☕️ Infinite scroll and autoplay could vanish from Meta

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

🏷️ Your AI-made ads will now get labeled on Google

🤖 Nearly half your LinkedIn feed is AI-written

📱 Infinite scroll and autoplay could vanish from Meta

💰 Where your 2026 ad budget should shift

🤝 How Unilever manages 300,000 creators with AI

Plus: 💡 5 strategies & tactics, 🎁 6 other news you might like, and 🧰 5 tools.

🏷️ Your AI-made ads will now get labeled on Google LINK

Google is adding a feature that shows people when an ad they see on Search, YouTube, or Discover was made or edited using AI technology.

The disclosure appears in the "My Ad Center" panel under a new "how this ad was made" option, which anyone globally can reach through the three-dot menu or info icon.

Ads built with Google's own generative AI tools get the label automatically, while advertisers using other tools must flag AI themselves, since Google will not run its own check.

🤖 Nearly half your LinkedIn feed is AI-written LINK

Data from AI-detection company Pangram found that about 41 percent of longform written posts people see on LinkedIn are fully AI-generated, along with roughly a third of longer posts on X.

Pangram analyzed around a million posts that users of its Chrome extension actually scrolled through on LinkedIn, Medium, X, Reddit, and Substack over two months, and found longer posts were more likely AI-written than shorter ones.

A quarter of X articles were fully AI-written and another 23 percent were AI-assisted, while roughly one-in-ten longer Reddit and Substack posts were AI, with top-level posts more likely AI-generated than comments.

📱 Infinite scroll and autoplay could vanish from Meta LINK

The European Commission has preliminarily found that Meta breached the Digital Services Act over the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook, and could force the company to switch off infinite scroll and autoplay by default.

Regulators said features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and personalised recommendation algorithms push users into "autopilot mode", while time management tools and parental controls failed to meaningfully reduce usage among teenagers and vulnerable adults.

If the findings are confirmed, Meta faces a fine capped at 6% of worldwide annual turnover, which could exceed $12 billion based on the company's 2025 revenue of just under $201 billion.

💰 Where your 2026 ad budget should shift LINK

Marketing dollars in the second half of 2026 are moving toward streaming, sports and gaming, while legacy channels like linear TV lose ground and paid search enters a murkier place as AI changes how people search.

WPP Media's mid-year forecast expects ad spending to grow 8.9% to $1.3 trillion, while streaming TV has grown roughly 17% this year and gaming is projected to rise 33%, though off a smaller base of investment.

Measurement ties these trends together, as brands want to link each ad placement to a bottom-funnel outcome, which is why Netflix paired Omnicom's audience insights with its own AI tech to target consumers more precisely.

🤝 How Unilever manages 300,000 creators with AI LINK

Unilever has expanded its creator marketing program from 10,000 to 300,000 people and now relies on AI systems to handle discovery, vetting, content approvals and other administrative work across the roster.

One unnamed tool lets Unilever brands scan social media videos to find people sharing positive stories about its products, helping the company find and vet qualified creators across the 190 countries where it sells goods.

CMO Leandro Barreto said the technology augments human choices rather than replacing them, and he added the company does not yet fully trust AI, keeping people involved in decisions that once lived in Excel spreadsheets.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> How Atlan Turned 52 Pages Into a 35% Share of AI Citations: Atlan won 35% of AI citations in its category by building 52 authoritative guides with named experts, real customer data, and honest competitor comparisons that both search engines and AI models trust enough to quote.

> How Payment Friction at Checkout Drives Cart Abandonment: Audit checkout for payment friction like limited options and forced signups, since these last-step hurdles abandon carts closest to a sale.

> Have brands lost the plot in comment sections?: Shift community management from inserting brands into unrelated comment threads toward dramatic real-world service for everyday customers, since one memorable rescue outweighs fifty banter replies.

> AI creative now needs provenance, not just approvals: Track the origin, edits, and rights of every AI-made asset, because audiences and regulators now demand proof of how creative was produced, not just internal sign-off.

> An inside look at Mutiny's growth engine: Testing a more specific, differentiated homepage headline lifted sign-up conversion by 71%, showing that clarity beats vague promises when traffic already arrives.

Other news you might like

• Meta adds new metrics to track business chatbot performanceLINK

• Creators Are Optimizing For ChatGPT To Win Brand DealsLINK

• Amazon and Walmart’s AI Shopping Race Is Now a Battle for Context, Not ClicksLINK

• Instagram’s Adam Mosseri: If you don’t like AI, ‘then you shouldn’t have it in your feed’LINK

• The Family AI Household Economy: AI’s Emerging Consumer OpportunityLINK

• CTV wins budget but not trust as 62% of buyers doubt claims, JamloopLINK

🧰 Trending tools

Elentaria: automatically scores 22 marketing channels, builds a weekly B2B growth plan tailored to your stack, and refines recommendations based on actual revenue outcomes.LINK

Tycoon AI: lets you delegate business goals to an AI CEO who autonomously coordinates specialized agents across marketing, coding, and operations without any setup.LINK

SocLeads 3.0: scrapes verified emails from Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Maps by keyword or hashtag, keeping bounce rates under 3%.LINK

ChatCut: an AI video editor that handles cuts, captions, B-roll, and music through a real timeline, with XML export for further editing elsewhere.LINK

devtrack: an open-source dashboard that tracks developer productivity through stats, pull request metrics, streaks, and personal goals.LINK

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