YouTube is increasing manual reviews for ad suitability, testing automatically sending videos that receive a “Limited or no ads” rating for an additional review, with monetization decisions potentially taking up to 24 hours. It’s starting with a small group of creators, with plans to expand it to all creators that monetize with ads. more

• Microsoft $MSFT ( ▲ 0.36% ) has quietly rolled out support for the "video.plcmt" field across all publishing partners, regardless of the OpenRTB version. The video.plcmt field, part of the IAB Tech Lab's OpenRTB specs, is used to classify video placement in bid requests, providing details about the context of the video content. The change means added transparency to Microsoft Monetize, the platform that lets publishers manage and sell their inventory to advertisers. more

• 🎮️ Now loading… with ads: A new gaming platform, PHYND, is bringing CTV ads into video games... but without disrupting gameplay. PHYND is a free, cloud-based gaming service that monetizes through ads instead of subscriptions. Unlike past attempts to force ads mid-game, it will only show 15- or 30-second ads while games load. more

Search 🔍

• 🫡 AI confidently wrong majority of the time: A new study found that AI search engines and chatbots, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Deepseek, Copilot, Grok, and Gemini, are wrong more than 60% of the time. The tools also frequently bypass Robot Exclusion Protocol preferences and generate fake citations, often citing syndicated or copied content. more

  • Accuracy varied across platforms: Perplexity answered nearly 40% of queries wrong.

  • Grok 3 was incorrect 95% of the time.

• 📈 AI isn’t denting search… yet: Google Search saw 22% growth in searches year-over-year, despite concerns that AI-driven answers might reduce search volume. A new study showed that Google still leads by a massive margin, with more than 14 billion searches per day in 2024, compared to just 37.5 million daily searches for ChatGPT. more

Social Media 📱

• Bluesky is rolling out several new updates:

  • Support for three-minute videos, up from the previous one-minute limit.

  • A "Chat Requests" DM filter that lets you approve or reject messages from unknown users.

  • An easier way to mute accounts, with the "Mute account" option directly in the three-dot menu beneath posts.

• TikTok has released a 2025 Ramadan Marketing Guide that looks at the types of content users engage with. While religious content takes the lead, there's also a strong demand for cooking, recipe, and shopping content. more

  • The guide looks at the platform's role in shopping, with 9 in 10 users liking seeing brand ads while preparing for Ramadan.

  • It also covers how users celebrate different stages of the event.

  • It also offers insights into TikTok ad types, objectives, case studies, and performance tips for successful Ramadan campaigns.

• 😪 TikTok tells kids to GTFO: The platform's new "wind down" feature for teens under 16 will interrupt their feed with a full-screen reminder and calming music after 10PM. Teens can ignore the first prompt, but a second, harder-to-dismiss reminder will follow. more

  • The platform is also updating its Family Pairing feature with a new Time Away option, letting caregivers block access to the app during certain times and set a recurring schedule. Parents will also be able to see who their teen is following, who follows them, and which accounts they’ve blocked.

This Month in Google

WITH OUR GOOGLE ADS CORRESPONDENT JYLL SASKIN GALES

In this conversation, Tod and Jyll discuss the recent changes in Google Ads, particularly the new functionality where headlines can serve as site links. They explore the implications of this change, the concept of asset flexibility, and the role of AI in ad creation. Jyll shares insights from her experience at Google and provides advice on how advertisers can adapt to these changes.

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