The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 RIGHT-SIDE UP SALES

🎯 Right on target: New research suggests that the direction marketing copy text is rotated (left vs. right) in ads and packaging can influence consumer preferences.

• Right-rotated text makes products seem more appealing, especially when key features are emphasized.

• This happens because right rotation increases the perceived magnitude of key product features.

• The study also found that dieting goals influence this effect:

  • Consumers looking for healthy products prefer right-rotated text.

  • While those interested in unhealthy options prefer left-rotated text.

🥈 TIKTOK BAN FEAR = CHEAP ADS

💸 Buy now, worry later?: As TikTok’s U.S. future remains uncertain, advertisers are divided on whether to stay or pull out, leading to a drop in ad prices.

The threat of a U.S. ban has unsettled marketers, with some scaling back or walking away entirely. As a result, Digiday reports today TikTok’s auction-based pricing system has driven costs down for those who remain, making it a buyer’s market.

• Ad agency Jellyfish reported a 30% to 35% drop in CPMs, as low as $4.

• Wpromote saw a 25% YoY decline.

• Tinuiti recorded a 40% YoY drop in CPMs.

🥉 META ADDS CUSTOM BRANDING TO ADS

$META ( ▲ 1.67% ) now lets you add branding to your ads, including your logo, font, and up to three colours for the headline, caption, and banner overlays. more

• By setting your brand preferences, Meta may use your presets for 'Image generation' in future ads.

• When 'Apply this branding' is toggled on, it will apply your branding presets to image generation and overlays where applicable.

• This option is off by default, so you'll need to manually turn it on and can make changes or turn it off anytime.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• The Trade Desk $TTD ( ▲ 4.35% ) , once an untouchable force in ad tech, is facing scrutiny after missing revenue targets for the first time in more than 33 consecutive quarters, causing its stock to drop by 30%. While some in the ad tech world are celebrating its stumble, Digiday has a great piece up today about how it may be too soon to count them out. Despite its struggles, The Trade Desk remains a major player with significant revenue and a strong position in programmatic advertising.

Search 🔍

• 📉 Rankings took a hit? Google says that’s a you problem: The tech giant confirmed that the volatility seen before the official announcement of the March 2025 Core Update was unrelated to the update itself. Any ranking shifts before March 6th were likely due to other system updates, not the core update. more

  • Google frequently makes smaller updates without notice. So far, the actual core update remains relatively calm.

• ⬇️ AIOs go mid… literally: Google is testing moving AI Overviews from the top of search results (position zero) to the middle of the page. The platform has previously tested this with featured snippets. more

• Microsoft’s $MSFT ( ▲ 1.81% )  Copilot in Bing Webmaster Tools is now available to all users (English-only for now). The AI assistant helps webmasters manage SEO with several features:

  • Q&A chat: Provides site-specific responses.

  • Data Insights: Delivers site-specific performance insights.

  • Learning Resources: Built-in guidance for tasks and tools.

  • User Feedback Integration: Improves based on user input.

• 🏃 Bing catches up: Bing Webmaster Tools now lets users compare date ranges directly within the Search Performance reports, without needing to export data to a third-party tool. The update lets users compare data across different time periods for clicks, impressions, CTR, keywords, and pages, along with an improved time filter UX. more

  • Google Search Console's performance reports have had this for a while.

Social Media 📱

• As Meta begins rolling out Community Notes to replace third-party fact-checkers, a new report highlights issues with the system on X... the model Meta is following. Bloomberg’s analysis found that on X, less than 10% of Community Notes actually make it to the app. This is because the platform requires consensus from users with differing political views to be displayed, meaning the most polarizing misinformation often goes unchecked. more

• 🆕 A nice update for SMMs: YouTube is testing a new Shorts editing tool that shows you where added elements-like captions and stickers-might be blocked by UI features such as comments, likes, and descriptions on-screen. As you move elements around, new shadowed guidelines will highlight potential display conflicts, ensuring your content stays visible… and in bounds. more

• 🫣 Now you see them, now you don't: YouTube is testing out a new option that will let viewers hide end screens from clips, which are those promotional thumbnails and product listings that pop up on screen in the last 10 seconds of a video that usually direct users to the creator’s other content. more

  • Select users will see a “Hide” button in the top-right corner when end screens appear on a per-video basis, with the option to bring them back using a “Show” button.

• As the TikTok bidding war heats up, one contender is making a bold promise: monthly payments for users. Wyoming billionaire Reid Rasner, who said he was making a bid worth more than $47 billion for TikTok’s U.S. business, says his plan involves a profit-sharing model that compensates both creators and regular users based on their value to the platform, though its unclear how exactly it would work. more

A Puzzle for the Rest of Us 🧩 

• LinkedIn has added another puzzle game to its lineup. "Zip" is a simplified connective puzzle where players draw a path through a grid by linking numbers in order while using every cell.

  • It seems like an easier alternative for those who found its other games "Queens" or "Tango" too tricky... which the platform subtly hints at in its announcement.

The Ticker

📈 HOW DIGITAL MARKETING STOCKS ARE DOING

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