Oh Lawd, They Comin'

[00:00:01] It is Friday, January 3rd. This week, free advertising on Amazon, but it comes with a big catch.

[00:00:07] Meta floods its platforms with fake profiles. The huge hit taken by retailers on product returns.

[00:00:15] And out with the mob wife, in with the sports fluencers. What 2025 has in store for the creator economy.

[00:00:23] I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead in our Friday wrap-up of the week in digital marketing.

[00:00:27] Although this week, it's really just the last two days.

[00:00:31] We start as usual with changes to the advertising space.

[00:00:34] Ban or not, TikTok still wants your ad dollars.

[00:00:37] The platform is guaranteeing ad refunds now to ease concerns as it faces a potential U.S. ban.

[00:00:44] As some advertisers pull back, the app is trying to reassure major ad firms that they can get out of ad agreements if the ban goes through.

[00:00:52] In an email to ad agencies, TikTok said it would refund down payments on ad commitments if it fails to stop the ban, which is set for January 19th.

[00:01:02] As the legal battle drags on, attitudes among advertisers are divided.

[00:01:08] Some are pausing new campaigns.

[00:01:09] Others are sticking with TikTok for now and are prepared to shift funds to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, or other streaming platforms if needed.

[00:01:18] Free advertising on Amazon, you say?

[00:01:21] Sure, but only if you quit Timu.

[00:01:24] Timu, the bargain site, has become a go-to for popular China-based Amazon merchants looking to expand.

[00:01:30] Until recently, Amazon wasn't really stopping them.

[00:01:33] Now, Amazon is offering incentives like free advertising and lower commissions if merchants agree to stop selling on Timu.

[00:01:41] Amazon has also started removing buy now buttons from product listings when it finds identical items listed on Timu for less.

[00:01:49] A spokesperson for Amazon said it hasn't asked sellers to sell exclusively on its e-commerce site and it supports selling across different platforms, but apparently not at Timu.

[00:02:00] Over at Google Ads, they are testing search ads without ad copy.

[00:02:04] Yeah, just photos and no descriptions.

[00:02:06] This has left some marketers frustrated, questioning how they can trust metrics when ads are so inconsistent.

[00:02:13] Starting January 20th, new performance max campaigns created in the Google Ads web interface will require brand guidelines.

[00:02:20] Business name and logo assets will have to be linked at the campaign level, not at the asset group level.

[00:02:27] There's also a new brand control override for Pmax campaigns to allow shopping ads on searches with excluded brands.

[00:02:34] The option, found under brand exclusions, lets you bypass exclusions for shopping ads, making sure that your ads will still appear for searches mentioning those brands.

[00:02:44] And Google Ads has launched a new brand report that shows deduplicated reach and frequency metrics across your campaigns.

[00:02:51] You can also sort it by demographics like age and gender.

[00:02:58] All right, to the social media changes in the past, well, couple of days.

[00:03:01] Who could have seen this coming?

[00:03:03] Meta's push to flood Facebook and Instagram with AI profiles is already backfiring.

[00:03:09] Users uncovered fake bot accounts that have been around since 2023, like Jane Austen, a cynical novelist,

[00:03:17] and Liv, describing itself as a proud black queer mama.

[00:03:22] Despite more than a dozen AI characters, none of them gained much traction,

[00:03:26] each barely scraping a few thousand followers and little engagement.

[00:03:29] That is, until recently.

[00:03:32] After news broke this week of Meta's plans to roll out millions of AI profiles,

[00:03:36] these bot accounts are suddenly in the spotlight and the reactions are not good.

[00:03:41] Comments like, what the F does an AI know about dating?

[00:03:44] And this isn't only virtual blackface, it's just weird.

[00:03:50] Several of the AI profiles were taken down today.

[00:03:52] Users were not able to block or report the ads since typical blocking features were missing.

[00:03:58] A couple of other small items.

[00:04:00] Blue Sky has added a new trending topics feature that lets brands and users see what's popular on the app.

[00:04:05] You'll find it under the search icon.

[00:04:07] It shows a list of trending and recommended subjects.

[00:04:10] X has raised its premium plus subscription by 30%.

[00:04:14] That increases it from $16 US to $22.

[00:04:18] Are you looking to market to moms?

[00:04:21] Seems like Facebook is still the go-to platform.

[00:04:24] A study found that US moms spend more than twice as much time on Facebook and Messenger as they do on TikTok.

[00:04:30] What does 2025 have in store for influencer marketing?

[00:04:33] According to some experts quoted in our newsletter,

[00:04:36] influencer brand extensions.

[00:04:37] This is influencers expanding into brands and podcasts and newsletters and subscription content.

[00:04:42] And expect more long-form audio and video content with a focus on episodic series.

[00:04:49] Meta has tapped Joel Kaplan, a former Republican White House staffer,

[00:04:54] to replace Nick Clegg as global policy head.

[00:04:57] The move comes ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration,

[00:04:59] suggesting a major shift in Meta's direction under its new Trump-friendly leadership.

[00:05:05] And TikTok is rolling out some more generative AI features,

[00:05:08] like the AI Groupshot tool.

[00:05:11] This will let users add themselves to image templates.

[00:05:14] The platform says more AI tools are, of course, in the works,

[00:05:17] including easy meme creation from personal images

[00:05:20] and AI-driven suggestions for video captions and edits.

[00:05:28] I guess since we're here with TikTok,

[00:05:30] we should take a look at the two big court cases we're following.

[00:05:32] One, of course, is TikTok.

[00:05:34] And Donald Trump wants the Supreme Court now to let him negotiate a deal

[00:05:38] to save TikTok from a U.S. ban.

[00:05:40] In a court brief this week,

[00:05:42] Trump said only he has the political mandate and expertise

[00:05:46] to resolve the issue once he's in office.

[00:05:48] No word yet on what said deal would look like.

[00:05:51] And the other big court case that we are watching,

[00:05:54] after its antitrust win,

[00:05:55] the American Department of Justice proposed sweeping changes to Google,

[00:05:59] including selling Chrome and ending exclusive search deals with companies like Apple.

[00:06:04] Well, now Apple has come back with what it thinks is a simpler fix.

[00:06:09] Just end default search deals for three years

[00:06:12] and let us keep Android and Chrome,

[00:06:15] if you don't mind.

[00:06:17] No word yet on the final ruling.

[00:06:23] All right, a look at what changed in the DTC and e-commerce world for the past few days.

[00:06:27] In 2024, social media referral traffic to publishers kept declining,

[00:06:32] with Facebook taking a major hit

[00:06:34] and platforms like Instagram, Reddit and Threads sending minimal traffic.

[00:06:39] The standout?

[00:06:40] Well, Google, of course.

[00:06:41] As retailers pushed holiday discounts, shoppers showed up.

[00:06:44] Total spending for the holiday season from November 1st to December 24th rose nearly 4%.

[00:06:49] Online sales outpaced in-store, growing nearly 7%,

[00:06:53] but in-store sales still were up by 3%.

[00:06:57] Retailers took a $103 billion hit from fraudulent returns last year.

[00:07:04] 15% of the projected $685 billion in returns.

[00:07:10] Nearly half of retailers faced returns of stolen merchandise.

[00:07:14] And 60% dealt with what's being called wardrobing.

[00:07:18] Items bought online, worn, and then returned.

[00:07:22] And TikTok shop has added 10 new collectible categories,

[00:07:26] including comics, manga, and art books,

[00:07:28] plus more sports memorabilia and autographed items.

[00:07:31] Merchants have to verify item condition and authenticity

[00:07:34] to prevent the sale of fake goods.

[00:07:41] And finally, one other interesting tidbit that didn't seem to fit anywhere else.

[00:07:44] Marketers are worried that AI will kill jobs, not just their own.

[00:07:48] A new study has found that half of marketers believe AI will cut marketing roles,

[00:07:53] but two out of three say they're not worried about tech taking their job.

[00:07:59] We listen, and we don't judge.

[00:08:04] Those were the top digital marketing stories over the past, well, I guess two days, really.

[00:08:08] All the sources are in our email newsletter,

[00:08:10] which comes out every weekday at 5 o'clock Eastern and is free to sign up to.

[00:08:15] You can sign up to it at todayindigital.com slash newsletter.

[00:08:19] Tuesday on our weekly deep dive episode,

[00:08:22] our Google Ads correspondent Jill Saskengales joins me,

[00:08:26] and we talk about what's ahead in 2025 for the ads platform.

[00:08:30] Follow us on social media.

[00:08:32] We are almost everywhere.

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[00:08:39] Just go to todayindigital.com slash social or tap the link in the show notes.

[00:08:44] I'm Todd Maffin.

[00:08:45] Follow me on Blue Sky at T-O-D-M-A-F-F-I-N dot com.

[00:08:50] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:51] Have a restful weekend.

[00:08:53] I'll see you on Tuesday.