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What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? Basis’ Senior Vice President of Paid Search and Social, Amy Rumpler, compiles all the latest news, trends, and resources each month for easy access.
Meta recently announced its new machine learning-based ad delivery process, Meta Lattice. It utilizes knowledge-sharing across Meta’s different surfaces (e.g. News Feed, Stories, Reels) to expand its map of potential user interest and activity. The goal: to better predict likely user behaviors and deliver more relevant ads while using less personal data (important, given how Meta was affected by Apple’s iOS 14 update).
This video provides a glimpse at how generative AI will further evolve search in the coming months. People in the US can join the waitlist for Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE) by tapping the Labs icon in the latest version of the Google app or Chrome desktop.
Amazon is reportedly “reimagining search with an interactive conversational experience.” Job postings also show they’re ramping up the hiring of engineers in an effort to become an AI powerhouse “that helps you find answers to product questions, perform product comparisons, receive personalized product suggestions, and so much more.”
Three artificial intelligence articles? AI AI AI caramba!
During this year’s upfronts, YouTube shared a slew of new stats related to the rise of their app on home TV sets. Company leaders also showed how shifts in content consumption are driving innovation and unveiled a few new ad formats, the most notable being a 30-second non-skippable format for YouTube Select on CTV, which replaces two 15-second ads with one 30-second spot.
Among the rollouts at TikTok World 2023 was the new Smart Creative toolset, which automates parts of the content creation process for advertisers who find difficulty in developing native TikTok ad creative. Smart Creative is the content-side complement to Smart Performance campaigns, TikTok’s fully automated ad-buying capability.
Upfronts and expos and ads, oh my!
Pinterest has announced they are rolling out third-party ad demand via a partnership with Amazon, starting later this year. As user engagement with shoppable Pinterest content continues to grow, Amazon was selected as the platform's first partner for third-party ads. The partnership will bring more relevant brands and products to Pinterest, combined with a seamless Amazon buying experience for consumers and strong performance for advertisers.
Elon Musk announced Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter, stating she “will focus primarily on business operations,” while Musk “focus[es] on product design & new technology.” His focus could include evolving Twitter into an all-purpose app, titled simply “X.” Musk’s description of the app is reminiscent of the popular Chinese platform WeChat, which supports actions like payments, ridesharing, food delivery, appointment-setting, and more, all in one place.
Yep, “X” may indeed give it to ya, if “it” means “basically everything,” and “ya” means “Elon’s app users.”
Meta’s new app, tentatively titled “Barcelona,” features a chat-based feed—kind of like a large group chat that anyone can join, a la Twitter. The interface follows the current Instagram trend of conversations happening more in DMs than public spaces on the app. Messages will carry a 500-character limit and can include links, photos, or videos up to five minutes in length. And Instagram’s billions of daily active users will be able to sign up using their existing IG handle, which could create fast growth.
Similarweb recently measured shifts in consumer behavior among search platforms, and while it showed Bing has acquired more traffic over the last few months, the growth hasn’t been consistent. Similarly, while Google lost a bit of traffic, they still hold the lion’s share of the search market. ChatGPT itself, however, is earning a lot more traffic and should continue to grow, according to eMarketer predictions. These insights also fueled eMarketer’s H1 Search Ad Spending Forecast, where they expect Microsoft to capture 9% of the non-retail search ad market this year.
Google, watching web users try Bing…for now.
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