Happy Tuesday! My missive comes to you a little earlier than usual this week, as your writer will be away from his desk for a few days. Given it’s only been a few days since I last landed in your inbox, this is a relatively short one, but we’ve still got some exciting news from TikTok and relating to Meta, both on the future of ad targeting.
TikTok announces Smart+
TikTok announced this week a new suite of automated tools and targeting options designed to compete with Google’s PMax and Meta’s Advantage+. The announcement comes just in time for retail advertisers’ busiest time of the year.
It is nothing short of impressive to think of how far TikTok’s ad offering has come in just the time I’ve been a freelancer. Indeed, TikTok has been bullish about how these automated ads have performed in testing; then again, so have Meta and Google about their offerings, and overall, IRL, we’ve seen very, very mixed results.
While I’d certainly embrace TikTok ads if you aren’t already and your audience lives there, I might want to dip the toe in the water on these automated versions, rather than throwing all your budget at it.
Meta can’t target based on sexual orientation in EU, court rules
Meta’s ever-dwindling targeting options took another hit this week with the news that the EU’s top court ruled it can’t utilise users’ public statements about their sexual orientation for online advertising.
This signifies a broader trend away from demographic profiling and towards interest-based targeting, and from an ethical and moral standpoint, it’s a welcome one. If you’re a marketer playing in this sandbox and you aren’t already focussing on interest-based targeting, it really is time to start focusing more on that pillar.
If I were a Meta shill, at this point I would be telling you that Advantage+ is the ideal way around this. I’m still not 100% convinced, but it certainly seems to be the direction of travel.
Further Reading
Adobe has launched a set of tools designed to protect creators from being mimicked by AI.
A US judge this week ordered Google to open up its Android app store to competitors for at least three years, signalling the next development in a long-running saga with Epic Games (the makers of Fortnite) and others.
Better news for Google is the launch of its AI-organised search result pages in the US. Starting with recipes, you’ll see a “full page experience” utilising the best the web has to offer. I look forward to seeing it in action!
YouTube shorts are likely to get longer. Obviously.
And finally, a survey this week revealed that 83% of Instagram content creators use AI as part of their process. Hardly a shock, but an insight into how prevalent Generative AI is becoming.