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More ads in more places: Mastercard edition

Mastercard unveils a dedicated network to deliver personalized content across channels at scale.

Advertisers come to Mastercard to deliver tailored offers and content (i.e., cashback, discounts, incentives, advertisements and more) to specific audiences aligned to their own business goals.

From the landing page:

Leverage our extensive network of publishing partners to reach millions of actively engaging, permissioned consumers

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A sharp deterioration in consumers’ views of the current economic situation weighed on confidence

😬

Present situation vibes dropped 7 points .

Expectations dipped (again) and have now been below 80 (the unofficial recession signal) since February (maybe giving credence to the rolling recession hypothesis?).

Consumers’ write-in responses showed that references to prices and inflation rose in September, regaining its top position as the main topic influencing consumers’ views of the economy.

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Google and Meta Ads are saturated and automated.

There is no in-platform secret sauce and the days of scaling your sales to the moon on one or the other are in the rear view.

They’re still the best at what they do, but you need something else if you want outsized results.

What’s your new frontier?

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Not sure how accurate this insight into Meta’s ad algorithm is, but it’s still helpful to think through.

The 15-Second Framework:
• 0-3 sec: Hook
• 3-5 sec: Value prop
• 5-8 sec: Benefits
• 8-15 sec: Problem/Solution

I’d make that the 16 second framework and extend the Value Prop or Benefits if needed. Use ThruPlays to your advantage.

What Meta’s AI actually sees:
→ Setting = income level
→ Person = demographic
→ Language = education
→ Problem = life stage
→ Music = cultural signals
→ Colors = emotional state

Computer vision + sentiment analysis + trove of behavior data

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The key to branding and messaging in a post-AI world? Personality

Average is easy to churn out at a superhuman clip. Stand out by saying things that only apply to your brand.

I’ve seen this advice a lot lately, this classic New Balance ad is a great example.

Say something only you can say.

A gray New Balance 990v5 sneaker is displayed with the caption, Worn by supermodels in London and dads in Ohio.
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The Year of the Splinter 🐀 continues (more of a decade, maybe an era).

Relevant headlines:

The top 10% of Americans account for nearly half of consumer spending

highlighting the growing divide between high-income earners and middle/lower-income earners

Over half of consumers consider grocery prices a ‘major stress’

Nearly 9 in 10 US adults (88%) are stressed about grocery prices—including 53% who say food costs are a major source of stress

Gen Z holiday spending tanks in 2025

See also:

Holiday spending among US consumers is expected to decrease by 22.5% for Gen Z in 2025, while other generations show slight increases.
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Plants need water to grow.

But they also need periods without water.
Watering everyday has the same end as never watering.

Algorithms want you to water your audience daily. Because it benefits them.

What is the right cadence for the results you want?

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Beware your metrics: Google capped search results at 10 / page. No more 100 results on a page.

A lot of rankings tools are reporting issues and I’m noticing improved reported average ranks across Google Search Console accounts, likely from deep page data loss.

How are ChatGPT results changing?

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TikTok is (reportedly) getting its green card.

Oracle and friends are buying the app with ByteDance retaining a 20% stake.

But what about The Algorithm™️?

The new ownership group will license it from ByteDance.

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People want novelty in a familiar package.

A study finds that people are more open to plant-based eggs when they’re part of familiar foods, like pancakes, rather than served plain.

via Science Daily