☕️ X just settled its war with advertisers

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

🤝 X just settled its war with advertisers

📱 Meta's AI is making Instagram harder to quit

💸 Squarespace just raised your bill up to 26%

🔒 FTC sues Hims & Hers over shared ad data

📉 Why Microsoft search ad growth is slowing

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

🤝 X just settled its war with advertisers LINK

X has ended its long-running legal fight with the World Federation of Advertisers, closing Elon Musk's push to hold brands legally responsible for cutting ad spending over concerns about content moderation on the platform.

X sued the WFA in 2024, claiming a "systematic illegal boycott" after ad revenue fell following Musk's $44 billion takeover, naming companies like Mars, CVS Health, Shell, and Lego among those it accused.

A federal court dismissed the suit in March, finding X showed no harm under competition laws, and the WFA confirmed it discontinued its Global Alliance for Responsible Media on August 9, 2024, and will not restart it.

📱 Meta's AI is making Instagram harder to quit LINK

Meta says its new AI recommendation systems are keeping people on Instagram longer, with time spent on the app growing by double digits compared with a year earlier.

Every public Reel and Feed post on Instagram now runs through a large language model that reads its topic and tone, then pairs that with each user's viewing history to predict what they will watch next.

Meta's largest single Reels ranking update so far drove a 15 basis point rise in sessions, with the biggest gains in reshares and time spent, and the company is now applying the same approach to the main Feed.

💸 Squarespace just raised your bill up to 26% LINK

Squarespace has raised subscription prices by as much as 26 percent, with Core plans moving from about $23 to $29 per month billed annually and Basic plans climbing 19 percent, from $16 to $19 monthly.

The company added AI features and other tools once locked behind higher tiers or third-party add-ons to every plan, and many customers complained they now pay for AI generators and analytics suites they never asked for or use.

Squarespace sent the changes through quiet automated emails with no formal announcement, later admitting a "pricing implementation error" gave some accounts inflated quotes, though the company says nobody paid the higher amount.

🔒 FTC sues Hims & Hers over shared ad data LINK

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Hims & Hers, claiming the telehealth company shared customers' medical and healthcare information with advertisers and tech giants like Meta and Snap while misleading people about its privacy practices.

The complaint says Hims & Hers placed pixel-sized trackers from Meta, Snap, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit and X that captured and shared users' health information, going against the company's own privacy policy.

The FTC also accused Hims & Hers of deceptive billing and making it hard to cancel, and the agency has taken similar action against Cerebral, Monument, GoodRx and BetterHelp for sharing patient data.

📉 Why Microsoft search ad growth is slowing LINK

Microsoft's search advertising revenue growth slowed to 10% year over year in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, or 9% in constant currency, down from 12% ex-TAC growth in the prior quarter.

CFO Amy Hood said growth came from higher revenue per search and more volume across Edge and Bing, though third-party partnerships dragged on the total, reversing the boost those same deals gave over the full year.

Full-year search advertising revenue reached $15.176 billion in fiscal 2026, up from $13.878 billion the year before, though the quarterly rate sits well below the 21% ex-TAC peak Microsoft posted throughout fiscal 2025.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> How to Grow on Instagram Without Reels: Grow on Instagram with educational carousels instead of Reels, since swiping and re-reading signals the algorithm to boost reach while sparing you from filming.

> Digital PR for AI visibility: 5 tactics + how to measure: Earn mentions from independent, authoritative third-party sites through digital PR because AI search platforms trust that external record to decide which brands to cite.

> How to measure marketing when AI owns discovery: Track brand-name searches, repeat visits, and pricing-page actions instead of raw traffic, because buyers now research through AI tools before ever reaching your site.

> The Instagram Engagement Funnel: How Smart Brands Convert Post Interactions Into Paying Customers: Turn Instagram comments into sales by auto-sending a relevant DM when users type a keyword, then handing qualified conversations to a human on WhatsApp.

> How I Built an AI Social Media Coach with my Social Data: Feed your own exported post data to an AI tool so it spots patterns and coaches you toward your goals using real numbers, not generic advice.

> What AI Knows About You: Topical Presence with Dixon Jones: Track whether AI describes your brand accurately in your product category, not how often it names you, since buyers now research with AI before ever clicking.

Other news you might like

• AI Mode cuts Google Shopping listings 95%, Productrise findsLINK

• Reddit’s Self-Serve Ad Tools Open New Front in Battle for Smaller AdvertisersLINK

• TikTok Gives Creators More Control Over Keyword Metadata: What It Means for Social SearchLINK

• OpenAI builds ads sales org while merchant feed role stays unfilledLINK

• Spotify adds a ‘Campaign Lift’ metric for its Discovery ModeLINK

🧰 Trending tools

Honestly: collects and verifies authentic customer conversations from TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and X into actionable insights, helping you spot market trends early.LINK

ClawTeams: lets teams upload raw data and get automated analysis, visualizations, and actionable reports without writing SQL or code.LINK

Fedica 2.0: a social media suite that schedules posts across 12+ networks, tracks audience engagement, and analyzes followers and competitors from one dashboard.LINK

AutoEdit: automates rough cuts in Premiere Pro by cutting silences, filler words, and bad takes while generating captions automatically.LINK

Mark by Airtop: an AI agent builder that logs into websites, extracts data, and completes tasks using plain English instructions instead of code.LINK

Awesome Marketing: A curated list of awesome marketing tools and resourcesLINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!