📰 Amazon & Meta Strike A Deal

🤝 Amazon secures partnership with Meta

🛠 Meta announces new lead ad tools

🍪 The cookieless era is nearly here

& More

AMAZON PARTNERS WITH META

A huge update is coming to Meta shopping! Amazon and Meta have teamed up to link Facebook and Instagram accounts with Amazon, allowing users to shop for Amazon products directly from the social media platforms. The partnership also involves sharing data for ad targeting. Users can opt-in to link their Meta and Amazon accounts and see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads on Facebook and Instagram. They can also check out on Amazon without leaving the on-platform experience, which gives Meta more data to work with. The partnership aims to create a more seamless and relevant shopping experience for users, increase the conversion rate and ad spending for Amazon and Meta, and cope with the data privacy changes that limit tracking. For more info, check out Marketplace Pulse’s article for all the details.

META ADS GET A NEW PLACEMENT

Why didn’t we already have this? In a new update, it appears Meta has rolled out Facebook Groups as a conversion location in Engagement Objective campaigns. As shared here by Marin, the Ads Manager UI now shows Facebook groups as an option for placement. However, it appears that this is only available with a Link Click optimization. Because Facebook Groups are generally so curated, I do think there is value in running link-click ads to these audiences as their intent is likely already higher than others through prequalification. Sure, link-click optimized campaigns aren’t exactly the holy grail for eCommerce brands, they could still be part of a healthy top-of-funnel strategy if used correctly. Check out Marin’s tweet below for more info.

META ANNOUNCES NEW LEAD AD FEATURES

Remember two weeks ago when we shared the news about TikTok partnering with HubSpot? Well, it looks like Meta wasn’t that far behind, as they recently announced new features and partnerships to help businesses generate quality leads from ads that connect with potential customers through messaging, forms, calls, and coupons. Meta is now testing full campaign automation and instant form generation for lead generation ads, using AI to optimize multiple campaign aspects. With Hubspot as a new CRM integration partner and a simplified integration with Zapier, Meta is working hard to improve the efficiency of their lead ad ecosystem. To learn more, check out Meta’s full news release below.

A COOKIELESS FUTURE IS COMING

The talk about a cookieless future has been around for some time now, but it looks like we’re heading in that direction sooner rather than later. In the face of evolving privacy standards, Google is transitioning away from third-party cookies towards more privacy-centric ad targeting methods. This shift, detailed by Google Display Ads' Senior Product Manager Radhika Mani, involves a stronger reliance on first-party data and AI-driven techniques. Google's new strategy, the "Era of Prediction," proposes integrating privacy-preserving tools like the Privacy Sandbox’s Protected Audience API to maintain audience targeting while adhering to enhanced privacy norms. This API introduces methods to limit extensive tracking, including setting minimum thresholds for ad targeting and reducing the duration of user data storage.

Additionally, Google is enhancing AI capabilities to compensate for the reduced scope of tracking. Tools like Smart Bidding and Optimized Targeting are designed to increase ad relevance through internal algorithms. Despite potential impacts on digital ad revenues, these changes are seen as necessary to address consumer privacy concerns and ethical issues related to targeted behavioural advertising (though I don’t know if I personally buy into this). To learn more, check out Search Engine Journal’s article below.

• COMMENTS TO STORIES: Instagram’s new feature that allows you to share comments on posts to your stories is finally here!

• MICROSOFT ADS GET NEW BID STRATEGIES: Microsoft Ads has rolled out Maximize Conversions and TargetCPA bid strategies for their audience network placements.

• IF YOU RUN ADS, DON’T OPT OUT: Meta is now blocking users from running ads on Meta Ads Manager if they pay for the subscription that opts them out of ads in their feed.

• USE THESE COPYWRITING FRAMEWORKS: Chase Dimond shared a fantastic infographic that breaks down several writing frameworks to make copywriting easier.

JOHN LEWIS — SNAPPY THE FLY TRAP

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London

Are you ready for the onslaught of holiday season commercials? I am! For those unfamiliar, European brands come together every year and release their heartfelt, fun, emotional, and engaging commercials in time to inspire shopping for the holiday season. It’s a bit of a tradition at this point, and this year, we’re already seeing some great entries.

In this new commercial from John Lewis, we get exactly what we expect: a heartwarming tale with comedy, emotional prodding, and high production quality. This ad is very well made, with an interesting and memorable story. However, my main qualm is that it seems to lack some sort of moral narrative. What am I meant to learn from this? I’m not exactly sure, but I liked watching it.

PIT VIPER — THE DISCOUNT GETS WORSE

Sure, it’s nothing fancy, but it is definitely effective. Perfectly on-brand for Pit Viper, they announced their BFCM season sale with a funny campaign that encourages immediacy, which is actually quite brilliant. With their ‘The Discount Gets Worse Sale’ promotion, they get to maintain their brand’s wit and comedic angle while encouraging shoppers not to wait for the BFCM rush, which could play out well as they get those dollars before anyone else.

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Cory