Take It To The Max
It was easy to miss, back in Q4 2020, Google quietly launching a beta program called Performance Max.
Now, PMax has joined Search as what Google dubs “the power pair.”
And every ad platform is all in on its version of AI-powered media buying: Meta Advantage+ Shopping, Amazon Performance Plus, Microsoft Performance Max, even Criteo Commerce Max.
AI ad agents such as PMax will account for upward of 80% of all digital buys by 2030, Ben Hovaness, chief media officer at the Omnicom firm OMD, tells The Wall Street Journal.
Marketers generally accept the philosophical loss.
“As long as it’s delivering profitable sales to us, I don’t really care where it’s running and what it’s doing,” says Ben Kruger, CMO of Event Tickets Center (and also, lol, Google’s former ecommerce account leader who was the most prominent advocate of PMax early on).
On the other hand, Google PMax and its other AI-based products, Amazon’s AI-operated retail network and Microsoft are the main buyers of made-for-advertising inventory, among other crud.
Advertisers are accustomed to campaign transparency issues because identity data is going away. But the reason PMax and other platform AI products don’t disclose where ads were served, or even sometimes which ads were served, is not about privacy.
It is because if advertisers knew, they would revolt.
Tik-Taking A Break
Despite TikTok’s recent stay of execution, usage and ad spend among advertisers are still dropping.
As of Q1, 71% of advertisers polled said they currently use TikTok, down from 88% in Q3 2024. Similarly, only 12% said that a large portion of their marketing budget goes to TikTok, down from 26% only six months ago, new Digiday research reports.
It’s easy to blame the still-technically-impending TikTok ban, which (once again) may or may not take effect this April. Even if advertisers have mostly treated TikTok like everything’s business as usual since then, the platform’s brief shutdown in January definitely caused them all to flinch.
More pressingly, the report suggests that TikTok might not have the juice anymore, mirroring what Myosin Marketing CEO Sean Clayton told us last month.
It’s a great app for quick hits and organic virality, he said. But compared to Instagram and Facebook, TikTok doesn’t drive a steady stream of brand development and customers.
Strongly Worded Letter
Congress wants the DOJ to investigate X for possible (and, let’s be real, extremely probable) ethics violations against brands that advertise on the platform, the Journal reports.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, five Senate Democrats – Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen – ask for an official probe into whether Elon Musk has wielded any executive branch access to pressure advertisers to continue spending on X.
Musk has already used the legal system to threaten advertisers who have backed off in the past, so it’s definitely a fair concern. But it’s likely that Bondi, who seems more concerned with designing poorly received publicity stunts and prosecuting companies with diversity programs, is not going to consider investigating a fellow member of Trump’s administration anytime soon.
So how to actually make Musk face consequences for any potential coercion? Maybe if the senators put the letter in a pink envelope and quietly hold it up next to Bondi during her next press conference, that’ll do the trick? (Note: It won’t.)
But Wait! There’s More
A long-shot bet to bypass the middlemen of social media. [NYT]
The hottest AI companies right now are all LLM wrappers – apps, in other words. [Bloomberg]
The agency Net Conversion acquires media buying firm Elevate the Outcome. [release]
Could retail media be a target as the FTC considers enforcement of the Robinson–Patman Act? [Adweek]
Spotify is fixing a bug that causes premium users to hear ads. [TechCrunch]
You’re Hired
Havas Creative Network appoints Tamara Greene chief client officer of global brands. [Campaign]
