Paid Media News & Opinion #105

TikTok saw in-app Black Friday sales increase 3x to top $100m

Source

> What’s happening

TikTok experienced a notable surge in in-app sales during Black Friday, seeing a 3x increase compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by the platform's targeted "Shopping Season" initiatives, which included live shopping streams and celebrity appearances to boost awareness and traction. There were over 4bn views of the #tiktokshopblackfriday hashtag, with a 165% increase in shoppers vs last year.

> Why we care

TikTok's investment in ecommerce is clear to see, and the numbers here justify that extra commitment they have made to enhancing their offering. Although the sheer number of views is impressive, this has translated into action, with over $100m of sales in a single day.

This shows what we already know; that TikTok is absolutely a strong channel consideration for marketers looking for a good ROI. These numbers are only likely to spur TikTok on to invest even further in their offering, so performance has the potential to improve even more in 2025.

Google Analytics enhances remarketing with Customer Match in GA4

Source • 4th December 2024

> What’s happening

Google has launched a new feature in GA4 that will be useful within Google Ads accounts: Customer Match. First-party data, automatically hashed and send to Google Analytics, will effectively enhance audience data which can then be pushed to Google Ads via the usual integration.

Privacy is a big focus for this update so Google have made it clear the data will be secure, while also touting the easy and simplicity this update will offer. This will mean larger audiences for targeting without the need for creating additional audiences inside of GA4. Smart bidding can take advantage of these audiences too, just like any signals.

Please note that this is currently in open beta and requires activating via the steps linked above.

> Why we care

To retarget and squeeze the most out of your audiences, this is a positive update with lots of reassurance on the data security side. Considering the deprecation of 3rd party cookies is still looming, this update and its integration will be another privacy-first pillar that Google is driving.

You should use Customer Match lists if you want to specifically target new vs existing customers or use a smart bidding strategy/campaign, like PMax, that relies on high-quality audience data.

Since the improvements with GA4 and integrations with Google Ads, we recommend advertisers (and tech teams) retire the use of the Google Remarketing tags in Google Tag Manager in favour of simply pushing audiences from Google Analytics 4.

Meta unveils AI ad tool successes in performance boost

Source • 2nd December 2024

> What’s happening

Meta has shared insights into how it’s AI system that powers Advantage+, called Andromeda, works. This system and framework for automated ad enhancements and optimisations has been reviewed and data analysed.

Meta claim that usage of Advantage+ has improved a 6% uplift in ad recall and a 22% increase in ROAS from ads (compared to not using Advantage+ creative). For image generation, they claim a +7% increase in conversions for advertisers using this.

In the blog post, Meta also confirmed that their technical advancements will help increase the speed and processing ability of AI systems, helping push efficiency by 10x and look to see a “1000x increase in model complexity” in future, indicating a huge increase in its usage very soon.

> Why we care

We can see that Meta is clear on continuing and increasing its investment in these systems, so love them or hate them they are here to stay. While we can all appreciate the quality (accuracy and reliability) of tools, such as the background generation enhancement, should improve, this also means new enhancements are on the way.

Understanding how each enhancement works, the performance benefit (or drawback!) it can have, and keeping an eye on the latest enhancements will give advertisers an edge over competitors.

What else we've been talking about:

• 6 tips for successful ecommerce search campaigns

• OpenAI has no immediate plans for ChatGPT advertising

• TikTok highlights key trends of 2024