Today in Digital Marketing - May 2, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, May 2nd. I'm Todd Maffin. Here is your wrap-up of the week in digital marketing. We start as usual with the advertising world and Meta this week updating its incremental attribution tool with a new advanced option when comparing attribution settings in Ads Manager. This will let you break down results by attribution model highlighting incremental conversions, those that wouldn't have happened if people hadn't seen your ad.

Starting point is 00:00:26 The chat app Discord is marking one year of its reward-based ad format, Quests. After strong results on PC and console, Quests will expand to mobile in June. This ad format invites users to complete actions like watching a video or playing a game in exchange for in-game rewards or avatar upgrades. PayPal is expanding its ad reach by launching programmatic ads. Previously, the company only offered ads on its website, but it's now pitching advertisers on targeted ads that will run across other publishers' sites. Their ad platform uses data from PayPal, Venmo, and Honey to target ads based on what customers

Starting point is 00:01:05 buy across its platforms. PayPal's advantage is shopping data across 30 million merchants and 400 million shoppers. Digital ad video spend is expected to grow nearly 15% in 2025, reaching $72.5 billion. The growth continues a shift that started last year with digital video overtaking linear TV for the first time, claiming 51% of total video spend. That lead is set to widen this year with digital projected to take 58% of the market. CPG brands are set to lead digital video ad spend in 2025 with a projected $14.3 billion, up 13% from 2024. And finally in the ad world, Meta this week posting strong Q1 results, ad revenue up 16% year over year to $42.3 billion that beat expectations. Advertisers continued to spend,

Starting point is 00:02:01 despite Meta's pullback on fact-checking and shifting US trade policy. Online commerce was the main growth driver, though spend from Asia-based e-commerce firms softened, possibly due to tariff-related impacts. Ad impressions for its family of apps increased 5% year-over-year. To social media now, and news this week that X continues to lose steam. In Europe, according to its latest filing under the EU Digital Services Act, the platform has lost 11 million users, that is more than 10% down since August. Threads, on the other hand, now has more than 350 million monthly active users.

Starting point is 00:02:43 That's still behind X's reported user base, but they are slowly closing the gap. Threads also saw a 35% increase in time spent on the app. Snapchat's Q1 report showed steady growth in users and revenue this week, fueled by international markets, while US numbers actually slipped with the loss of 1 million daily active users in North America. The company said global time spent watching content is up, although they didn't share specifics. Good news for the company, though, revenue increased 14% year over year.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Meanwhile, after months of testing and losing a million users in North America, Snapchat is abandoning its simple redesign. Instead, the company is now testing a refined layout that keeps its five existing tabs, combining some elements of the original and simplified designs. This new layout, the company hopes, will bring more stories into messaging and make Spotlight easier to access. And TikTok has officially surpassed Twitch to be the second most watched live streaming platform. TikTok Live generated 8 billion watch hours making up 27% of global live

Starting point is 00:03:51 streaming time. YouTube claimed the number one spot of course with 15 billion hours. About 50% of the total Twitch came in third with about 16% share. In the marketing and AI world, OpenAI has started rolling out shopping search features directly in ChatGPT, covering categories like fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics. These results aren't ads or affiliate links. They are powered by structured data from third-party sources, and brands can apply to have their products included. Product reviews come from a mix of sources, including editorial sites like Wired and user-generated forums like Reddit. Users can customize which types of reviews GPT prioritizes when recommending products.

Starting point is 00:04:40 OpenAI also announced improved citations, WhatsApp integration, and new features like trending topics and autocomplete. Over at Google, their AI overview recently went viral for confidently generating plausible definitions for completely made-up idioms. Like you can't lick a badger twice! Users quickly discovered that typing any nonsense phrase followed by the word meaning into search triggers the AI to explain it, sometimes even citing fake sources. Ars Technica has a great breakdown this week on how

Starting point is 00:05:14 Google's model tries with surprising poetic flair to make sense out of nonsense and why that might be part of the problem. Google is testing AdSense ads within AI chatbots, including AI search apps, iAsk, and Liner. With plans to expand to other chatbot providers, this is a big expansion for the ad format, which has traditionally displayed ads in search results and websites. To the commerce side of things now, and Amazon and Walmart pushing to make their delivery options faster to woo shoppers. While smaller retailers are leaning into slower, cheaper shipping, the retail giants are growing their same-day reach in rural areas using drones and leaning on their in-house fulfillment

Starting point is 00:06:00 capabilities to beat the competition. Amazon grew its same-day delivery network by 60% last year, now reaching over 140 metro areas. Its drones started making deliveries in Arizona and Texas last November. The company is also trying to expand fast delivery to smaller cities and rural areas across the U.S. Meanwhile, this week the company confirming that Prime Day will return this July, offering deep discounts, so they say, across more than 35 categories, amid a consumer environment shaken by Trump-era tariffs. Official dates are still under wraps, but the announcement comes as some sellers reportedly

Starting point is 00:06:36 weigh backing out due to tariff-related costs. Amazon also briefly faced pushback from the White House this week after reports claimed it planned to display tariff costs alongside product prices. In response, the company said while the idea was considered by the team behind its low-cost Amazon Haul store, quote, this was never approved and is not going to happen. An interesting marketing science paper out this week talking about how to train your chatbot to talk like a happier customer. The study finding that consumers were up to 50% more satisfied and more likely to buy when AI chatbots used interjections like wow and aw and oh.

Starting point is 00:07:24 These expressions make bots sound more human, helping users feel heard, say the researchers, and building trust in the brand. The researchers say when chatbots have human-like traits they feel more relatable. This emotional connection makes the experience feel more positive and enjoyable, increasing trust in the bots recommendations, and ultimately boosting purchase intent. Alright, a few miscellaneous items to wrap us up for the week. SAG-AFTRA is expanding its reach to include digital content creators. The Creative Union's board recently approving the creation of a new committee dedicated to influencers that will focus on providing professional support tailored to the needs of creators. And Best Buy's affiliate program

Starting point is 00:08:09 is facing challenges due to broader economic factors, the company says. They recently launched its Best Buy Creator, which lets participants earn from virtual storefronts, but now the retailer has delayed payouts and cut payout rates. Affiliates were notified that payouts would be temporarily adjusted to a quote zero percent baseline unquote through early May. With commission payments also delayed. Best Buy said those payouts have now been made and expects the program to return to normal next month. And finally, one of the internet's most iconic anti-piracy ads

Starting point is 00:08:46 turns out to be a little pirated itself. The You Wouldn't Steal a Car campaign from the early 2000s, part of the Piracy It's a Crime series, turns out it used a pirated font to spell out its slogan. While it was believed to feature the FF confidential font, it actually used a clone called X-Band Rough, the font creator this week confirming the knockoff was an illegal rip-off of his work, adding, quote, the irony is extremely funny indeed. Those were the top digital marketing stories over the last five days. You'd have gotten all of this news and much, much more earlier if you were signed up to our email newsletter, which comes out every weekday at 5 o'clock Eastern and is completely

Starting point is 00:09:35 free. You can sign up today at todayindigital.com. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening. Have a restful weekend. I'll see you in a week. questions and it'll recommend a few episodes of the hit Side Hustle Show podcast to start with. You can add your personalized Side Hustle Show playlist to your device, learn what works and start making more money today. Again, that's at Hustle.Show or follow

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Today in Digital Marketing - May 2, 2025

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