Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Search High And Low
TikTok announced this week that it would allow search advertising to be targeted by keyword. Previously, advertisers targeted specific audiences or types of audiences, but not actual search terms.
TikTok’s growing search ad business is often framed as part of the overall threat to Google’s dominance. But TikTok search is part of a much sharper rivalry between the social media network and Amazon, according to Eric Seufert at Mobile Dev Memo.
It is hard to square the heated rivalry between Amazon and TikTok with the companies’ recent advertising partnership. They’re often direct competitors, not complementary, and each is fighting hard to be the place for product discovery.
Amazon and TikTok may be reluctant to give the other a leg up, but both want what the other has. Amazon needs targeted shopping supply and social media engagement; TikTok needs users to habituate themselves to purchasing on the platform.
Amazon derives a huge advantage from the TikTok integration, since Amazon owns the customer and purchase data. TikTok gets another demand source, but as Amazon gets better and better at converting TikTok ad impressions to sales, TikTok earns no cut of the sales growth.
As Seen On CTV
Once upon a time, streaming was the shiny object of the ad industry. Now, ad supply outpaces demand, Ad Age reports.
Part of that mismatch is due to media companies creating ad inventory seemingly out of thin air. Amazon will increase the rate of ads on Prime Video, while new placements like pause ads and home screen ads are spawning across streaming and smart TV services.
Perhaps more importantly, media buyers remain disgruntled with the lack of pricing and measurement consistency.
While the cost of cable TV is fairly consistent across the board (dayparts aside), streaming services launch ads with sky-high CPMs, then seemingly roll back prices at random.
Plus, measurement is out of whack. Publishers still can’t agree on whether to sell and measure media based on GRPs or impressions, or what counts as premium inventory. Paired with the chronic lack of transparency in streaming buys, advertisers don’t necessarily see streaming as worth the cost and effort compared to cross-platform buys, one agency exec says.
Considering CTV’s growing pains, it’s no wonder why buyers plan to spend more on social video than streaming this year.
Going DEI-Free
Pushy right-wingers aren’t the reason DEI programs are disappearing – or at least, not the only reason, Adweek reports.
Shortly after the George Floyd protests in 2020, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives became a popular way for brands, agencies and vendors to address concerns from consumers and employees about racial inequality (and to look good in the process, a more cynical onlooker might say).
Although DEI-related job postings increased a whopping 123% that year (per Indeed), not even two years later those jobs were already getting slashed in layoffs, NBC News reported.
And now several major companies – including Tractor Supply, John Deere, and Harley-Davidson – have publicly downscaled or even dropped their DEI initiatives.
Conservative activists online would seem to be the most obvious instigating force here. But Adweek posits that last year’s Supreme Court decision against affirmative action had a more chilling effect, even though it only technically pertained to college admissions.
Regardless, one thing seems pretty clear to both pro- and anti-DEI onlookers: None of these companies was that committed to the idea in the first place, if they were willing to flip so quickly.
But Wait, There’s More!
Apple Search Ads expands to Turkey and 20 additional countries. [9to5Mac]
Amazon’s new shopping chatbot refuses to suggest “dupes,” aka off-brand facsimiles of luxury products. [Business Insider]
The EU Commission has issued formal information requests to YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat about their content recommendation algos. [release]
Omnicom Media Group strikes partnership with Snap for creator collaboration. [Digiday]
You’re Hired
Yieldmo adds Eddie Ishak as SVP, experience design and development, and promotes Dan Contento to chief commercial officer. [release]
