Sleigh the Competition

Today's News

• Meta Gifts Marketers New Tools for the Holidays

• The New Era of Picky Affiliate Shoppers

• Bluesky Hits 10M Users, Thanks, Brazil!

• Snapchat’s New Face of Advertising: You

• The Garden of Earthly AI Delights

• Weathering the YouTube Trends

Meta Gifts Marketers New Tools for the Holidays

As the holiday marketing season approaches, Meta is looking for you to unwrap those ad budgets. The tech giant announced several new ad options yesterday for the end-of-year push.

Easier-to-apply discount codes

First, Meta is updating its discount code promo options, featuring more visible code notifications that auto-apply at checkout. With the update advertisers will be able to highlight their discount code on an overlay ad, making it easier for consumers to use the code.

The platform is also testing first purchase offers and personalized discounts, and bringing these features to Instagram Reels.

Updated reminder ads

Reminder Ads are also getting a facelift with overlay prompts on feed posts. Meta says it's also increasing the frequency of reminder notifications to maximize awareness.

Multiple landing pages, one ad

The company is also updating its site links option, which lets brands add multiple landing pages to a single image or video ad in the Facebook Feed.

Targeting in-store shoppers and tourists

Meta is also rolling out a new promotion type that targets users more likely to shop in-store, based on their engagement history and location.

Finally, Meta is introducing a new way to target tourists planning holiday trips to your area. For example, if users are searching for local holiday activities or engaging with social content, they may receive ads from nearby businesses looking to boost seasonal sales.

The New Era of Picky Affiliate Shoppers

As Meta updates its ad options, affiliate marketers face a growing challenge: catering to picky consumers who demand more value from their online deals.

This shift is creating a tough environment for advertisers and publishers, according to a new report from eMarketer.

The sophistication shift

Sophisticated shoppers have been key to the affiliate marketing game for years. However, the report notes that as the industry gains visibility, these shoppers are getting choosier.

With the growth of affiliate marketing, many consumers are now more selective, comparing deals rather than sticking to one retailer.

The deal-hunting era

EMarketer's research found that affiliate marketing ranks among the top forms of online advertising.

Over the past year, 55% of respondents recalled seeing affiliate ads on websites — a figure about 10% higher than those who noticed ads on search engines.

According to the report, this increased visibility has led consumers to shop around, rather than buying something based on recommendations from trusted creators or publishers.

In response, most publishers are enhancing their offers.

For example, in the first half of 2024, a third of influencer affiliate conversions included coupons, up from just 9% the previous year.

Bluesky Hits 10M Users, Thanks, Brazil!

The Twitter competitor Bluesky just hit the 10 million user mark. A little help from Elon Musk’s X getting banned in Brazil did the trick.

X banned, Bluesky and Threads boom

Last month, Brazil’s top court shut down X and slapped fines on VPN users trying to dodge the ban.

In the wake of this, Bluesky and Meta’s Threads shot up the charts in Brazil, landing in the top 10 of both App Store and Play Store ratings.

Bluesky snatched up 3 million users within days post-ban, soaring past 9 million overall earlier this month. The company said more than 85% of new users were hailing from Brazil.

Meanwhile, Threads, its Meta-owned competitor, has amassed more than 200 million users.

Snapchat’s New Face of Advertising: You

Snapchat users' selfies aren't just for clout, but also a potential ad campaign.

Snapchat’s revised terms of service now let the company use its users’ faces in ads.

The terms of service are for its 'My Selfie' tool, which lets users and their friends create AI-generated images based on photos they share with the app.

Terms of service tea

When using the feature for the first time, Snapchat asks users to agree to the terms:

Users can opt out of the option by toggling off the “See My Selfie in Ads” feature. However, 404 Media reports today that this feature is on by default.

No data leaks here…

While Snap may use your face in personalized ads, the company says it doesn’t share your data with third-party advertisers.

According to a spokesperson from the company, advertisers don’t have access to Snapchatters' AI-generated images or private data, and that it isn’t currently using My Selfies in advertising.

The Garden of Earthly AI Delights

Another piece of advice to not trust Google’s AI, especially if you’re using it to search for images for your ad campaigns or social media posts.

Google's top result for one of the most famous paintings in history features a fake, AI-generated copy of the artwork.

404 media reported yesterday that when users searched for Hieronymus Bosch on Google, the top image they saw was an AI-generated version of his iconic Garden of Earthly Delights.

Bot-sch

Google Search often displays a carousel of images above the usual links based on user queries.

A user on X discovered that when people searched for Bosch on Google, the search results included a couple of images from the actual painting, but the first and largest image displayed was an AI-generated version of it.

Google has since removed it from search results.

Weathering the YouTube Trends

Your brand's next viral marketing campaign could be a weather video.

YouTube is buzzing with hours-long loops of ’80s and ’90s Weather Channel broadcasts set to dreamy vaporwave beats.

This vaporwave trend, which pairs vintage weather clips with lo-fi music, has become a cozy yet eerie way to remember a time before the climate crisis.

Some of the most popular weatherwave clips use a VHS recording of a Weather Channel broadcast on a random cold '90s night in the winter.

• One 41-minute video has nearly 900,000 views

• Another is an eight-hour megamood with nearly 650,000 views

So, next time you need a break from the hustle, just hit play and travel to a more nostalgic era —no DeLorean required.

- 30 -