☕️ Reels now owns half of Instagram's ad slots

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

📱 Reels now owns half of Instagram's ad slots

🎬 TikTok's new AI model lets you make longer video ads

🎄 Why your holiday campaigns should start in September

🔍 Where your topical authority stops in ChatGPT

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

📱 Reels now owns half of Instagram's ad slots LINK

Reels now takes in more than half of Instagram's ad placements, according to Sensor Tower estimates for the second quarter of 2026, with ads per session in the video section rising 10 percentage points year over year.

Reels absorbed 51 percent of user time spent on Instagram during the quarter and grew 6 percentage points in engagement, while time on Stories fell 2 points and Search dropped 1 point.

Instagram led the seven-network cohort in daily time spent, up 12 percent year over year to 59 minutes per day, even as Facebook and Instagram app downloads fell an average of 5 percent.

🎬 TikTok's new AI model lets you make longer video ads LINK

TikTok Symphony has added Dreamina Seedance 2.5, ByteDance's newest AI video model, which now lets advertisers generate video ads up to 30 seconds long, double the previous 15 second maximum, for fuller narratives.

Advertisers can now upload up to 50 multi-modal references across image, video, and audio, up from 9 before, and apply timestamp-specific creative direction for more control over sequence, pacing, and scene flow.

The integration is rolling out to select paid advertisers in select markets, available across Symphony Creative Studio, Symphony Automations in TikTok Ads Manager, and the Symphony API, with visual quality that keeps lighting, motion, and character consistency.

🎄 Why your holiday campaigns should start in September LINK

Pinterest is telling brands to launch their holiday campaigns as early as September, since data from past years shows festive shopping activity on the platform starts spiking that early.

The platform pointed to its AI-powered Performance+ campaigns, which combine automation and AI features and drove a 28% improvement in ROAS during testing for SMB advertisers using ROAS bidding.

Pinterest also urged brands to extend campaigns past Christmas, noting that 55% of its weekly users keep buying during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

🔍 Where your topical authority stops in ChatGPT LINK

New research finds that a brand's topical authority in ChatGPT only stretches so far, carrying over into related categories but rarely into unrelated ones, with citations spreading more easily than direct brand mentions.

In categories close to a brand's core expertise, brands were cited in 74% of appearances and named in 44%, but in distant categories those shares fell to 50% cited and 25% mentioned.

The study, using Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit data across 1,094 US categories from January through June 2026, found depth beat breadth: brands needed at least three of five prompts in a category before wider coverage stopped hurting brand mentions.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> LinkedIn shares guidance on effective event marketing: Treat every event as part of a longer campaign with planned follow-up and retargeting ads, since attendees engage 28% more with later marketing.

> Ana Kostic shared why “best practice” cost her client 40% of revenue.: Rebuilding a paid-ads account from scratch erased Google's learned performance data and dropped sales 40%, so change campaigns gradually and protect the business first.

> What to Know about Listicles: Publish list articles backed by original research and transparent ranking criteria, because AI-generated or copycat lists lose search and AI visibility long-term.

> Why a Website Can Lose Traffic Even When the Content Looks Good: Search engines must be able to reach, read, and trust a page before its quality matters, so technical problems can sink even excellent content.

> 4 Google Ads settings and recommendations worth a closer look: Review Google's auto-apply, display expansion, network, and budget recommendations before enabling them, since many raise costs or clash with your strategy.

> Influencer outreach email templates for B2B creator partnerships: Lead outreach with why this specific creator and audience fit before product details, and settle payment and editorial terms upfront to earn a credible partner's trust.

Other news you might like

• AI shopping searches surged 200% in one year - and it's a top priority for commerce leaders nowLINK

• ChatGPT ad budgets lose fixed daily caps 9 weeks after OpenAI set themLINK

• DuckDuckGo’s new iPhone feature stops tracking IDs from hitching a ride in shared linksLINK

• Facebook’s New Marketplace App, Seller LaunchesLINK

• Google publishes guidance for text disclaimers in Search adsLINK

• AI Search Data Is Now in Google Search Console: Here’s What You Need to KnowLINK

🧰 Trending tools

Adomate: generates branded ad concepts at scale by pulling data from your Meta ad account, ad libraries, and Trustpilot or Amazon reviews, with full traceability to source data.LINK

Goose Ads Remixer: analyzes proven ad patterns in your niche and generates new ads using your logo, product images, and messaging in minutes.LINK

Spira for Product Hunt Makers: autonomous AI influencers that spot trends, create on-brand content, and auto-publish across TikTok, Instagram, and X for you 24/7.LINK

Skills Marketplace by Databox: a library of pre-built dashboards and metric templates that lets teams track KPIs and build reports without starting from scratch.LINK

AI Media Buyer By Creatify: automates video ad creation by turning a product URL into scripted, voiced video ads with analysis and visuals in minutesLINK

Airtop for Google Ads Automation: lets you build AI agents that log into Google Ads, extract campaign data, and automate routine tasks using plain English instructions instead of code.LINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!