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Some of your ads feel more expensive lately?

This might be why:

The Harris campaign has instead focused its digital spending on larger platforms like Google and Meta, where it has spent over $280mn this year. The vast amount of political spending on those platforms — already more than $1.5bn

I’m not sure how they’re defining “this year” since the Harris campaign technically started in July when Biden suspended his campaign.

$280 mil in 3 months?

Either way, a lot of money putting pressure on the auction algorithms.

via Financial Times

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This post from Jyll is a must read for any paid account manager.

As it turns out, when we only show ads when people are searching for exactly what we offer, we don’t show many ads because not many people are searching for exactly what we offer 🙃

Performance marketing without brand marketing won’t actually perform.

Performance channels like paid search are demand capture channels.

That demand needs to be created somewhere. And in this era of content overload and distraction, it’s getting harder to capture attention and create demand.

Omni-channel is the only channel.

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Meta is developing its AI search engine (and apparently has the “most-used AI assistant in the world”).

Now OpenAI is fully launching ChatGPT search

ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before. You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for. This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more.

A conversation about the weather forecast for Positano, Italy, on November 2-3, 2024, showing mild temperatures and rain. The user then asks for dinner recommendations in Positano on Friday night, with responses listing local restaurants.

Search is now about your preferred interface, experience, and engine.

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We always tell clients that what they think is boring is probably what they need to talk about the most.

Because it might be a mystery to the people you’re trying to talk to.

Your everyday is what someone else is trying to hire for. Or the problem they are trying to solve.

All this to say, I love this quote:

In the words of my late friend Jay Levinson, “Don’t change your story when you’re bored, or when your partner is bored, or when your team is bored. Change your story when your accountant is bored.”
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Meta is developing an AI search engine, to be embedded in its Meta AI chatbot. The company has reportedly been indexing the web for at least eight months. 

Meta AI currently uses Google and Bing’s search engines when it fetches users answers about current events, financial markets, and sports.

This highlights a few things:

  • Search is no longer a platform, it’s a feature.
  • Users want answers, not necessarily options.
  • Google will not be replaced by a copycat. It will be chipped away at by new, novel alternatives and user dispersion across other channels. (and maybe by antitrust)
  • Meta continues to reduce reliance on other companies wherever it can. The true realization of this will be a hardware platform, likely in the XR space.
  • For brands / creators, having your content on the web—preferably on a platform you own—where it can be crawled is once again the path to relevance. (see: Gwern)
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Meta’s plan for growth among younger demos:

  • Discovery
  • Utility

Surface content like an entertainment app (social media is basically TV now).

Do the classic “Meta experience upgrade” on things like marketplaces, forums (Groups), and events.

Network effect + massive infrastructure = advantage

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More than 40% of leading brands secure 10% plus of their annual e-commerce revenue from holiday shopping events like Black Friday and Singles Day

Whilst the leading brands secure a significant proportion of revenue from holiday shopping events, 25% of laggards don’t even participate. The brands that capture revenue typically forge deals and partnerships, build inventory, align on promotions, and secure both budget and head count ahead of the shopping season.

This of course compounds as consumers wait for expected deals on shopping days, shifting more of their shopping activity there. Increasing the % of total revenue brands derive from smaller time frames.

via Marketing Tech News

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Been doing this thing with TV ads lately where I unmute for the last second or, at most, two seconds (the now normalized ad countdown makes this easy), and seeing — that is, hearing — what makes the final sonic impression, and then trying gauge the extent to which advertisers are doing anything in that final moment to catch the ear of and appeal to vigilant ad-muters

Great test not just for ad-muters but to use the peak-end rule.

What are you leaving on? What’s your last moment? What’s your goodbye?

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Some homework from Steven Soderbergh:

Just looking at something and going, I like that, and then trying to break down, why do I like that?

What is it about that… that I like?

What do I steal?

What can I repurpose or tweak to make it fit what we’re trying to do?

He steals like an artist. We can steal like marketers.

Pay attention to the messages and artifacts you encounter. If something resonates or stands out, figure out why. Use it in your own work.

via Austin Kleon

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Everything is TV Now

Last year the flip happened, people spent more time on TikTok than watching TV.

There was an interesting article from Caroline Mimbs Nyce of The Atlantic, and the title was titled, You're Looking at TikTok All Wrong. The app is basically just broadcast TV now. It does seem like people are treating social media more like televisions, the share of time spent on social media where people are watching video has gone from, I think it was about a third before the pandemic to about two-thirds now.