☕️ TikTok Shop buyers just spent $50 billion

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

🛒 TikTok Shop buyers just spent $50 billion

🤖 ChatGPT ads get automated bidding and new placements

🏠 Zillow just opened home-buyer targeting to Pinterest ads

🎬 Meta Partnership Ads convert 10% better for you

⚖️ Rival's toxic backlinks could now get you sued

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

🛒 TikTok Shop buyers just spent $50 billion LINK

Shoppers around the world spent $50.3 billion on TikTok Shop in the first half of 2026, a 92 percent jump from the same stretch last year, with U.S. buyers alone accounting for $11.8 billion, roughly double their previous total.

The U.S. now hosts 1.35 million stores and 20 million influencers on TikTok Shop, and Tabcut and Momentum Works expect global gross merchandise value to top $100 billion for the first time and hit $123.5 billion by the end of 2026.

A May 2026 Harris Poll found 63 percent of Gen Zers stopped buying from TikTok Shop, though 62 percent still use TikTok to find new products, and shoppers ages 25 to 44 remain the most active buyers on the platform.

🤖 ChatGPT ads get automated bidding and new placements LINK

OpenAI has added automated bidding to ChatGPT ads, giving advertisers a "Maximize Results" bid strategy that sets bids for them instead of forcing the manual bidding required since the self-serve beta launched in May.

When advertisers pick a clicks or conversions objective, "Maximize Results" is now the default, and OpenAI automatically adjusts the bid to get the most results from the budget, though minimum bids stay high, especially for conversions.

Because the system aims to spend the full budget, OpenAI is likely to bid more than a manual setting would, which could improve surface-level performance but may come at the expense of quality on non-purchase actions.

🏠 Zillow just opened home-buyer targeting to Pinterest ads LINK

Zillow and Pinterest have started a partnership that lets Zillow Elevate advertisers target Pinners through Pinterest's Media Network Connect, an option inside Pinterest Ads Manager for sharing first-party audience data.

Advertisers can reach Pinners based on 34 Zillow consumer segments, including buyers, renters, sellers and homeowners, plus specialty groups such as fixer-upper shoppers and recent homeowners, for more targeted campaigns.

Zillow said the targeting draws on real data about user behavior and more than 200 housing-related signals, rather than broad demographic assumptions, so brands can reach specific audiences with high precision.

🎬 Meta Partnership Ads convert 10% better for you LINK

Meta Partnership Ads, which run a creator video from both the creator's and the brand's accounts, convert 10% better and cost 5% less per customer than the same licensed content run from the brand's account alone.

Agentio studied $130 million in spend across 65,000 Meta Partnership Ads from 137 brands, finding ads with the creator's handle earned 19% more clicks, and in Meta search placements delivered 143% higher conversion rates.

Advertisers now spend at a rate of $10 billion a year on Partnership Ads, double the amount from a year ago, though winners fatigue after 36 days on average and only about 1 in 5 tested ads becomes a winner.

⚖️ Rival's toxic backlinks could now get you sued LINK

A federal judge in Chicago has ruled that a company can sue a rival over toxic backlinks meant to wreck its Google rankings, opening the door to false advertising lawsuits over search sabotage.

Montway and SGT Auto Transport accuse rival Nexus and its CEO George Arkin of planting more than 2,350 spammy links from domains about steroids, payday loans, illegal betting, cocaine and unlicensed guns starting in April 2025.

Judge Matthew Kennelly kept alive the federal Lanham Act false advertising claim plus trademark infringement, dilution and Illinois consumer protection counts, treating mismatched anchor text as a literally false statement designed to hurt a competitor.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> Your B2B SEO can win the click and lose the consideration: Get cited in Google's AI Overviews, not just ranked, because complex B2B buyers form their shortlist and trust before they ever click through.

> Most AI visibility gains are just technical debt repayment: Most so-called AI visibility gains come from fixing long-neglected technical SEO problems like duplicate content and buried information, not from new AI-specific tactics.

> Email Open Bloat and Deliverability: Filter out subscribers whose only "opens" come from automated privacy tools that inflate open rates, so bulk emails reach real inboxes instead of spam.

> 37 Proven Ways to Use AI in Marketing: Delegate repeatable marketing tasks to AI, from keyword research and internal linking to social drafts and launch packages, working from what AI models already cite.

> A Proven Instagram Strategy for Business Growth: Grow on Instagram by posting casual, authentic photos and reels, tracking comments and saves over likes, then amplifying proven posts with simple Meta ads.

> How to Advertise on LinkedIn: The Complete Cheat Sheet: Explains how to run effective LinkedIn ads by matching campaign objectives and ad formats to your goals rather than copying tactics from other platforms.

Other news you might like

• Facebook officially rolls out its standalone Creator Studio app with AI tools for creatorsLINK

• AI Max shows 72% more invalid traffic in retail search, Lunio findsLINK

• Google Lowers Subscriber Requirements For Search ProfilesLINK

• CMOs are struggling to link AI visibility with salesLINK

• OneLittleWeb study: AI tools drew 144.5B visits, with traffic in Top 100LINK

• The AI Sales Engineer Is Moving Into the MeetingLINK

🧰 Trending tools

OpenSEO: an open-source alternative to Ahrefs and Semrush offering keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and site audits, free when self-hosted.LINK

Honestly: aggregates verified customer conversations across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and X to spot market trends early across US, EU, and Korean markets.LINK

PlugThis: turns plain-English descriptions into working Chrome extensions, generating code, backend logic, icons, and store listing copy automatically.LINK

AI Search Console: tracks brand mentions, rankings, and share of voice across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, replacing manual checks with automated reports.LINK

Effects SDK: adds AI-powered video effects like background blur, noise suppression, and lighting correction to apps, processing everything client-side to protect user privacy.LINK

Artifacts by Databox: turns AI Analyst conversations into polished reports, slide decks, or interactive documents from live data, shareable via link or PDF.LINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!