AI and misinformation are shaping up to be two of the most disruptive forces in advertising today.
As generative AI rapidly evolves, it is transforming nearly every part of the advertising workflow—spanning creative development, audience targeting, personalization, media planning, and beyond. But alongside its various benefits, gen AI also brings risks. Brand safety is among the most pressing, with a whopping 100% of marketing professionals believing the technology poses a threat in terms of brand safety and misinformation.
Generative AI is a significant driver of the spread of low-quality content and mis- and disinformation online. As gen AI tools become more widely available, bad actors are using them to rapidly produce low-quality content, such as made-for-advertising sites and misinformation-filled webpages designed around popular search terms. The challenge of misinformation is compounded by the recent trend of social platforms eliminating or rolling back their content moderation efforts.
For brands and advertisers, this raises significant brand safety concerns, including damage to reputation, wasted media spend, and erosion of consumer trust. And with the current administration signaling a pro-AI, deregulatory stance, the landscape is becoming more complex, leaving brands and advertisers to navigate both new opportunities and rising risks without much federal regulatory guidance.
In this context, it’s critical for industry professionals to stay informed. Keeping up with these evolving threats isn’t just about gaining a competitive edge—it’s essential to leveraging innovation responsibly and building trust with consumers. To that end, here are several essential resources to help digital advertisers navigate misinformation and AI in 2025:
After years of increased regulatory scrutiny, advertisers face a starkly different environment under the Trump Administration. With its pronounced pro-AI stance and lighter regulatory approach, this new landscape presents new opportunities and challenges that stand to significantly reshape the marketing industry.
How do marketing and advertising professionals really feel about AI? From insights on how teams are leveraging the technology, to its impact on efficiency, to how industry professionals believe the tech will impact the future of marketing, this comprehensive report offers an in-depth look at the current sentiments, challenges, and opportunities surrounding AI in marketing.
AI introduces a range of new risks and considerations for advertisers, including potential legal challenges related to data privacy, deceptive advertising, and copyrighting, as well as consumer distrust of the technology. Learn how advertisers can balance these challenges while still leveraging AI’s benefits.
How does association with misinformation impact brand perception, audience trust, and consumer behavior? And how can advertisers embrace media strategies that build and maintain brand authenticity and credibility? In her 2025 session at SXSW, Basis’ Noor Naseer offered a deep dive into these topics.
Amidst a broader trend of content moderation rollbacks, Meta announced they will no longer use fact checkers for content posted to Facebook, Instagram, or Threads. The company has also updated its Hateful Content guidelines to allow users to post controversial and/or offensive content that was previously banned. Together, these actions introduce new brand safety risks for advertisers.
Social media is a critical part of any brand’s marketing mix. But with the rising proliferation of hate speech and mis- and disinformation on these platforms, compounded by recent content moderation rollbacks, advertising leaders must stay informed and proactive in monitoring and addressing the issue to protect their brand/clients.
Connected TV is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels. Yet with its rapid growth has come increased risks, particularly around brand safety. To harness the full potential of this booming channel, teams must take a proactive approach to prioritize consumer trust and brand safety from the start.
Jaime Vasil is Group VP of Candidates and Causes at Basis
Political advertising’s connected TV (CTV) evolution was in full effect during the 2024 US elections. The trend that started to show life two cycles ago is now a regular part of the media plan for candidates, campaigns, PACs, and other organizations looking to reach and influence voters.
CTV’s emergence as a political powerhouse has been developing steadily over the last four election cycles. In 2020, we saw a dramatic rise in programmatic advertising and the awakening of CTV for elections. In 2022, candidates and causes began taking CTV more seriously and lifting direct spending, as that was the primary tactic for buying inventory at the time. This development continued to evolve in 2024.
Based on an evaluation of more than 1,400 campaigns for state, local and national races that managed their digital ad buying through Basis’ advertising automation platform—accounting for more than $130 million in political ad spend across video, display, native, audio, and text ads—we saw that:
We may not need to wait until 2026 to see how these trends develop further. With key state and local races in 2025, and seemingly ever-increasing political spending, political marketing practitioners can apply and optimize what they’ve learned recently. There is no rest in political campaigning, and this may well be the new normal.
Key Takeaways:
Video ads in their multiple forms are a staple for political advertising as it allows for rich story telling about candidates, opponents and issues. It has been the majority of ad spend ever since we started tracking it in 2018. With CTV ad opportunities growing faster than ever, more availability through programmatic buying, and multiple targeting and measurement options, there may still be more room to expand video’s ad spend share.
Key Takeaways:
Availability of CTV ad opportunities is compelling political marketers to spend on these devices. There are more ways to buy it today than two years ago. In programmatic channels, marketers have more choices for publishers, vendors and tactics. With CTV, private marketplaces and programmatic guaranteed deals that are much more prevalent today may be suitable for campaigns that were buying ads through direct publisher engagement in 2022.
Key Takeaways:
Basis’ programmatic CPM index showed steady, albeit below average, pricing in the first five months of 2024. It began increasing gradually beginning in July and then peaked in the last 35 days of the election. The index compares the average pricing per month to the average CPM for the whole election cycle for political marketers. Video was the driver of CPM increases, as display pricing dipped to average level in the summer and early fall.
Considering the competitive spending in the last months of the election, political advertisers could alleviate the inflation by locking in deals in programmatic channels through private marketplaces and programmatic guaranteed deals.
Key Takeaways:
Based on political advertising sales, Basis data shows the top suppliers in open bidding programmatic, top exchanges and SSPs that sell PMPs, and top curated deal groups that Basis pre-arranged for all elections advertisers. The presence of CTV was spread throughout the leading suppliers.
Basis curated 50+ deal groups that were approved for political advertising. The deal groups were assembled from one publisher, multiple publishers, or multiple PMPs.
Our previous reports focused on direct sellers, which were dominated cycle-over-cycle by YouTube, Hulu and Facebook, and also showed the increasing popularity of CTV vendors.
Key Takeaways:
Political campaigns are saving half of their money until the end to reach undecided voters and get out the vote. This is the same pattern as in previous election years. However, as voters gain more opportunities to submit ballots early, this number eroded slightly this cycle—even when the country was energized for a presidential election. A pattern to watch for the future is whether or not campaigns will continue to encourage early voting.
Key Takeaways:
California and Michigan garnered the most ad impressions. Of note, California had large proposition campaigns in 2024 and Michigan consistently has been a swing state for the past few cycles. They were followed closely by battleground states, as well as Washington.
Beyond the top 14 states, the rest of the country’s states received minuscule shares of ad impressions, even in populous states such as Florida, New York and Illinois.
Basis served more than 560 million programmatic ad impressions in the final 10 days of the election cycle and served more than 800 billion programmatic CTV ad impressions for the entire 2024 cycle.
The collision of programmatic and CTV has transformed elections advertising. The next evolution of these trends will revolve around the use of private marketplaces, programmatic guaranteed buying and curated inventory. The targeting within these methods is poised to improve, setting the stage for significant use of audience data in the next election.
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Basis has been trusted by agencies and consultants in politics, public affairs, and advocacy for over 17 years. Basis is a comprehensive advertising automation platform with an integrated suite of modular applications, each specializing in unique areas such as planning, operations, reporting, and financial reconciliation across programmatic, publisher-direct, search, and social channels. Since 2007, Basis has helped power digital media for thousands of political campaigns, independent expenditure committees, and issue advocacy advertisers. Basis is headquartered in Chicago with clients throughout North America, South America and Europe, including in Washington, D.C., with its Candidates + Causes team.
Learn more about Candidates + Causes advertising with Basis
In a time of obsession over AI and automation, are too many media buyers choosing to set it and forget it? Albert Thompson, Managing Director of Digital Innovation at Walton Issacson, thinks so.
In this episode, Thompson shares how bringing more human insight to programmatic campaigns is vital for optimal media performance. Together with host Noor Naseer, he explores how buyers can blend automation with human expertise to drive more successful campaigns.
As generative AI and content moderation rollbacks transform the social media landscape, advertisers must navigate a new era of brand safety challenges.
Consumers, advertisers, and regulators alike have long voiced concerns around the spread of misinformation and hate speech on social media platforms. In 2024, global information experts ranked social media owners among the top threats to a trustworthy online news environment—just the latest in a long history of criticism over their inability to mitigate (or disinterest in mitigating) the proliferation of harmful content.
Researchers have found that social media algorithms can amplify hate, divisive content, and misinformation, in part because these algorithms are designed to showcase posts that will receive high levels of engagement, and inflammatory content often garners lots of comments and clicks. These concerns have hit new levels of urgency in recent years with the rise of generative AI, which can be used to create deepfakes and other forms of disinformation at greater scale and lower cost, making it easier than ever for bad actors to craft disinformation campaigns.
At the same time, the biggest players in the social media space have recently revamped and rolled back their systems for moderating content, with critics worrying the changes will make it even easier for hate speech and misinformation to proliferate on those platforms.
The spread of hate speech and mis- and disinformation on social media is everyone’s problem—from the social platforms themselves, to the consumers who spend nearly two and a half hours a day with them, to the advertisers who will spend over $100 billion on them this year. Because social media is such a critical part of any brand’s marketing mix, and with these problems likely to intensify as AI evolves and content moderation is reduced, advertising leaders must strategize to protect their brands/clients and consumers in this new era of brand safety.
In tandem with concerns around the spread of hate speech and misinformation on social media, advertisers have grown increasingly worried about brand safety and brand suitability, naming it their top programmatic advertising concern while ranking paid social as the channel with the highest brand safety risk.
The emergence of AI has only heightened those fears, with one recent survey finding an astonishing 100% of marketers agreeing that generative AI poses a brand safety and misinformation risk to their industry, and 88.7% calling the threat moderate to significant.
Advertising professionals are right to feel concerned, with over 80% of consumers saying it’s important to them that the content surrounding ads is appropriate, and three-quarters saying they feel less favorable towards brands who advertise on sites that spread misinformation. Even more, 89% of Americans say they feel that social media companies should implement stricter policies to curb the spread of misinformation on their platforms. Those social media companies, however, have a long history of failing to do so.
Social platforms have been in the spotlight because of their penchant for amplifying hateful and inaccurate content for a while now. Back in 2016, a Buzzfeed editor discovered a cluster of fake news sites registered in Veles, Macedonia, which spread false stories that circulated widely on Facebook. These articles, which were run for profit via Facebook ads, gained massive traction on social media during the US presidential election due to their sensationalism, with headlines like “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President.”
This marked the beginning of the public’s understanding of “fake news” and its circulation on social media. Fast-forward to 2022, and Meta, Twitter (now X), TikTok, and YouTube were under investigation by the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, which found that the social media companies’ business models amplified “dangerous and radicalizing extremist content, including white supremacist and anti-government content.”
Around the same time, a NewsGuard investigation explored the dissemination of misinformation on TikTok. Researchers found that when they searched keywords related to important news topics such as COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost 20% of the search results contained misinformation. This is especially worrisome today, given that about four in 10 young adults in the US say they regularly get their news from TikTok.
While the amount of misinformation on social media was alarming back in 2022, it’s only grown more so in the years since as generative AI has risen in prominence. Today, generative AI tools equip users with the ability to quickly create convincing fake photos, videos, and audio clips—tasks that, just a few years ago, would have taken entire teams of people as well as time, technical skill, and money. Now, over half of consumers are worried that AI will escalate political mis- and disinformation, and 64% of US consumers feel that those types of content are most widespread on social media.
Beyond the many political and ethical concerns these problems raise, advertisers must understand the spread of hate speech and mis- and disinformation on social media because of the significant brand safety threats it poses. And because social platforms are entrusted with advertisers’ dollars—indeed, those dollars make up their biggest source of revenue—advertisers are likely interested in how these companies are working to protect them from emerging threats.
If advertisers, researchers, and social media users alike are concerned about the spread of hate speech and mis- and disinformation on social media, social platforms must be invested in mitigating those problems, right?
Well…kind of.
On the heels of a rough couple of years for tech companies, during which several popular social platforms missed revenue expectations and saw their stocks plummet, many of the teams and projects those companies set up to enhance trust, safety, and ethics on their platforms were shuttered or dramatically reduced between late 2022 and early 2023. Meta shut down a fact-checking tool designed to combat misinformation and laid off hundreds of content moderators and other positions related to trust, integrity, and responsibility. X laid off its entire ethical AI team, save one person, at the end of 2022, as well as 15% of its trust and safety department. In December 2023, the media advocacy group Free Press found that Meta, X, and YouTube had collectively removed 17 policies that safeguarded against hate and disinformation on their platforms.
In 2024, even after a strong Q2, Meta shut down CrowdTangle, a research tool that researchers, journalists, and civil society groups used to track and understand how information is disseminated on Facebook and Instagram. While Meta replaced CrowdTangle with what it calls the Meta Content Library, this new set of tools is more limited than CrowdTangle was, and Meta has restricted access to only a few hundred pre-selected researchers. The fact that social platforms downsized so many of their trust and safety teams and programs just before a presidential election year—during which researchers, technologists, and political scientists forecasted disinformation acting as an unprecedented threat—prompted some advertisers to question whether these platforms are doing enough to address their brand safety concerns.
The trend of social platforms reducing content moderation has continued in 2025, with Meta announcing an end to its third-party fact-checking program in early January. In its place, Meta is implementing an X-inspired feature called Community Notes, which will rely on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users to report posts they feel are inaccurate or offensive. Meta also updated its Hateful Content guidelines, implementing a more lenient approach that allows content that was previously banned—such as discussion of “women as household objects or property” or “transgender or non-binary people as ‘it.’” These changes were swiftly condemned by human rights organizations, but given Meta’s entrenchment in advertisers’ marketing strategies, it seems unlikely that brands will pull back from spending on its platforms in the way many have with X.
In fact, these changes come with potential upsides for Meta and, in turn, advertisers as well. Because controversial content often garners more engagement, Meta’s move to loosen content moderation—and reinstate allowance of political content—could boost user engagement and time spent on its platforms. However, advertisers should closely monitor developments in the coming months to see whether these positive outcomes materialize, and if they do, whether they outweigh potential downsides, such as alienating certain communities on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Considering these persistent brand safety threats, as well as social networks’ recent disinvestment in their trust and safety teams and programs, how can advertisers protect their brands or clients from brand safety threats on social platforms? While there’s no perfect way to avoid serving ads near misinformation and hate speech on social media, there are measures advertising teams can take to minimize risk.
First, despite recent cutbacks, most major players in the social space do still have policies and programs designed to reduce the amount of inaccurate and hateful content on their platforms. For example, in addition to content moderation by users, Meta and X employ AI-led content moderation (a tactic also used by TikTok and Snap).
Major social platforms also offer an array of brand safety tools and controls that advertisers can tap into. Before its January announcements around updating its content moderation systems and hateful content guidelines, Meta released a new set of brand safety controls, including a feature that allows advertisers to mute comments on specific ads before they’re published.
To further safeguard brand safety, advertisers can work with partners like DoubleVerify, which offers pre-screen protection capabilities that help to ensure ads are served in safe and suitable environments. They can also leverage allow lists and block lists to better control the environments in which their ads are served.
Continuous social media monitoring—done by teams who are trained to detect mis- and disinformation—is another important way to safeguard brand content on social media. Advertisers can even harness the power of AI for good in this area, with AI-driven social listening tools that make it easy to monitor and keep track of online conversations involving specific brands.
And, because the threat is so prevalent, marketing leaders should ensure their teams have a plan of action in case their brand’s or client’s ads appear next to harmful content on social. This is a key step, given that brands can regain some favorability with consumers when they denounce misinformation.
In the face of pressing concerns over misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech on social media, many advertising leaders will want to stay vigilant about brand safety when advertising on social platforms. As generative AI continues to evolve and content moderation on social platforms is reduced, the spread of harmful content will only grow, amplifying risks for both brands and consumers alike. For marketers, it’s key to not only monitor these challenges, but also to take proactive steps to safeguard brand integrity.
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Curious to learn more about how leading marketers and advertisers across the US feel about AI? Check out our report, AI and the Future of Marketing, to see how agencies and brands are thinking about and using the technology, as well as how they feel about the ways it is shaping the industry.
AI remains the pivotal topic of conversation across the world of business—from Wall Street, to board rooms, to sales pitches, to paid media.
In the advertising world, artificial intelligence has already been at work for over a decade, powering programmatic advertising and optimizing media buying across the open internet. Now, recent developments in the realm of generative AI are revolutionizing the landscape even further. Given the Trump Administration’s pro-AI position and recent private sector investments of up to $500 billion in AI-related infrastructure, the next few years are poised to deliver continued innovation and widespread adoption of the technology.
As agencies and brands navigate these new opportunities, their leaders must balance two directives: First, embracing AI tools to increase efficiencies, grow revenue, and stay at the cutting edge of innovation. And second, protecting their businesses from the risks that come along with these tools. It’s a fine line to tread, but leading organizations are finding ways to approach these new technologies so that they benefit their businesses and bottom lines while minimizing liabilities.
To do this, advertisers must thoroughly understand the risks posed by AI. The most significant ones fall into three main categories: brand safety concerns tied to gen AI-created misinformation, considerations around how AI-generated advertising will land with a consumer base that’s largely wary of AI, and potential legal risks to agencies and brands related to data privacy and deceptive advertising practices.
Industry leaders must grow increasingly knowledgeable on these topics and develop best practices, processes, and skillsets across their teams to ensure any forays into new AI-driven advertising tools are safeguarded against risk.
AI offers many promising benefits for advertisers, from cost efficiency to speed to ease of launch. However, these advantages come with some significant brand safety concerns. It’s important for advertisers to understand these threats, implement safeguards around their use of AI, and stay up to date on this quickly developing landscape in order to make the most of these tools and solutions without opening themselves up to consumer backlash and wasted spend.
Generative AI is one of the biggest drivers of brand safety concerns today, with 100% of industry professionals believing the technology poses a brand safety and misinformation risk to marketers and advertisers, and 88.7% calling the risk a moderate to significant one. Gen AI technology is not perfect, and these tools have regularly demonstrated a tendency to produce content that’s, at one end of the spectrum, low-quality and likely ineffective for advertising, and, on the other end of the spectrum, inaccurate or offensive.
Two particular areas of concern include generative AI’s tendency to make up false information (a flaw known as AI hallucinations) and indications of biases in AI-generated content (due to large language models relying on human inputs and human-generated content, which often contain biases).
These concerns have been on full display in recent years. In 2024, for example, Google had to suspend the image-generating capabilities of its Gemini chatbot, which is integrated into Google’s advertising tools, after it produced historically inaccurate images—specifically, images of “multi-ethnic Nazis and non-white U.S. Founding Fathers.” The controversy demonstrates how developers are still learning how to program these technologies to effectively avoid bias: Gemini was programmed to avoid racial and ethnic bias, which, ironically, backfired when the images in question ended up being inaccurate.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that advertisers should forgo the efficiencies offered by generative AI. However, it’s critical that teams understand the risks and put proper safeguards in place to minimize their likelihood.
“If teams are thoughtful in reviewing the outputs, then using AI to repurpose existing creative or develop elements of media assets should be fine,” says Molly Marshall, Client Strategy and Insights Partner at Basis. “But AI can’t currently replicate the creative process in terms of identifying a strong insight and developing creative that meaningfully relates to a target consumer, so AI-generated creative should complement and iterate upon an existing strategy, not wholly develop it.”
Generative AI has also prompted some headaches for brands that have started using AI-powered chatbots to streamline and personalize customer service on their websites. The technology promises to transform the customer service industry—however, upon testing chatbots offered by TurboTax and H&R Block, reports found that the chatbots offered inaccurate information at least half of the time.
“Chatbots offer brands a big opportunity to streamline communication with customers, especially as brick-and-mortar stores close and more customer service is going virtual,” says Marshall. “But the potential damage from chatbots that share inaccurate information may outweigh those benefits for some brands.”
Advertisers must also prepare for the growing presence of generative AI in online content. AI-generated material is becoming increasingly common—for example, the amount of AI content in the top 20 Google search results jumped from just 5.6% when ChatGPT was first released in 2022 to more than 19% in early 2025.
Generative AI has also made it easier for bad actors to create made-for-advertising sites (MFAs) filled with low-quality content, misinformation-filled pages strategically developed around key search terms, and other content that could pose significant risks to brands that run ads alongside it. This risk is amplified by the new administration’s lighter regulatory approach—particularly its executive order that “revokes certain existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to American AI innovation.” Though this deregulatory stance may create space for more innovation, it may also make it easier for those with malicious intent to flood the internet with low-quality, AI-generated, mis- and disinformation-filled content. As a result, advertisers will need to be more deliberate around their ad spend and put new guardrails in place to avoid waste as well as risky (if not downright harmful) ad placements.
Programmatic advertisers, in particular, will need to seek out solutions that help steer their dollars away from MFA sites and other brand unsafe environments, as research has found that 15% of their budgets are spent on MFAs. “Advertisers must be able to react in real-time to block misleading sites and keywords,” says Marshall, and should embrace technological solutions like MFA block lists to help minimize the risk.
These concerns have been compounded by the recent trend of platforms rolling back their content moderation efforts. For instance, Meta recently removed its fact-checking program in lieu of a “Community Notes” approach that sources content moderation to users, as well as updated their Hateful Content guidelines, allowing users to share controversial and/or harmful content that was previously banned. This pullback of content moderation, coupled with the proliferation of AI-generated content that can be low-quality if not blatantly incorrect or harmful, makes it critical for brands and agencies to develop strong brand safety frameworks and to prioritize partnerships with premium, trusted publishers. Agencies and brands may also eventually need to develop teams focused on dealing with misinformation and disinformation to protect their spend.
Advertisers must also balance their own enthusiasm around AI with a consumer base that isn’t quite so excited. While nearly 77% of industry professionals believe that generative AI will have a positive impact on marketing and advertising, the majority of consumers don’t trust the technology: A 2024 report from the Edelman Trust Institute found that US consumer trust in artificial intelligence has fallen by 15% in the last five years, from 50% to 35%. And when it comes to the use of AI in advertising, nearly two-thirds of US adults say they are either somewhat or very uncomfortable with AI-generated ads.
These opinions don’t necessarily mean that advertisers should stop embracing the AI-led tools that work for them—especially considering that AI has effectively driven behind-the-scenes advertising features such as machine learning, algorithmic optimization, bid multipliers, and group budget optimization for some time now.
What it does mean is that leaders need to be cognizant of consumer sentiment toward AI, and to act accordingly. This could include informing consumers about how AI is used in a client or stakeholder’s marketing efforts, via a social media post or a dedicated page on their website. Brands may also opt to disclose when an ad or content is generated by AI, as adding disclosures can lead to a 47% increase in the appeal of those ads, a 73% increase in the trustworthiness of those ads, and a 96% jump in trust for the brands behind them.
Data privacy is also top of mind for consumers, with 71% of US consumers worrying that their digital activities put them at risk for security incidents. And, 81% of consumers who have heard of AI feel that companies will use the technology to collect and analyze their personal information in ways people aren’t comfortable with. Organizations can gain consumers’ trust by offering transparency around how they safeguard their customers’ data, and by prioritizing partnerships with privacy-focused organizations or gaining voluntary certifications like SOC 2 compliance that indicate a commitment to data security and ethical data practices.
Leaders who prioritize this type of transparency can develop stronger, more trust-based relationships with their consumer base—which may provide a key competitive edge in a competitive environment.
Finally, there are a variety of legal concerns advertising leaders must account for as they adopt new AI tools. Artificial intelligence has advanced more quickly than legislators can keep up with it, but there are a variety of regulations that have been introduced in the US and beyond that aim to mitigate the threats posed by AI. At the same time, advertisers must ensure compliance with existing legislation to avoid hefty fines and other legal consequences.
As advertisers grapple with widespread signal loss, AI has emerged as a powerful tool for enabling privacy-friendly personalized marketing.
AI can enable lookalike and predictive audiences based on first-party data, and generate a variety of data-based insights to help advertisers better understand their audience and their consumers’ path to purchase. Many advertisers are embracing these tools as a way to make up for the loss of cookies and other factors impacting signal loss.
At the same time, AI technologies can pose some data privacy-related risks. Many AI-powered advertising solutions use personal data to fuel their machine learning algorithms, and depending on the tool itself, there’s some ambiguity around where exactly all that data comes from, where it’s stored, and who can access it. What’s more, some artificial intelligence tools leverage the data they collect to deduce sensitive personal information such as location, health information, and political or religious views.
To ensure the ethical use of consumer data and to protect their businesses from legal consequences, advertising organizations must thoroughly vet any data-focused vendors or tools to ensure their data gathering, processing, analyzing, and storage systems comply with digital advertising regulations—and, of course, ensure their own data systems comply as well. Leaders must also stay on top of new AI- and data privacy-related regulations as they take hold, even if this is an area that might see less regulatory activity under the Trump Administration.
Another area of legal concern for advertisers has to do with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is responsible for safeguarding US consumers from unfair or deceptive advertising practices.
One such practice relates to the use of dark patterns, or design techniques that can manipulate consumers into purchasing an item or service or providing personal data—and which can be created and enhanced with AI. “Identify[ing] and “crack[ing] down on businesses that deploy deceptive and unlawful dark patterns” has been a focus of the FTC’s for many years. On the state level, the Colorado Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) have also outlined regulations around dark patterns in advertising.
Though the new chairman of the FTC appointed by President Trump, Andrew Ferguson, could very well take a lighter regulatory approach to AI than the prior chairwoman, Lina Kahn, advertisers should remain cautious. Even with the potential for a more lenient stance on AI oversight, the FTC’s core mission to protect consumers from misleading claims and/or harmful practices remains unchanged.
Lastly, advertisers must pay close attention to any ownership- and copyright-related legal concerns around AI-generated content.
In January 2025, the US Copyright Office released a report on the legal and policy issues related to AI and copyright. This report concludes that “the outputs of generative AI can be protected by copyright only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements.” The key phrase here is "sufficient expressive elements," which suggests that merely pressing a button to create AI-generated content isn’t enough—there must be human involvement in curating, editing, or refining the work in a way that demonstrates original authorship. Without that kind of human involvement in the creation process, AI-generated content might not qualify for copyright protection.
At the same time, some ambiguity remains around what exactly constitutes “sufficient expressive elements,” and this will likely be determined on a case-by-case basis. As such, advertising teams must establish and adhere to strong creative processes with clear documentation of how AI is being used to develop assets—particularly those they might want to copyright. Advertising leaders should also stay on top of any further developments in this area to ensure compliance as more legislators and regulators refine rules around the ownership of AI-generated works. Enlisting a solid legal counsel or team will be key to navigating the complexity of this arena.
By investing the time in advancing their teams’ AI knowledge and skillsets now, leaders will set their organizations up for success as the technology becomes increasingly prevalent throughout digital advertising. The sooner advertisers learn how to implement and take advantage of these tools in a discerning and ethical way, the greater their competitive edge will be over those who procrastinate.
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Want to learn more about how advertisers are approaching AI? We surveyed marketing and advertising professionals from top agencies, brands, non-profits, and publishers to better understand advertiser sentiments around the technology, as well as how they’re leveraging AI-driven tools in their work. Check out the top takeaways in our report, AI and the Future of Marketing.
What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? This month, Erik Chellberg, VP of Social Media Investment, and Jesse Foley, VP of Search Media Investment, compiled all the latest news, trends, and resources that advertising pros need to know.
THE NEWS: After a 26-day ban that began on January 19, 2025, TikTok was reinstated on both major US app stores. The app's return follows President Trump’s executive order granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve to resolve ownership issues. Discussions are ongoing, with a final decision expected before the extension expires in April.
THE CONTEXT: President Trump has also said he wants the app to be owned by at least 50% US investors. The president’s promises to save TikTok represent a 180-degree turn from him backing its ban in his first term.
EXPERT POV: This news should be seen as a small confidence boost for advertisers previously worried about a TikTok ban. Campaigns have continued running as usual, and user growth will likely continue to grow as downloads resume from Apple and Google stores. While the long-term future of the platform is still uncertain, the current administration has shown an eagerness to keep the platform active. That said, it may be prudent to have contingency plans in place in case of future disruptions. – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Meta is undergoing a significant restructuring to prioritize AI development. So far, this shift has involved laying off approximately 4,000 employees, accounting for about 5% of its global workforce. Concurrently, Meta is expediting the recruitment of AI engineers.
THE CONTEXT: This move aligns with Meta's broader strategy to integrate AI across its platforms. The company has been investing heavily in AI, with plans to spend $65 billion on AI development this year. In addition to workforce changes, Meta is reorganizing its business structure, including merging the Facebook and Messenger teams and integrating the Reality Labs division more closely with its main operations.
EXPERT POV: Restructuring and re-prioritization at Meta presents advertisers with both opportunities and challenges. On the positive side, advertisers should see increased efficiencies as expanded AI-driven ad solutions focused on reducing manual workload hit the platform (i.e., Advantage+ shopping). Conversely, these layoffs may cause a temporary slowdown in Meta’s ad services and support. As a result, advertisers should be cognizant of possible delays in communication around technical issues and platform updates. – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: In conjunction with Safer Internet Day, TikTok introduced a new Digital Safety and Privacy Guide to inform users about how to enhance their security and privacy in the app. Accessible within the app by typing "check my settings" in the search bar and selecting "learn more" on the banner, the guide offers a comprehensive overview of available safety features, including practical tips to help users—especially parents—manage privacy settings and establish appropriate usage guidelines for their children. This initiative aims to alleviate concerns about the platform's safety by empowering users to customize their experience according to their preferences.
THE CONTEXT: TikTok's safety initiative comes amid continued scrutiny of social platforms' effects on users, especially younger ones, as well as a looming lawsuit against Meta, filed by 33 US states’ attorneys general, accusing Meta of fueling teen mental health problems. TikTok's approach follows similar moves by Meta and Snap, which have published and updated their safety measures and available resources.
EXPERT POV: While improved safety and privacy for users is undoubtedly a net positive overall, advertisers should monitor for any potential impacts on targeting and data. If large segments of users adjust their privacy settings to be more restrictive, there could be future rollbacks to audience targeting capabilities. – Erik Chellberg VP | Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google has released updates to Performance Max designed to increase transparency and advertiser controls. Key updates include added controls for guiding AI in campaigns, enhanced search reporting, and new segmentation options for asset group reporting.
THE CONTEXT: So many of last year’s Performance Max updates favored Google’s AI and machine learning over advertiser oversight. Whether it’s an olive branch, a tug-of-war, or a cat-and-mouse game, this newest move is likely a strategic response to advertisers’ frustration over losing that oversight and their desire for more control and transparency.
EXPERT POV: If its lack of transparency has limited Performance Max investment for some advertisers, now may be the time for them to give it another test. That said, it remains to be seen if these changes will truly provide the transparency and control advertisers want. – Jesse Foley | VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Microsoft Advertising introduced several enhancements to its Performance Max campaigns, many of which were available for other campaign types. The enhancements include LinkedIn profile targeting, conversion value rules, new customer acquisition goal strategies, and new reporting features with more granular detail by audience segment and asset.
THE CONTEXT: While Microsoft’s ad business is relatively small, the company is hoping to make its Performance Max offering more attractive to advertisers via regular updates like these.
EXPERT POV: While Microsoft Ads has a smaller audience, it tends to be more affluent, meaning that it can be a great area of investment for higher-ticket price retailers. So, if limited capabilities have been holding you back, Q2 is a great time to test Microsoft's version of Performance Max. – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google has improved the Google Merchant Center by restoring filtered product downloads, returning a needed efficiency to inventory management.
THE CONTEXT: After a previous update that removed the filtered product download option, clients had to sift through large data exports to troubleshoot specific product listings, optimize categories, and analyze portions of their inventory. With this update, they can now export only the necessary product subsets instead of downloading entire product feeds, making the process easier to manage.
EXPERT POV: This update simplifies product data management within Google Merchant Center, reducing reliance on third-party tools like Feedonomics. With filtered product downloads, advertisers and merchants can efficiently manage their feeds, focusing on optimizing specific product subsets without navigating large data exports. This leads to faster troubleshooting, improved inventory management, and more precise category optimization, ultimately enhancing ad performance and efficiency. – Sofia Petrovsky | Director of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Starting in March, Demand Gen campaigns will gain additional placements and inventory options, including the ability to serve vertical video ads on YouTube Shorts and extend reach through Google Display Network. New product feed experiences, designed to drive deeper product discovery, will also become available.
THE CONTEXT: This appears to be an evolution of last year’s announcement that Video Action Campaigns would merge into Demand Gen campaigns in early 2025. The update is likely meant to help Google compete for social advertising dollars—Google touts Demand Gen campaigns as ideal for social advertisers thanks to the reported trustworthiness of YouTube ads and the fact that consumers frequently use the platform to research products and brands.
EXPERT POV: These updates to Demand Gen campaigns present new opportunities for advertisers to expand reach and engagement across key platforms. The ability to serve vertical video ads exclusively on YouTube Shorts allows for more tailored, mobile-first creative strategies, while expanded inventory on the Google Display Network increases visibility and awareness. Additionally, new product feed experiences will enhance product discovery, making it easier to connect with high-intent audiences and drive conversions. – Sofia Petrovsky | Director of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Pinterest is launching new product features to help users find, save, and shop for their holiday gifts, including the ability to create personalized, shoppable wish lists and share gift ideas within the platform. Pinterest is also offering shoppers more than a thousand curated gift guides across 27 categories by partnering with celebrities, creators, and brands.
THE CONTEXT: Pinterest has been working to ride the growing wave of shoppable social media for years now, releasing several new product features and advertising opportunities. The platform’s efforts appear to be paying off, with Q3 2024 revenue increasing by 18% year over year.
EXPERT POV: “Pinterest’s new product features align with the mindset of its user base, people on a journey of seeking inspiration. We see this to be especially true around the gift-giving and holiday-hosting season. Brands can take advantage of these features from both an organic and paid standpoint. With features like "quick save," Pinterest is streamlining the process for users to save products they've discovered, and brands can capitalize on that with tactics like pin engagement retargeting or promotional creative messaging to help users continue down the path to purchase and increase overall conversion opportunities.” – Jenny Lewis | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Meta is revising its ad-free subscription option in Europe to comply with the European Union’s evolving data protection requirements. In response to regulatory pressures, Meta has lowered the subscription cost by 40. Additionally, it’s added an option allowing free-tier users to opt for "less personalized" ads. The new option limits data sharing, but also comes with unskippable ad breaks and less relevant ads, which may ultimately prove to be less appealing to users.
THE CONTEXT: These revisions come after EU regulators called Meta’s subscription offer a “pay or consent” scheme and a breach of the Digital Markets Act, saying it doesn’t give users much of a choice at all between paying a monthly fee or giving more personal data to Meta for targeted advertising.
EXPERT POV: “Advertisers using Meta in the EU should be cognizant of lower potential reach among target audiences compared to historical initiatives, given that a larger percentage of the more than 400 million Meta users in Europe may be tempted to begin paying the smaller monthly fee to avoid ads within their daily scrolling. Additionally, be mindful of possible performance dips due to Meta giving nonpaying European users the option to see ads that are less personalized. It is doubtful that Meta will publicize how many users ultimately opt into this feature. Still, we would not be surprised if cost metrics—especially CPMs—start to increase across campaigns that target a potentially dwindling pool of European users.” – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google announced it will no longer display political advertisements in the European Union, adding the EU to a growing list of regions where the company has already halted the practice, including France, Canada, and Brazil. The decision is in response to the EU's new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations—which are intended to curb election interference and enhance voter decision-making—that Google says will create operational and legal challenges.
THE CONTEXT: This is far from Google’s first scrape with EU policymakers, including an ongoing investigation over anti-competitive practices and, in a rare win, Google getting a €1.49 billion antitrust fine overturned. And that’s to say nothing of Google’s ongoing legal headaches in the US.
EXPERT POV: “This move won't affect most American advertisers, but it's something EU political advertisers must certainly keep in mind. In general, those advertisers should review the reach and targeting opportunities in other channels while, at the same time, maintaining their awareness of government and platform policy changes, as the risks for noncompliance are high.” – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: As we enter the holiday shopping season, consumers can now search for specific products within Google Maps and find nearby stores with that product in stock. Product categories available to search include home goods, electronics, apparel, and grocery store items. Google Maps pulls from Google Merchant Center product feeds to serve these results, expanding the inventory of shopping results from just Google Search and Google Shopping to now include Google Maps.
THE CONTEXT: This expands the available inventory for a business’ Google Merchant Center product feed beyond Google Search, Shopping, Images, and YouTube. It’s also one of several recently released Google Maps features or feature improvements, many of which are beneficial for route planning and more informed driving.
EXPERT POV: “This update to Google Maps now makes it even more important for advertisers with brick-and-mortar locations to keep their Google Merchant Center feed current. Shoppers on the go can easily discover what’s available in local stores, so ensuring your product feed is up to date—especially during the busy holiday season—helps make your inventory more visible to shoppers nearby who are ready to purchase.” – Alyssa Theo | Director, Search Media Solutions
THE NEWS: Google has introduced confidential matching, a feature that leverages confidential computing to enhance the security of advertisers' first-party data. This technology processes data within Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), ensuring that even Google cannot access the information during processing. Confidential matching is now the default for Customer Match, requiring no additional action from advertisers.
THE CONTEXT: Data privacy continues to be a top concern for consumers, advertisers, and legislators alike, as consumers’ trust in tech companies diminishes, those companies try to earn it back, and privacy-focused digital advertising regulations continue to evolve.
EXPERT POV: Privacy concerns are a real and relevant concern for advertisers (your search team has likely mentioned "enhanced conversions” a hundred times!). As privacy concerns war with the need for data, any step in the direction of providing that data in a privacy-safe way is a good one. – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Earlier this month, X officially launched a beta version of X TV. This new TV app is X's move toward positioning itself as a video-first platform. Ad offerings are not available yet, though X has noted that they will be rolled out soon.
THE CONTEXT: Amidst the fragmenting/merging/“great rebundling” of streaming services, YouTube now tops the share of time spent with TV in the US. Not so coincidentally, X’s new offering looks a lot like the YouTube TV app.
EXPERT POV: Ad revenue on X has steadily declined from its peak in 2022, and with many projecting a continued decline year over year given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the company, I hypothesize X will aim to monetize its new video platform sooner rather than later. Advertisers, stay tuned! - Erik Chellberg | VP of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: As a new way to encourage engagement on Instagram, Meta is rolling out comments on Stories. These comments will be visible to anyone who views the Story content, and will be displayed along the bottom of the frame so as not to be intrusive to users. If post creators prefer, commenting on their Stories can be switched off.
THE CONTEXT: Over the years, Instagram has continuously added features like these to formats like Reels and Stories to encourage engagement, and perhaps also to reduce passive scrolling. Engagement is good for business: More ways for users to interact means more ways for Instagram to understand user behavior and preferences, tailor content accordingly, and ultimately keep users on the platform for longer periods of time.
EXPERT POV: For anyone who has been paying attention to the updates Meta has been making to its suite of products over the past half-decade, this update comes as no surprise. Time on site rules supreme for social media platforms, and with Instagram already producing an average stay-on-site of over 3 minutes, the ability for users to comment on Stories may yield even more time on site for the average user. For any advertisers historically averse to running on Instagram Stories, now would be a good time to test out this placement, as doing so will open additional avenues for user interaction, which can lead to improved brand affinity and stronger paid efforts. - Erik Chellberg | VP of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google Ads plans to merge its Video Action Campaigns (VAC) into its Demand Gen campaign type in Q2 2025. This will offer advertisers expanded reach, creative flexibility, enhanced audience targeting, and more.
THE CONTEXT: Whereas Video Action Campaign ads typically ran on Google’s video-friendly sibling channel, YouTube, this fold-in to Demand Gen will expand inventory across Google platforms and into external partners and outside properties. No telling if this in response to questions of Google’s video ad quality or the antitrust lawsuit leveled against Google by the US Department of Justice, which in part accuses the tech giant of favoring its own ad inventory—or if it’s simply another case of Google’s affinity for infusing AI into its newest ad products.
EXPERT POV: Google will introduce a migration tool in Q1 of 2025 and will force migration in Q2 2025. Migrating manually and adding assets for the additional ad formats Demand Gen offers will expand reach into available inventory. Testing and optimizing Demand Gen campaigns with video and image assets ahead of the migration could make results more efficient in preparation for when Video Action Campaigns are officially sunset. - Alexa Dillon | VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google Ads’ Enhanced CPC (eCPC) bidding option will be removed for new Display and Search campaigns in October 2024, and all remaining campaigns using the strategy will transition to Manual CPC bidding by March 2025. This change effectively removes advertisers’ ability to lightly experiment with automated adjustments of campaigns set to manual bidding, in favor of newer Google Ads machine learning options and advanced automated bidding strategies.
THE CONTEXT: Google made the same move with Shopping campaigns last year, claiming that new, more advanced strategies like Target ROAS, Maximize Conversion Value, and Performance Max helped achieve the same or improved results, thanks to its enhanced technology. This is part of a larger trend of platforms pulling back on the manual controls they offer advertisers, instead pushing them towards more automated and AI-driven tools.
EXPERT POV: Rather than automatically migrating eCPC campaigns to manual CPC, consider testing the more advanced automated bidding strategies first. Determine whether click, conversion, or conversion value bidding is most in line with your objective and begin an experiment to measure whether a fully automated bidding option can improve your performance. The experiment results can inform whether to move fully to an automated bid strategy or migrate to manual CPC. - Alexa Dillon | VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Starting in November, advertisers with Google’s Gambling and Games certification must be recertified if they have undergone significant changes to applicable product offerings, regulatory compliance, or licensing. Failure to do so will lead to immediate Google Ads account suspension.
THE CONTEXT: The timing of this announcement lined up with the start of the NFL season and has direct effects on many of today’s popular online betting and gambling websites. The change also comes amidst concerns over traditional and some nontraditional gambling advertisers targeting younger consumers and other vulnerable populations.
EXPERT POV: Advertisers in the gambling industry should closely review the Google Ads Gambling and Gaming policy and understand which segments of the policy are applicable to their business. If certification is required and there are significant changes to product offerings, regulatory compliance, or licensing, be transparent with your advertising partners so they can help submit new certifications when applicable and prevent the risk of account suspension. - Alexa Dillon | VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: As a new way to encourage engagement on Instagram, Meta is rolling out comments on Stories. These comments will be visible to anyone who views the Story content, and will be displayed along the bottom of the frame so as not to be intrusive to users. If post creators prefer, commenting on their Stories can be switched off.
THE CONTEXT: Over the years, Instagram has continuously added features like these to formats like Reels and Stories to encourage engagement, and perhaps also to reduce passive scrolling. Engagement is good for business: More ways for users to interact means more ways for Instagram to understand user behavior and preferences, tailor content accordingly, and ultimately keep users on the platform for longer periods of time.
EXPERT POV: For anyone who has been paying attention to the updates Meta has been making to its suite of products over the past half-decade, this update comes as no surprise. Time on site rules supreme for social media platforms, and with Instagram already producing an average stay-on-site of over 3 minutes, the ability for users to comment on Stories may yield even more time on site for the average user. For any advertisers historically averse to running on Instagram Stories, now would be a good time to test out this placement, as doing so will open additional avenues for user interaction, which can lead to improved brand affinity and stronger paid efforts. - Erik Chellberg | VP of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: A shorter season (five fewer shopping days) between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year means one thing for marketers: It's crunch time! Consumers are already planning their holiday purchases, and here, Google provides insights—geared around what the company calls a consumer mindset framework—to help advertisers stay ahead of their holiday strategy.
THE CONTEXT: While the number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas is short (26, to be exact), consumers’ holiday shopping season essentially starts on October 1, meaning Google’s “deliberate” planning mindset is just on the horizon. Marketers who start planning now will be better positioned to earn their share of expected retail sales growth, forecast between 2.3% and 3.3%, if not as much as 4.8%.
EXPERT POV: While Cyber Week is the highly anticipated peak of holiday season purchases, more consumers are beginning to shop and hunt for deals early. A holistic approach to reaching customers throughout their research and purchase journey, then, is key during the holiday season. Pairing campaign types—such as Search, YouTube, and Shopping or Performance Max—that support different phases of the purchase funnel will help you stay top of mind with consumers through their whole journey. - Alexa Dillon | VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Despite competition from generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft's Copilot, recent data suggests that Google Search traffic has not only held steady, but grew by 1.4% from May 2023 to May 2024.
THE CONTEXT: While Google is still the dominant force in the search space, it’s battling several threats to that dominance—a significant one being its recent loss of the DOJ’s antitrust suit against it, which found that the company illegally leveraged its power to suppress competitors and hinder innovation in the search space. While Google doesn’t appear to be losing traffic as a result of genAI platforms yet, several experts believe AI is more of a threat (or at least more of an urgent threat) than the antitrust suit loss, with Gartner forecasting a 25% drop in search engine volume in just two years thanks to chatbot-like applications.
EXPERT POV: Google continues to innovate its search experience in an effort to stay relevant in the face of AI—for example, by creating snackable results that engage consumers (and younger consumers at that) on Google itself. I think it’s going to be years before we see a true impact on Google on both the “generative AI taking away a large share” and “effects of a pending lawsuit” fronts. - Lindsay Martin, Group VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google’s AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience, or SGE) search results now match its organic top 10 results a whopping 99.5% of the time. An algorithm update appears to be responsible for this change, as Google may now be incorporating more traditional search ranking signals as part of its custom Gemini AI model.
THE CONTEXT: This is a major turnaround from earlier this year, when the answers generated by SGE didn’t match links from the top 10 organic search results a majority of the time, which resulted in less authoritative and trustworthy content.
EXPERT POV: The verdict is still out as to what these AI Overviews mean for clicks and click-through rates. I’m eager to see how Google chooses to monetize these results, knowing that it’s on the roadmap. - Lindsay Martin, Group VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google has provided several back-to-school shopping options that include virtual clothing try-on experiences, photo-based product searching options, and high-ranking product results that display the discounts and sale prices shoppers seek.
THE CONTEXT: With the rise of shoppable media—as evident by consumer adoption, the additions of shoppable features on Pinterest and TikTok, and agency pros’ beliefs that shoppable video and AR/VR are “the next frontier”—it’s no surprise that Google wants in the game.
EXPERT POV: Features such as Google Lens and Circle to Search could be seen as “shortcuts” for consumers to identify products of interest. In other words, consumers may buy with fewer clicks. Keep in mind that these experiences are optimized towards mobile; therefore, the mobile purchase experience—including fast load times and mobile-friendly storefronts—is key. Optimized product feeds and high-quality photos and videos are also important. Lastly, take advantage of sale price annotations and local inventory ads to help stand out in highly competitive periods. - Lindsay Martin, Group VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Meta has now removed detailed targeting exclusions as an option for all new campaigns. Detailed targeting exclusions allowed advertisers to exclude people from their target audience based on demographics, interests, and/or behaviors. The intent for those exclusions was that advertisers would better refine their audiences, but Meta found through its own testing that they limited ad effectiveness rather than improved performance.
THE CONTEXT: Advertisers were made aware of this change months ago… sort of. In May, some Meta advertisers received an alert stating that detailed targeting exclusions would be removed in June. Meta claimed the alert was the result of a bug and that the company had no plans for immediate changes.
EXPERT POV: This shift in targeting abilities may cause some concern, but Meta’s AI system is becoming more advanced by the day. Meta shared that, in its own testing, the median cost per conversion for ad campaigns improved by 22.6% when detailed targeting exclusions were removed. Rest assured, if excluding audiences is of high priority, there are alternative exclusion options that can be set within account-level advertising settings. However, I recommend advertisers hold off on applying any settings to see how their campaigns do. You never know: Performance may come as a pleasant surprise. - Lauren Brown, Director of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Meta has unveiled plans to update its approach to ad campaign measurement and attribution. These updates include adding segment-level conversion values within campaigns, a new opt-in attribution setting that optimizes for incremental conversions, and the option to integrate data directly from a CRM to give Meta more insights for targeting. The company says these updates will help connect advertisers’ Meta ads to conversions while also giving Meta more data points to work with for campaign optimization.
THE CONTEXT: These changes appear to put some of Meta’s levers back in the hands of advertisers, which may be a welcome change for advertisers concerned that Advantage+ has taken away too much of their control.
EXPERT POV: With any big change, there is usually a period of adjustment, and that’s likely what’s going to happen here. Advertisers will likely see a dip in performance as Meta’s system ramps up with this update. Don’t panic: The numbers will adjust themselves and hopefully show the improvement Meta intends. - Lauren Brown, Director of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google announced new insights for AI-powered campaigns, including Performance Max, taking the stance that creative is likely the largest opportunity to maximize the success of this campaign type. Insights include conversion data at the asset level, which can inform future creative development; improved image-editing capabilities using AI; and new creative partnerships with brands like Canva and Typeface to help with creative development at scale.
THE CONTEXT: Google isn’t the only platform encouraging advertisers to use its genAI tools for content creation—many others, including Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok, have rolled out AI-powered ad creative tools for image and text generation in the past year. Of course, as these tools and technologies are still relatively new and come with distinct risks, advertisers should set up quality control systems for any AI-driven content creation.
EXPERT POV: We know that Performance Max has left brands and marketers with very little control over campaign optimizations or how and where their ads serve. Creative reporting within PMax is also still a challenge regardless of this update, and we’re still waiting for Google to consider adding features that help advertisers match their brands’ creative styles and guidelines. At the same time, Google has made fantastic strides in PMax campaigns in terms of performance, and I would recommend this ad format for any CPA- or ROAS-based advertiser. - Lindsay Martin, Group VP of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Reddit has introduced its own Lead Gen Ads option, allowing marketers to collect prospective customer information directly through their in-app promotions. Reddit also revealed a new integration with Zapier, which will simplify the process of transferring lead information from Reddit directly into your preferred CRM.
THE CONTEXT: With a growing monthly average user base of incredibly engaged and passionate Redditors, the platform’s leaders have stated aspirations to lead in various advertising types and targeting techniques, including efforts in performance and measurement beyond branding and community growth.
EXPERT POV: While lead gen ads are not a new product in the social world, this is a big leap forward for Reddit as it continues to grow its product offerings and become more competitive against other social platforms. While Redditors are extremely loyal to Reddit, that doesn’t mean advertisers should dive right in without a strategy. The last thing you want is a flock of Redditors giving you a thumbs down on your ad. - Lauren Brown, Director of Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: After years of shifting promises and timelines, Google won't deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome after all. Instead, the tech giant is working on a “new experience” that will let users make informed decisions about cookie use and privacy across their web browsing, with settings they can adjust any time.
THE CONTEXT: Despite this change in Google’s cookie plans, consumers, regulators, and tech platforms alike are still pushing our industry towards a privacy-first paradigm. Bonus: Check out this video for even more context around Google’s announcement and what it means for advertisers.
EXPERT POV: This is undoubtedly a huge pivot for Google, but it doesn’t change the fact that advertisers still need to embrace cookieless solutions and privacy-first advertising. Google’s enhanced conversion tracking, which uses hashed first-party data to help supplement cookie-based conversion tracking, is one option that I’d recommend advertisers test and learn on. – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Italy’s competition and consumer watchdog group is investigating Google, saying the company uses misleading practices to collect user data and link it to other data across its platforms including Google Search, YouTube, Chrome, and Maps.
THE CONTEXT: In early March, Google became subject to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which sets guidelines for how internet platforms like Google, Meta, and others are allowed to collect and use consumer data. Shortly after the Digital Markets Act took effect, the EU began an investigation into Google’s parent company, Alphabet, for what they characterize as anti-competitive business practices. This is all part of a larger trend of regulators cracking down on Big Tech.
EXPERT POV: This is the fourth time Google has been charged with antitrust law violations and, unless they change their practices, the investigations are likely to continue. It’s a high-stakes issue for Google, as 77.8% of its income is from advertising. It’s important to stay up-to-date on these types of regulatory developments, as the results of these investigations could have significant impacts for advertisers. – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Meta has launched Llama 3.1, the largest open-source AI model, claiming it outperforms GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. With 405 billion parameters, it was created using over 16,000 Nvidia GPUs and will be integrated into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Quest headsets. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects it to surpass ChatGPT in popularity by year-end.
THE CONTEXT: Meta has been in rapid AI development mode this year, rolling out several new generative AI features for advertisers in addition to Llama 3.1. Marketers will, of course, still want to apply human intervention to confirm the accuracy of these features’ output.
EXPERT POV: I expect the biggest players in tech and data to release shiny new variations of their generative AI tools while the AI market grows. That said, brands and advertisers should closely monitor the integration of these tools, especially as Meta continues to develop and promote generative AI tools that dramatically impact ad creation and delivery at the auction (Advantage+ comes to mind). As Meta enhances both user- and advertiser-focused AI tools, both audiences must approach these new capabilities with cautious optimism, leaning into proven strengths and avoiding the pitfalls that often riddle early versions of these tools. – Bryan O’Loughlin | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: On July 1, Apple extended its 30% fee on Facebook and Instagram ad purchases through iOS devices to advertisers globally, a measure that could impact digital advertising costs and strategies in significant ways. Advertisers can avoid the fee by using desktop web browsers, with Meta updating its web platforms to match mobile app functionality.
THE CONTEXT: Critics label the fee as anti-competitive, while Apple defends its right to charge for access to its platform's audience. One of the fee’s critics is Meta’s Director of Privacy & Fairness Policy, Pedro Pavón. He notes that European Union investigators have determined Apple’s fee is in breach of the EU’s Digital Markets Act and that a US federal judge has criticized Apple for not complying with a court order related to its fee structure.
EXPERT POV: Marketers who use an iPhone or iPad to boost an organic post will face the 30% fee, which I anticipate will primarily impact small advertisers and business owners who rely on mobile for convenience and ease of use. Given that this upcharge on ads and boosted posts is avoidable—which may not be obvious to a busy small business owner without context or background for how these platforms work—it's more important than ever that brands work with trusted partners to ensure they can stretch their dollar as far as possible. – Bryan O’Loughlin | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Younger generations are increasingly moving to visually engaging content on social media platforms like TikTok to find what they're looking for, rather than traditional search engines. And it’s not just younger generations: Nearly a quarter of Americans primarily use social media for searches.
THE CONTEXT: This trend echoes another recent report that shows brand discovery on social media outpacing both search and word of mouth, and yet another specifying that Gen Z prefers product discovery through video content (more easily viewed on social) over search. It’s important for advertisers to keep track of significant shifts like these in younger generations’ digital habits in order to reach them effectively.
EXPERT POV: This change is a long time coming and has significant implications for planning and buying, as it blurs the lines between search and social. From a practical perspective, I recommend that marketers focus on video content, especially short form, including vertical video for both TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Advertisers shouldn't skimp on creative or media planning efforts on these platforms, especially as it relates to vertical video and/or keyword planning. With this trend, integrating a marketing approach across search and social is now more important than ever. – Bryan O’Loughlin | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Deloitte’s new report details the impact of the creator economy from the perspectives of creators and influencers, brands, and consumers. One takeaway of note for advertisers: The report found that bonds between consumers and their favorite creators can lead to increased trust between consumers and the brands those creators partner with.
THE CONTEXT: Brands are upping their investment in the creator economy, with 92% planning to increase their spend on creator marketing this year, and 36% planning to spend at least half their entire digital marketing budget in the space.
EXPERT POV: Marketers can no longer afford to sit out on creator marketing. Creator content, whether owned, organic, or sponsored, is here to stay and is fast becoming the key to winning new customers. As we look at investment across social channels, advertisers may need to be wary of platform-managed creator marketplaces, where exclusive contracts can limit brand usage rights across the open internet. – Jess Kaswiner | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Global ad spend across social media platforms is up by a whopping 14.3% year-over-year, making it the leading media channel in the digital ecosystem. This surge is fueled mostly by advertising spend on Meta platforms, which is set to surpass linear TV for the first time in history. The report attributes some incremental increase in social spend to artificial intelligence, suggesting that new tools that automate creative development and media planning, such as Meta Advantage+, are growing in popularity.
THE CONTEXT: The surge in social media ad spend comes on the heels of a rough couple of years for many of the biggest players in the social space, which were marked by plummeting stocks and missed revenue expectations. However, things haven’t turned around for all the major players: While Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat are forecast to enjoy double-digit growth this year, the report notes that X’s revenue woes will continue.
EXPERT POV: Brands show no signs of slowing down their social ad investments. To ensure the social presence of a business acts as a buttress rather than a mere prop, advertisers must understand what that businesses’ audience wants to hear/read/see, while simultaneously differentiating from competitor content. – Jess Kaswiner | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: After screenshots surfaced on social media, Meta confirmed that it’s testing a non-skippable ad unit on Instagram. These new ad breaks will display a countdown timer that stops users from being able to browse through more content on the app until they view the ad. The functionality is similar to YouTube, which requires users to view some ads in full before and in the middle of watching videos. Information about the test is limited, such as where the test is running from a geographic standpoint, or how long the test will run.
THE CONTEXT: With 44% of consumers preferring to learn about products and services through short-form video (where Instagram excels), and 87% of marketers reporting that video has directly increased sales, an unskippable ad unit would likely strengthen the impact of Instagram’s video ad offerings for advertisers.
EXPERT POV: Should this “forced view” ad unit on Instagram become available more broadly, advertisers will have the opportunity to fully capture a user’s attention with guaranteed visibility, which will help to drive awareness and engagement. Brands will want to ensure the content of the unskippable ad is engaging, with clear messaging and CTAs. – Laura Kubiesa | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Young people are increasingly using social apps—TikTok and Instagram in particular—to find products. Gen Z users search social apps primarily for fashion, beauty, food, and craft-related trends, but turn to Google for bigger purchases, places to go, and professional services.
THE CONTEXT: Whether looking to drive sales from younger or older consumers, there’s gold in those social media hills: Both product discovery and purchase happen on social media at rates higher than on messaging apps, video, or through influencers. This trend goes hand in hand with the rise of social search, with over 25% of 18 to 54-year-olds preferring to perform their online searches via social media.
EXPERT POV: The integration of generative AI into search and social platforms is likely to further blur the lines between different types of product discovery channels. By staying informed about these consumer trends, marketers can better navigate the shifting landscape of product/brand discovery and optimize their strategies for maximum impact. – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google announced the launch of the Google TV Network, a network aimed at leveraging Google's vast audience to distribute and monetize TV content. This network is available within the Google Ads platform through YouTube and display campaigns and currently focuses on the six-second bumper ad format, with more formats coming. The platform offers a range of content, including sports, news, and entertainment, and focuses on personalized recommendations and targeted advertising.
THE CONTEXT: This move from Google empowers advertisers to make the most of the rapid growth of free ad-supported television (FAST) channels like Amazon’s Freevee, Pluto, Tubi, and Roku, in light of rising subscription costs for other streaming services.
EXPERT POV: For now, my team is opting in to the Google TV Network within non-skippable and bumper YouTube campaigns. As we see more data coming from this network, we will evaluate whether performance is of high enough quality to continue opting in—I recommend other advertisers do the same. – Heather Crider, VP of Search Media Solutions
THE NEWS: On August 30th, Google Ads will complete the rollout of its new design to all markets. New features include a left-side menu that organizes pages into several high-level categories, a more comprehensive search function, and an overall cleaner and more modern-looking UI.
THE CONTEXT: Google trialed two different looks in 2023 before landing on this UI, based on user feedback, for the full rollout.
EXPERT POV: You can expect all the same functionality in the new Google Ads design, but the tools and menus have moved around a bit. Users should adopt the new Google Ads UI early and get as familiar as possible with the various changes, as there will be no way to opt out after August 30th. Certain things have shifted, from tools and menus to more efficient campaign segmentation for Performance Max, and it will take some time for the new navigation to become second nature. – Sofia Petrovsky, Director of Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Content at Google Marketing Live 2024 focused on AI-driven updates, including those that enhance creative production and consumer engagement. Key highlights include:
THE CONTEXT: Google has been on an AI tear as of late, adding AI-powered tools meant to help marketers with creative development, campaign management, and seemingly everything in between. Their stated purpose? To respond to an “evolution of [consumer] attention.”
EXPERT POV: This year’s GML was a continued push into AI, adding incremental features to a lot of what was released during GML 2023. Agencies and brand marketing executives should swiftly educate and integrate Google's AI-driven tools to streamline creative production, enhance consumer engagement, and optimize campaign management. By leveraging these advancements, they can achieve deeper customer connections and more efficient marketing outcomes in an increasingly AI-centric landscape. – Robert Kurtz | Group VP, Search Media Solutions
THE NEWS: TikTok has been given a deadline of January 19, 2025, to shut down in the United States or sell its assets to a new owner not based in China, or else face a nationwide ban. In the meantime, advertisers and marketers are proceeding with 2025 planning, setting budgets and developing content for the new year, with the future of the popular social media app hanging in the balance.
THE CONTEXT: Coincidentally, January 19, 2025, is also the day before Inauguration Day, when President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office. Trump has promised to “save” the social media app, which continues to see growing consistent revenue and user growth with every quarter.
EXPERT POV: “As marketers, responding to industry change is just part of the job. As a social media marketer, however, you live for the quick pivot; the “move fast and break things” motto is in your DNA. The key to preparing for a potential ban on TikTok is to have a Plan B ready to go. Be sure not to just shift dollars as a reactive solution but to make thoughtful decisions about who you’re reaching on TikTok and how to reach those segments elsewhere, the objective you’re optimizing toward and if other channels have proven track records for driving your desired action, and ensuring influencer contracts include language for TikTok organic or Spark post substitutions that fulfill their agreement and maximize your investments.” – Jess Kaswiner | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: After years of Washington lawmakers scrutinizing the platform, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that will ban TikTok in the US if its China-based parent company, ByteDance, does not sell the app within a year. Lawmakers say their main concerns are around data privacy and the perceived possibility of “espionage, surveillance, [and] maligned operations”. ByteDance has called this ruling “unconstitutional” and has promised to sue.
THE CONTEXT: If they aren’t successful in court, ByteDance says that they’d rather shut down TikTok in the US than sell the app and its algorithms to an American buyer. A shutdown would be a big deal for advertisers, particularly those working for small- to medium-sized businesses: TikTok recently released a report that claims SMBs using the platform’s free services and paid advertising contributed a total of $24.2 billion to the US GDP last year.
EXPERT POV: Advertising on Tiktok will continue to operate as usual for now. However, with TikTok having risen to the top of the list of social platforms that provide value for SMBs, its political limbo status should cause advertisers to monitor and evaluate existing similar features across other social channels, like YouTube Shorts and Meta's Reels, while also keeping an eye out for any new copycat features or channels that come down the line. – Jenny Lewis | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Since the launch of TikTok Shop in September 2023, reports have suggested that the increase in TikTok Shop content was causing a decline in overall usage of the app. However, many users say they have increased their TikTok usage since TikTok Shop rolled out. Time spent on TikTok is plateauing and new user growth is slowing, but given that the app already has 107.8 million monthly US consumers who spend immense amounts of time on the app, this simply indicates a more mature growth phase.
THE CONTEXT: While time spent on the app and user growth may be slowing, forecasts still show that US adults will spend 58.4 minutes per day on TikTok in 2024, up from 2023 numbers and ahead of every other social media platform for most US social users.
EXPERT POV: While some headlines may infer growth on TikTok is declining, users are still spending a lot of time on the app, which presents a great opportunity for advertisers. Regardless of a brand’s location in the funnel, there’s something for everyone when it comes to advertising on the platform: TopView can be leveraged for boosting reach and awareness, while Video Shopping Ads maximize sales with tailored ads. TikTok is investing in rolling out new paid opportunities and features weekly, and there’s no time like the present for advertisers to ensure they’re capitalizing on the highly active user base and ensuring their paid social strategy encompasses TikTok. – Laura Kubiesa | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: In honor of International Fact-Checking Day, Google highlighted its fact-checking tools and shared expanded features within those tools. “About this image”, for one, appears to be very similar to Reverse Image Search, with additional features that provide information about the image’s history as well as what reputable sites are saying about it. There’s also a new version of “Fact Check Explorer” that allows users to explore images as well as topics and people.
THE CONTEXT: Several of these tools and features were introduced in October 2023; since then, an academic study has questioned the sufficiency of Google’s fact-checking information for most false claims, even as the search engine’s results themselves were deemed “relatively reliable”. Fact-checking is particularly critical today for both advertisers and consumers due to the rise in AI-generated disinformation.
EXPERT POV: For better or worse, AI is becoming a bigger part of the online world, making it much easier for bad actors to create mis- and disinformation, which can quickly erode consumer trust. Tools like this can help by providing users with options to weed out that noise. However, they don't have complete coverage and the results can be unreliable. This puts the onus on advertisers to be as transparent in their messaging as possible to foster trust and prevent misinformation from spreading. – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google’s 2023 Ads Safety Report highlights their efforts to maintain a secure online environment. The search engine suspended or removed 12.7 million advertiser accounts last year—nearly two times the amount from the previous year—and blocked 5.5 billion ads for violating the company’s policies. Key violations included misrepresentation, financial services violations, and malware promotion. Google took several actions in response to these threats, including launching its Ads Transparency Center and updating its suitability controls.
THE CONTEXT: Duncan Lennox, Google VP & GM of Ads Privacy and Safety, cites generative AI as both an opportunity to improve policy enforcement and a challenge—with “bad actors operating with more sophistication, at a greater scale.” Deepfake artificial intelligence has made it cheaper and easier to launch campaigns featuring, for example, fake celebrity endorsements for products and services, which fraudsters have used to scam people out of money and personally identifiable information.
EXPERT POV: While this added safety and security good in general, we at Basis Technologies are seeing more questionable violations that require us to push for re-review. For clients in sensitive verticals like politics, health, and finance, it can make running ads more difficult and time-consuming. Be prepared to file certifications proving your identity and bona fides before your ads go live (or shortly after launch). – Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: LinkedIn has confirmed that Pages Messaging is being rolled out to all businesses after initially launching the functionality with some company pages in June 2023. In addition to its direct in-app messaging expansion, LinkedIn is also partnering with various third-party platforms to facilitate company messaging via social management tools (e.g. Hootsuite).
THE CONTEXT: Adding Pages Messaging was a logical step for LinkedIn, as social media activity continues to move to private messaging, 78% of consumers surveyed say they have used a direct messaging tool to interact with a brand, and 86% of those consumers said those direct interactions positively impacted their perception of the company.
EXPERT POV: Company leaders and advertisers alike have long been anticipating this feature’s rollout on LinkedIn. The imperative now is to be ready to react, which means devoting resources to monitoring, responding, and possibly escalating customer concerns. While social media—and, increasingly, DMs on social—are a means of customer service, they can also serve as “free” listening tools to help guide other marketing and advertising efforts, like campaign themes and timely creative swap-outs. – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Instagram is testing out a new way to comment on specific images within a carousel post, with some users able to link their reply to a photo or video based on its assigned number in the display. This update is aimed at driving more focused engagement and encouraging more interaction around each content element, while also clearing up confusion around carousel post comments. Instagram is testing the new carousel tagging option with a limited number of users at this stage.
THE CONTEXT: Instagram carousels already have the highest engagement rate of all post formats. This new feature allows for even more engagement and could lead to strategic engagement opportunities and more learnings for creators, influencers, and brands.
EXPERT POV: Engagement rate rules supreme for Meta—the more a user engages with a brand, the more Meta “rewards” the brand for fostering that in-platform engagement. And with this content-specific engagement, advertisers are afforded more insight into what resonates most with their audience. They can use that information to inform other marketing and advertising collateral, from products to feature in display or shopping ads to tiles that could transfer from high-performing organic content over to high-performing advertising content. – Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google’s text ads appear to be showing up at different positions relative to organic results on a search engine results page. While “top ads” have generally appeared above the top organic results, this “definitional change” means top ads may also show below the top organic search results on certain queries. The placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user’s search. Importantly, this will not affect how performance metrics are calculated.
THE CONTEXT: This change seems to be a by-product of Google’s search engine results page continuous scroll functionality, which allows ads to appear in more positions among organic results than just the top, and which has prompted Google to experiment with those positions. To that point, Google has provided tips for advertisers to help improve their ad positions.
EXPERT POV: If ads appear below the top organic results more frequently following this definitional change, we’ll be monitoring for downstream effects on click-through rate and other key metrics. In the meantime, maintaining a focus on ad rank factors such as relevancy remains key to securing top placements. – Alexa Dillon | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google recently launched Solutions, a free tool within Google Ads that automates and simplifies campaign management in an accessible and user-friendly way. It comes with several pre-built automation templates for the campaign management process, including Performance Reporting, Anomaly Detection, URL Validation, Budget Optimization, and Negative Keyword Management—all of which can be customized to meet different advertising needs.
THE CONTEXT: As part of this launch, Google announced it will sunset its manual solutions library. This focus on automation comes on the heels of Google’s new AI-powered approach to displaying responsive search ads and its application of Gemini for text and image generation within Performance Max (which has not been hiccup-free). Overall, the company continues to push advertisers towards automated processes across the campaign life cycle, from creative development, to ad placement, to campaign management.
EXPERT POV: Google continues to create new tools to help free up time for paid search managers to analyze data and make strategic decisions. By starting to use the Solutions tools now, search managers can get ahead on campaign management simplification, allowing them to spend more time on optimizations and recommendations that grow paid search accounts and drive business goals. – Nick Tuttle | Director, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are now available globally through Microsoft Advertising. PMax is an automated campaign type that uses artificial intelligence to create ad assets and automate ad optimization across different Microsoft Advertising formats and channels. The company will soon add more automated features, including brand exclusions (for less inflated performance metrics), search insights reports (for greater visibility into user queries), and video assets (for broader creative distribution) to its PMax campaigns.
THE CONTEXT: This global release follows a closed beta launch in May 2023 that Microsoft deemed successful. Time- and resource-strapped marketers who rely on manual efforts may appreciate PMax campaigns’ automated optimizations, even as some position the campaign type, similarly available through Google, as relinquishing control and decision-making power to artificial intelligence.
EXPERT POV: Rolling out PMax campaigns globally is another instance of Microsoft competing with Google, particularly by relying on AI and algorithms that identify when and where someone is most likely to convert. When it comes to the landscape of search advertising, Google is still far and away the most dominant search engine, but Microsoft integrating ChatGPT into Bing helped increase its market share from 6.35% to 8.07% over the past year. When determining whether PMax may be a valuable, additional layer in your search investment, consider your ideal demographic (as older generations are more likely to use Bing) and your vertical (as certain industries, like healthcare and financial services, attract larger shares of older users). – Nick Tuttle | Director, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: Reddit is launching a suite of tools, called Reddit Pro, for businesses looking to grow their organic presence on the community-driven platform. Currently in its beta testing phase, Reddit Pro uses AI to help brands identify trending topics and conversations, even allowing them to see when their brand has been mentioned in a subreddit. The suite of features also includes content drafting, scheduling, and reporting tools, as well as the ability to easily turn organic posts into paid advertisements. This is Reddit’s first set of free tools meant to inform businesses’ social media strategies, and the company plans to launch additional features within it later this year.
THE CONTEXT: The Reddit Pro launch came as the company prepared its initial public offering (IPO) at a stock price that valued the company at nearly $6.5 billion. Reddit is likely leveraging this new suite of free tools to entice brands to the platform and turn them into paying advertisers.
EXPERT POV: All eyes are on Reddit as the platform continues to make headlines with news of its successful IPO. Brands looking to connect with a wider audience may want to explore adding this channel to their organic and paid social portfolio. These new Reddit Pro tools—only available to brands that are active on Reddit—grant deeper insight into what Redditors are saying about brands, what aspects of products or businesses are resonating with customers, and which industry topics are trending. For brands not yet using the platform with a u/ (Reddit-speak for “username”) of their own, these new tools may incentivize them to create Reddit profiles and start an “OP” (“original post”) of their own. Pro Tip: Get to know the Reddit lingo! LSHMSFOAIDMT – Jess Kaswiner | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: TikTok has been under the US political microscope for some time, but now it’s ramping up its own political activity: TikTok users were shown a pop-up message earlier this month, urging them to call members of Congress to voice their opposition to a bill that aims to ban the app in the United States if its parent company, the China-based ByteDance, doesn’t sell it. Congress was quickly flooded with phone calls from TikTok users of all ages; the majority of calls, however, were from children. Since then, anonymous sources say some of the calls have turned threatening and concerning.
THE CONTEXT: Less than a week later, the US House of Representatives passed the bill, 352 to 65 in favor of a nationwide TikTok ban if the app isn’t sold, driven by concerns over the data security of US TikTok users. The bill’s future in the Senate is unclear, but President Biden has said he would sign the bill if Congress passes it.
EXPERT POV: While a ban on TikTok in US markets could have significant implications for brands already active on the platform—especially those leveraging it for influencer marketing and e-commerce sales—daily active usage is not showing any signs of slowing. The recent developments around TikTok highlight a continuing concern with and focus on data privacy in the digital advertising space. Taking a step back from TikTok specifically, this situation underscores the importance of diversification in media planning. In the short term, however, Committee and House votes are the beginning, not the end, of a long process. – Jess Kaswiner | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Pinterest’s recent campaign, “The P is for Performance,” touts the platform’s full-funnel approach to advertising, including lower-funnel case studies that show as much as a 28% increase in conversions and up to a 96% increase in traffic for its advertisers. Pinterest’s performance products include mobile deep links and direct links, making it easier for users to convert, plus shopping ads for greater inspiration and Pinterest API for Conversions for higher reporting visibility.
THE CONTEXT: In years past, Pinterest’s ethos of being a place for discovery has appealed to advertisers seeking upper-funnel awareness for their brands. With this campaign, Pinterest seeks to broaden its draw for advertisers who may only think of it as an upper-funnel platform. The campaign launched shortly after Pinterest released its Q4 2023 earnings, highlighting 12% revenue growth compared to the same period in 2022 and its 11% increase in global monthly active users.
EXPERT POV: Pinterest has thrived as one of the first social platforms to sit in a space that blends paid search and social channels. It’s no surprise that as a historically well-established traffic driver, Pinterest has now set its sights on also fiercely competing in lower-funnel effectiveness. Recent product releases have proven to be fairly low-lift activations for advertisers, particularly in the retail, e-commerce, travel, and professional services industries. Brands can significantly cut down the path to conversion by leveraging Pinterest to display product information, prices, and descriptions directly to their audiences’ feeds via shopping ads and simplify the consumer journey by tapping into direct links. – Jenny Lewis | Director, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Online sales for Cyber Week 2023 were up 7.8% year-over-year, with e-commerce sales totaling $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday. Paid digital marketing was a big driver of that growth, and advertisers are relying more on automated platforms to enhance efficiencies and expedite the scaling of campaigns. On the other hand, with advancements in automation and AI, invalid traffic has become more and more sophisticated over the past three years. One advertiser explained that tackling invalid traffic led to “more stable and predictable growth across our most important paid media channels.”
THE CONTEXT: 22% of ad spend in 2023 (or $84 billion out of a total $382 billion) was lost due to ad fraud. However, $23 billion of that amount would be recoverable with fraud mitigation platforms in place. Given that political advertising for the US presidential election will drive up ad costs at the start of the holiday season, driving efficiencies by leveraging the right technologies will be especially key for advertisers this year.
EXPERT POV: Ad networks aren’t incentivized to crack down on the increased bot traffic we’re seeing due to AI advances and the corresponding ease with which bad actors can create bots. So, the onus is on the marketer to stay alert for signs of high levels of bot traffic. These include high bounce rates and traffic spikes without corresponding conversion increases. Consider ways to block or limit these, like captchas, using conversion-based goals with machine learning bidding, and optimizing landing page content to be very specific to the intended conversion. — Jesse Foley | VP, Search Media Investment
THE NEWS: The IAB’s new comprehensive consumer privacy study found that nearly 80% of consumers would prefer to get more ads in exchange for not having to pay for websites and apps, and that 90% prefer personalized ads, but that nearly half feel websites and apps aren’t clear enough about how their data is used.
THE CONTEXT: With Google planning to fully deprecate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by the end of this year, and signal loss across the industry as a result of data privacy concerns, figuring out how to use consumer data in ethical, transparent ways to serve personalized ads to consumers is a must for digital advertisers.
EXPERT POV: The fact that most consumers would rather receive more ads to retain their free access to websites and apps means that advertisers’ digital media investments are well-positioned to reach consumers who find them valuable. Advertisers should take a “test and learn” approach to understand which channels work best given their KPIs and to remain flexible and fluid with budget allocations based on results. —Laura Kubiesa | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Google’s responsive search ads rely on artificial intelligence to combine headlines and descriptions based on consumer behavior and predicted outcomes. New AI-powered features allow Google to decide when an ad should display only one headline versus two, with the second headline appearing at the beginning of the ad’s description section. Google can now also supplement or override an advertiser’s manual assets—like images, sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets—with its own AI-generated assets if it feels doing so will help an ad’s performance.
THE CONTEXT: AI’s influence on ad placement and creative continues to grow. Search Engine Land weighed the pros and cons of Google’s update, noting that while it may serve to drive engagement and performance, it also means that advertisers are surrendering more control to Google. At the same time, artificial intelligence tools often don’t perform with 100% accuracy—and as this is a newer feature, advertisers have no benchmark for how much accuracy these specific features can provide.
EXPERT POV: With the increased focus and adoption of AI capabilities in digital media, it’s no surprise Google continues to roll out these features within their campaign types and ad formats. As the industry continues to trend in this direction, getting left behind means being unable to capitalize on the reported improved performance of these AI-powered features. However, many advertisers need to maintain control over the images and copy that run within their ads, so turning off the auto-assets feature within Google Ads may be the better option. Advertisers who aren’t comfortable giving up control can still take advantage of some of the latest updates by testing the new campaign-level headlines and descriptions and scheduling them to run during certain time frames, which can help manage time-sensitive promotional copy. — Alyssa Theo | VP, Search Media Solutions
THE NEWS: AI and automation within Meta's ad products, such as its Advantage suite, helped fuel 24% year-over-year growth for Meta's ad business in Q4 2023. The social giant also shared advertiser success stories that included increased revenue and improved performance metrics for brands’ campaigns when they employed Meta’s AI ad tools. Meta plans to expand its generative AI features, including text and image variations, to further enhance advertising capabilities.
THE CONTEXT: Meta, along with every other social platform, is placing a high level of priority on building out further automation and AI solutions that work in tandem with their advertising algorithms to drive strong results for customers while making the lives of marketers easier.
EXPERT POV: In the face of ongoing question marks with Meta’s advertising platform (e.g. third-party cookie deprecation, ATT impacts, and data privacy regulations), capitalizing on AI and automation solutions integrated into the platform is an effective way to manage media campaigns efficiently, expand existing audience targeting to reach engaged new users, and create a high volume of ad iterations for easier creative testing. — Erik Chellberg | VP, Social Media Investment
THE NEWS: Pinterest has begun rolling out an integration that allows ads to show on Pinterest via Google’s Ad Manager. The integration will make it so that when Pinterest users come across a Google ad, they’ll be sent to the advertiser’s website to finalize their transaction. This partnership will not only broaden the reach of advertisers using Google Ads but will allow them to engage an active, high-value consumer base.
THE CONTEXT: Pinterest’s stock dipped almost 28% in early February, but bounced back after this Google deal was announced.
EXPERT POV: For those advertisers looking to generate discovery, this new inventory source could be very beneficial. Google is rolling out this new option over the next several quarters, and it will be available within Google’s Ad Manager. As of now, Basis Technologies is waiting to see how this inventory performs to inform future recommendations. — Robert Kurtz | Group VP, Search Media Solutions
THE NEWS: TikTok's Marketing Science team partnered with IPG's MAGNA Media Trials to conduct a study of digital video through the lens of TikTok’s impact on its advertisers. Contents of the report include TikTok’s positive effect on brand sentiment and consumer experience, higher engagement with skippable vs. non-skippable video ads, how contextual content adjacency increases ad view time, and the details of TikTok Pulse, a feature that guarantees ad placement next to top-performing organic content.
THE CONTEXT: TikTok has faced several hurdles in the past few years, not the least of which being several countries and US states implementing full or partial bans of the platform. And although TikTok’s growth is slowing, it still led 2023’s list of app downloads and consumer spending.
EXPERT POV: Advertisers are right to prioritize TikTok, given the time users spend on the app per day, averaging 53.8 minutes, and the platform’s abundance of out-of-the-box and accessible ad products, betas, incentives, and platform support. — Alana Putterman, Group VP, Social Media Investment
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Navigating a Shifting Landscape in 2025 and Beyond
As the Trump Administration settles into the White House in 2025, the digital advertising industry stands at a crossroads. After years of rising regulatory scrutiny and growing concern around consumer privacy, the industry now faces a dramatically different political environment—one that promises less scrutiny and diminished federal oversight but, simultaneously, comes with new risks and uncertainty.
For advertising agencies and in-house marketing teams, this shifting landscape presents both significant opportunities and complex challenges, all of which will require strategic foresight and operational agility.
Here, we’ll explore and analyze how the new administration’s policies and priorities are likely to impact the digital advertising ecosystem, examining how expected shifts in regulatory approaches, market dynamics, technological innovation, and brand positioning will reshape marketing in an increasingly polarized world.
The Trump Administration’s return signals a radical realignment in the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley. Unlike the Biden Administration’s aggressive antitrust actions and regulatory initiatives, the new regime is taking a broad deregulatory approach that, in turn, is expected to deliver benefits to major technology platforms and providers.
This reset, already evident in early administration signals, will likely come with several significant implications for the advertising industry:
“At a high level, I think this administration is going to be much more industry-friendly and focused on removing restrictions, so we’ll likely see some deregulation,” says Derek Zolner, General Counsel at Basis. “With Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and, of course, Elon Musk all donating to the Inauguration and cozying up to Trump, I think we could see some preferred treatment of the tech industry in general, which should also carry over to the ad tech space.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the prospects of federal-level privacy regulation are completely dead. Industry coalitions, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have encouraged Republican lawmakers to introduce and pass a national privacy framework that establishes “a uniform privacy standard” for the United States. The theoretical legislation would likely have similar protections to those found in the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, but fall short of stricter regulations like those in the CPRA. And, perhaps most notably, it would supersede any existing state-level regulations, effectively neutering laws like those in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia. The odds of such a bill becoming a law are still fairly long, but it does merit monitoring in the coming months.
In the meantime, for digital advertisers, this regulatory recalibration creates some breathing room after years of increased expectations and growing compliance challenges. However, it simultaneously raises the stakes for responsible self-governance, which will be essential to keeping consumer trust in an era where the public’s distrust around data privacy (and broader institutional skepticism) are on the rise. Industry leaders should view this not as an opportunity to revert to problematic practices, but rather to establish meaningful and durable self-regulatory frameworks that can satisfy consumers and weather any potential future political changes.
As federal oversight recedes, state-level regulation will increasingly fill the void, creating a complex patchwork of compliance requirements that may prove more challenging than unified federal standards.
California’s role as a leader in this space will almost certainly continue, and the CPRA’s expanded requirements may even inspire similar legislation in other Democratic-led states, creating an uneven regulatory map that further complicates advertisers’ efforts to reach audiences. “I could see the states that still have blue administrations—California leading among them—still taking very active roles on the privacy front,” says Zolner. “So privacy isn’t going to just ‘go away’ as a concern.”
The implication for advertisers is clear: National (or global) campaigns will need to navigate multiple regulatory standards simultaneously, taking the patchwork of legislation into account when crafting media plans that go beyond any single state’s border. This will require advertisers to continue developing modular approaches to data collection, targeting, and measurement that can adapt to varying compliance requirements across jurisdictions. Forward-thinking agencies and marketing teams will need to embrace technology that allows them to efficiently scale complex campaigns, while also building or onboarding compliance systems that are capable of applying different standards to different audience segments based on geography.
Of course, the impact of the Trump Administration on the advertising industry will extend beyond regulation.
The White House’s emerging economic policies—particularly around international trade, tariffs, and industrial policy—may introduce significant uncertainty into business planning cycles, with cascading effects for advertising budgets and strategies.
New or expanded tariffs could throw global supply chains into disarray, affecting product availability, spiking pricing, and disrupting promotional calendars for advertisers across multiple sectors. And potential tax cuts, paired with dramatic reductions in federal spending, could boost short-term consumer confidence…or, alternatively, create yet more longer-term economic volatility, further complicating media investment planning.
If the changes lead to a downward drift in consumer spending or bring volatility to the stock market, companies may come (as they often do) for marketing budgets, forcing leaders to grapple with increased pressure to demonstrate immediate ROI as businesses adjust to economic uncertainties. One potential result: a renewed focus on performance media over brand building, shifting away from the brandformance trend of the past few years.
In this type of uncertain environment, advertisers will increasingly depend upon advertising approaches and technology that allow them to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions. Future-friendly strategies could include:
The brands that thrive in the coming years will be those that embrace technology that provides a unified look at all of their campaigns and data across all channels and platforms, automation to more seamlessly integrate those solutions, and AI to identify and capitalize upon granular performance details. In doing so, those advertisers can pivot more quickly and effectively toward winning tactics, developing what might be thought of as “strategic reflexes”—or predetermined response patterns that can be activated quickly when economic conditions shift.
The Trump Administration’s pronounced pro-AI stance—paired with extraordinary private sector investment in the technology and reduced fear among marketers regarding AI’s societal and industry impacts—will converge to dramatically accelerate adoption across the advertising ecosystem.
Here are a few of the positives marketers can anticipate in the coming years:
For advertising professionals, this acceleration presents transformative opportunities. Unfortunately, it also comes with serious risks and somber ethical considerations. The rising adoption and sophistication of AI, coupled with fewer guardrails and a proliferation of synthetic content, will almost certainly lead to a corresponding spike in AI-generated misinformation, hate speech, and MFA-esque content and websites. Altogether, it could create unprecedented brand safety challenges, as deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation become increasingly indistinguishable from authentic content, making it all the more essential for advertisers to adopt robust brand safety and ad fraud protections and to cultivate connections with trustworthy, premium publishers.
In the absence of regulatory guidance, brands and agencies should prioritize the establishment of specific internal ethical frameworks for AI usage. Marketing leaders must develop their own principles for the responsible use of AI in customer targeting, messaging, engagement, and measurement—considering not just what is technically possible, but what maintains consumer trust.
“You will always have some players in the market that are willing to walk up as close to the line of what's either legally or self-regulatorily acceptable, because they see extra margin there,” says Zolner. “But ultimately, success depends upon the health of the industry and the individual businesses, and it’s always better to not be a target for public anger.”
While perhaps not as immediately visible or prevalent as during President Trump’s previous term, political polarization remains high across the US, and it's expected to further intensify under the new administration. Additionally, the White House, Republican attorneys general, and conservative activists around the US have made their displeasure known by explicitly targeting companies that openly embrace and promote policies like DEI and LGBTQIA+ inclusivity.
In this charged environment, brands could face heightened risks when engaging with social issues or political topics. Consequently, we are likely to witness a significant corporate retreat from public positions on controversial matters.
Many brands—including Target, Meta, Walmart, McDonald’s, and others—have begun to pivot away from some of the purpose-driven positioning and internal policies they had adopted (or highlighted) in recent years. In turn, diversity-focused advertising efforts could see a corresponding downward cycle. For most brands (save historical outliers like Nike or Patagonia), cause-based marketing efforts will likely shift away from politically charged topics and toward less controversial issues. Meanwhile, those companies that do maintain more progressive or inclusive internal policies are likely to communicate those policies less prominently toward external audiences, instead embracing a more neutral public position in the hopes of avoiding consumer controversy and governmental wrath.
For marketing and advertising professionals, this environment requires more sophisticated and nuanced approaches to positioning and issues management, and should prompt brands to pursue a firmer grounding in authenticity and company values rather than trend-hopping, clout chasing, or virtue signaling.
To ensure consistent strategic alignment, leaders should craft and adopt clearly articulated internal frameworks that identify which issues align with core values, and which fall outside their legitimate scope. From a paid media perspective, advertisers can focus on both tailored messaging and refined targeting efforts to facilitate more granular audience segmentation, which can enable brands to communicate different aspects of their values to different consumer groups.
Of course, even for those brands that try to stay apolitical, there is always a risk of unexpected backlash. In today’s hyper-charged political environment, even seemingly innocuous campaigns have the potential to trigger a significant response, so advanced preparation and robust crisis response capabilities could prove essential.
In all, the most successful brands will not chase every social trend, but neither will they remain entirely silent. Instead, marketers should identify specific issues that are closely aligned with their core business and stakeholder interests and strategically evaluate where they can make authentic contributions.
Perhaps the greatest immediate concern for marketers in this new political era is brand safety. With content moderation standards beginning to loosen across major platforms and AI enabling more prevalent and sophisticated forms of harmful content, brand safety challenges could intensify dramatically in the years ahead.
These mounting risks to brand safety have already begun. Meta began the year by joining Musk’s X in ending its fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram, instead turning to “Community Notes” for content moderation. It also updated its Hateful Content guidelines to allow users to post controversial and/or offensive content that was previously banned, including “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation,” and granting tacit approval to posts referring to “women as household objects or property” or “transgender or non-binary people as ‘it.’”
Then there’s the problem of AI-powered disinformation, as synthetic content creates unprecedented challenges in distinguishing between legitimate publishers/real users and bad actors. Research indicates that marketing and advertising professionals have already universally acknowledged and accepted AI’s brand safety risks, and those concerns will only intensify over the course of this new presidential term.
In the end, brand safety is not merely about avoiding reputational damage, but about fundamentally maintaining consumer trust in fragmented information environments. As such, marketing and advertising leaders will need to exercise caution and take proactive measure to navigate this challenging environment.
With different platforms taking different approaches to content moderation, advertisers need to deliberately evaluate and strategize around their use of individual social platforms for specific campaigns and audiences, leveraging any and all brand safety tools while doing so. Additionally, rather than relying solely on those platform standards, brands must also articulate their own definitions of acceptable adjacent content, developing proprietary brand safety frameworks to help avoid undesired context and uninvited controversy.
Sophisticated brand safety and ad fraud tools will become increasingly essential, while AI-powered contextual targeting will help advertisers implement their more nuanced strategies and avoid non-suitable content. Lastly, the premium inventory and curation trend that began in 2024 will remain a hot topic, as direct relationships with vetted publishers provide advertisers with a much-desired safe harbor in a chaotic content sea.
As the industry navigates the shifts brought on by the new Trump Administration, several strategic imperatives have begun to emerge for advertising agencies and in-house marketing teams:
In this environment of growing complexity and diminished federal oversight, industry leaders will need to carefully evaluate their tech stacks, their talent, and their internal frameworks to increase their likelihood of success and achieve marketing goals. Those who view the moment as an opportunity to establish more durable and responsible approaches to marketing—rather than an excuse to revert to problematic practices and exploit regulatory openings—will be in the best position to succeed over the long term, and to build lasting competitive advantages.
After all, while a successful campaign can deliver short-term value, consumer trust remains the industry’s most valuable and vulnerable asset—regardless of which party controls Washington.
As the Trump Administration enters the White House in 2025, the digital advertising industry faces a significant shift. Federal regulatory oversight is expected to recede, creating new opportunities for innovation, while policy changes and growing political polarization will simultaneously introduce uncertainty and risks. In this environment, industry leaders will need to navigate evolving regulatory landscapes, economic fluctuations, AI acceleration, and shifting brand safety concerns with strategic agility.
To stay ahead, advertising leaders must:
1) Develop regulatory agility: Build and deploy comprehensive compliance frameworks to navigate varying state and federal policies.
2) Embrace agility: Build flexible strategies for economic and political volatility, and adopt technology that allows your organization to quickly adapt and optimize campaigns.
3) Establish AI governance: Explore all the opportunities that AI can provide your agency or brand, and define detailed internal guidelines for responsible use.
4) Refine brand positioning: Align marketing messages with core business values while taking safeguards to minimize reputational risks.
5) Elevate brand safety measures: Implement comprehensive tools to avoid ad placements in controversial or harmful contexts.
In a rapidly evolving and highly-polarized environment, the most successful brands and agencies will be those that take a proactive stance—leveraging technology, refining messaging, and prioritizing long-term consumer trust over short-term gains. While the industry is poised for disruption, those who embrace innovation and positioning with responsibility will emerge as leaders in the next phase of digital advertising.
Read the full report for an in-depth analysis of these industry shifts and actionable recommendations.
Consumer attention is in short supply. From TikTokers to early education teachers to adults in general, it seems that few demographics feel like they (or the people around them) can stay focused for as long as they used to.
In this context, advertisers must contend with the challenge of consumers paying less attention to ads. To advertise effectively in today’s saturated digital environment, marketing teams must have an attention strategy—a game plan for leveraging the confines of attention-related constraints to outperform their competitors.
Perhaps the most important tool advertisers have at their disposal for capturing audience attention is personalization. But in addition to tailoring specific ad placements to capture attention, advertisers must also consider how to capture attention in a broader omnichannel context. Attention gained over time, via various interactions on various channels and platforms, is what garners the brand equity that leads to lasting connection, trust, and action from target audiences.
Ultimately, by empowering their teams to achieve both personalization at scale as well as a sophisticated omnichannel approach, advertisers can outperform their competitors and earn lasting audience attention despite shrinking attention spans and a saturated digital environment.
Multiple studies have tracked decreasing attention to the same tasks over time, appearing to confirm the idea that attention spans are shrinking. But the reality is likely more nuanced: The very concept of attention is hard to define, and attention spans can vary based on environment, activity, and mood, as well as channel, platform, and content.
Experts also challenge the idea that attention is fundamentally shrinking, attributing shifts in focus to increasingly distracting environments, rather than neurological changes. And others argue that attention spans haven’t changed at all, pointing to examples like gamers who play for hours in a single sitting (one 2022 survey found that PC gamers most commonly averaged 1-2 hours per session).
“I don’t think media is responsible for shortening people’s attention spans,” says Lauren Johnson, Client Strategy and Effectiveness Lead at Basis. “I believe what holds someone’s attention is what’s relevant to them. That’s a big reason why so many people, especially younger generations, are spending so much time on TikTok and YouTube: The content on those platforms is highly relevant and personalized to them.”
What is clear is that consumers have grown more discerning of ads. This is especially true for younger audiences, like Gen Z, who tune out of ads after just 1.3 seconds. “If you’re not relevant, younger audiences don’t care,” says Johnson. “It’s a learned behavior that these younger generations can filter digital noise out better than earlier generations, because it’s native to them.”
While advertisers may only have a second or two to capture audience attention, it remains possible to retain that attention for any number of seconds or minutes—that is, if the content is captivating and relevant enough.
Given that consumers typically only pay attention to advertisements for the first couple of seconds (especially in skippable or scrollable environments), marketing teams need a “first second strategy” to hook audiences within that time frame. Some proven tactics include:
Personalization can further strengthen these approaches, while helping retain audience attention past the first couple of seconds.
One of the best ways to capture and retain consumer attention is to serve the right message to the right person at the right time. (It may be an adage, but it’s an adage for a reason!)
Today’s marketing teams have both the advantage and the challenge of being able to hyper-personalize their marketing approaches based on consumer data. The best way to out-personalize competitors’ creative and media placements is through data—namely, by having the most efficient processes for collecting, organizing, pulling insights from, and activating data.
This is not always an easy task, with marketers citing finding and maintaining quality data, managing data and privacy regulations, and centralizing data/removing silos as some of their top challenges to executing a data-driven strategy.
The right platform, designed to streamline campaign workflows, increase interoperability, and expedite the process of collecting, organizing, storing, and activating on consumer data (while maintaining privacy compliance), can give marketers a considerable competitive advantage over their peers in terms of being able to achieve personalization at scale, and thus more effectively capture consumer attention.
At the same time, personalization doesn’t just mean tailoring the creative and media placement to the individual, but also to the context. “Our job as brands and advertisers is to try and make sure we are relevant to whatever environment consumers are in and that whatever content we serve them is interesting to them, or at least makes them pause,” says Johnson.
To achieve this, advertisers must plan around the environment and experience of each platform they advertise on. For example, tapping into popular trends and relevant influencers are effective ways to capture audience attention on TikTok, while digital out-of-home is well-suited for capitalizing on context and leveraging dynamic, showstopping creative. Marketing teams must use these insights to tailor bespoke ads for the platforms they run on, as study after study confirms that this draws more attention from viewers than generic ads.
At the same time, advertisers should be sure to maintain a level of cohesion across platforms—different, tailored ads within the same campaign have a higher impact on brand equity than using the same ads across platforms, or employing separate campaigns on separate platforms.
Advertisers can also capture attention by personalizing content to specific moments—for instance, by tapping into trends on social media.
Brands can use social media trends to their advantage, leaning into pop culture moments and trending audio to participate in the conversations their audiences are having in real time. To do so, they need to be able to move quickly, prioritizing the “messy realness” that characterizes these digital spaces rather than investing in high-end video production. This kind of agility can benefit advertisers beyond social media as well, adding a heightened level of relevance and personalization to advertisements on channels like DOOH.
To achieve this level of agility, leaders should embrace tools that streamline operations and reduce the complexity of working across channels and platforms. Advertising automation, which eliminates manual labor and streamlines workflows throughout the campaign journey, can make it easier for marketing teams to swiftly capitalize on cultural moments. Reporting tools that offer a holistic view of performance can also enhance agility, allowing marketers to assess cross-channel campaign performance in real-time and make in-flight changes if/when necessary.
Speaking of measurement…
Naturally, advertisers seeking to capture attention are interested in how effectively they’re doing so across platforms, formats, and creative placements.
Attention metrics have been characterized as an evolution of viewability—telling advertisers not just whether an ad placement is viewable, but whether consumers are paying attention to it. There are a variety of use cases, from supporting always-on measurement to inform in-flight campaign adjustments and optimizations to helping advertisers better understand which platforms and placements best capture audience attention.
These metrics have captured advertisers’ attention in recent years: 47% of advertisers reported they’d be significantly or somewhat more focused on attention metrics in 2024, up from 36% from 2023, and adoption should continue to rise in 2025.
However, like many measurement solutions, attention metrics are imperfect. A big factor here is the lack of standardization: With each provider offering different metrics, gaining a holistic view of measurement across campaigns can be difficult. Some providers use biometric signals to assess attention, which comes with privacy and compliance concerns. And while attention metrics can provide valuable data around consumer interaction with ads, they still can’t tell advertisers much about those consumers’ motivations or sentiments around those ads—in other words, just because someone interacted with an ad doesn’t mean they feel positively about it, or that they are interacting with it in a positive way.
Given these and other challenges, the jury is out on what place attention metrics will ultimately take in advertisers’ toolkits—or if they will even find a permanent home there. “I can’t tell if attention metrics are here to stay, or if they’re something new that the industry is excited about now but may fade out of relevance in the coming years,” says Johnson. “Until the industry finds a way to standardize it, it’s not going to scale.”
Ultimately, Johnson notes, it’s worth testing and experimenting with attention metrics—especially for brands and campaigns focused on upper-funnel objectives like awareness and consideration—as we know there is a strong correlation between attention and business outcomes. But it’s not currently a “need to have” measurement solution for all agencies and brands. Though perhaps imperfect, marketing teams can always leverage all the other data they’re used to looking at (ex. reach, frequency, etc.) to infer how effective their ads are at capturing attention.
Finally, it’s important that marketers consider audience attention not just in context of specific ad placements, but in terms of their broader marketing strategy. Campaigns that leverage multiple platforms and channels tend to perform better together than separately: According to Kantar, brand impact increases by 234% when the same budget is spent across five channels rather than just one. As such, Johnson notes, there’s a benefit to considering not just the attention garnered by one ad placement, but the breadth of attention across multiple platforms and channels over a longer time frame.
“Do all your ad impressions need to be in the highest attention environment? No—there’s a balance,” says Johnson. “There’s value in display and search ads, where maybe people are catching the logo subconsciously, and that helps with the brand recognition. Then, placements in more high attention environments like social media and CTV can complement that subconscious brand recognition with more direct appeals to attention.”
Enabling this kind of omnichannel approach goes back to an agency or marketing teams’ tech stack. Just like achieving personalization at scale requires tools that allow marketers the time they need to personalize content across channels, so too does effective omnichannel advertising. Managing media placements across a variety of channels and platforms puts considerable strain on teams unless they have software that streamlines the process—for example, a platform that unifies campaigns across channels so that marketers don’t have to waste time toggling between seven or more different platforms.
The complexity of capturing audience attention today mirrors the saturated and fractured digital landscape in which modern advertisers work. However, gaining a competitive edge when it comes to attention—which in turn leads to a competitive edge in terms of revenue and business growth—boils down to a few key strategic approaches:
By investing in the tools and solutions that give teams the agility they need to achieve personalization and omnichannel activation, advertisers can win in this new era of attention.
