Paid Media News & Opinion #136

LinkedIn ads reveals insights to increase video ads engagement

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> What’s happening

LinkedIn Creative Labs has released a major new study, analysing over 13,000 B2B video ads and nearly 550,000 frames to uncover the creative elements that significantly boost performance.

Key findings include cinematic, narrative-driven ads delivered a 129% increase in engagement; short, vertical “real talk” formats drove a 103% increase in dwell time; meme use boosted engagement by 111%; and authentic emotional content increased engagement by 78%.

This research defines five core creative drivers of engagement improvements:

• Cultural coding: creating highly relatable content, such as workplace humour or local references

• Human authenticity: unscripted moments, real employees, founders speaking to camera

• Expert voices: named experts with genuine high level insights outperformed ‘overproduced’ video that lacked content

• Attention-grabbing editing: bold visuals, mobile-native formats and clear sequencing

• Storytelling: moving beyond simply listing product features, to tell emotionally rich stories

It’s not feasible to include all of these creative drivers in a single piece of content, but using these areas as inspiration should be a focus.

> Why we care

These are data-driven insights proven to increase engagement in video ads on LinkedIn, so we would highly recommend following this advice when planning and producing your video content on LinkedIn.

Video has become an essential part of LinkedIn ads, and following these best practice guidelines has the potential to give you some significant performance increases in a highly competitive landscape.

Google Ads tests channel performance report with product data split

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> What’s happening

Google Ads are currently testing a new expandable row in the campaign performance table that shows performance by ‘ads using product data’ vs ‘ads not using product data’. This is available in a total rows but also split by individual channels, such as Search or YouTube, providing additional detailed data for Performance Max campaigns.

The feature is in beta with no official announcement from Google, but it’s likely it will be rolled out widely in the near future.

> Why we care

This is a fantastic insight into how Performance Max campaigns are operating with and without product feeds, for those ecommerce advertisers using one. Using the Search row breakdown, you’ll be able to see how much is going to Shopping within Search vs non-Shopping, which could be a game changer for many advertisers.

Additional features and tools recently released for Performance Max have greatly improved transparency for this campaign type, helping persuade the small % of accounts who are skeptical about Performance Max to finally give it a go.

New shopping ad format comes to Gmail placement

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> What’s happening

Google is testing a new Gmail ad format within the Promotions tab, introducing an interactive, commerce-driven space. This format introduces a visually rich ad unit that places product listings directly into Gmail, resembling a mini Shopping carousel.

Here’s what’s included in the new format:

• A featured product tile is displayed prominently, including the brand logo and product image.

• When clicked, the ad expands to reveal multiple product cards in a side-by-side layout.

• Each product card showcases details like image, title, price, star rating, and promotional labels

The placement offers users a browsable product feed inside Gmail, a similar experience to a Shopping ad carousel.

This format appears to be powered by Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns, blending ecommerce presentation with native ad placement.

> Why we care

This signals a strategic evolution of Gmail as an ecommerce channel, creating a new opportunity for brands to drive product visibility and sales in what has traditionally been a non-transactional space.

By embedding product-rich ads directly into the Promotions tab, Google is blurring the lines between email marketing and ecommerce. The format pairs Demand Gen targeting precision with the visual layout of Shopping ads, making it ideal for DTC and retail brands aiming to spark impulse purchases or drive awareness of seasonal offers.

Gmail has long been a branding or awareness tool. This new format opens up performance-marketing potential by making it easier to measure product-level interest, engagements, and direct purchases. Google is giving inboxes a commerce update, and for ecommerce brands, this could be a highly visible new lever to test and scale.

What else we've been talking about:

• Google Shopping ad clicks surge 18% in Q2 as Amazon, Temu pull back

• Brand guidelines now default in new Performance Max campaigns

• Brand inclusions and exclusions moving into AI Max

• Google advertisers can now push campaign changes via Gmail