Shoppers switch to cheaper brands

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

🛒 40% of your shoppers just switched to cheaper brands

🏈 TikTok's new NFL deal opens more game-day reach

🔍 Gemini 3.8 Flash is now powering your Google Search results

💸 X now pays creators through X Money, not Stripe

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

🛒 40% of your shoppers just switched to cheaper brands LINK

A survey from Adtaxi released on August 25, 2026 found that four in ten American adults have switched to cheaper brands, one part of a wider trend where 93% now use at least one deliberate cost-saving habit.

The poll of more than 1,100 United States adults, run through SurveyMonkey from May 2026, ranked comparing prices first at 49%, eating at home at 42%, brand-switching at 40%, and buying fewer discretionary items at 39%.

Adtaxi notes that brand switching is the habit least likely to reverse when input costs ease, because a household that has tried a cheaper label and found it acceptable keeps that information rather than losing it.

🏈 TikTok's new NFL deal opens more game-day reach LINK

TikTok signed a new multi-year agreement with the NFL that grows the league's presence on the app and brings fresh engagement and interaction features for football fans on game days.

The deal adds NFL game day hubs powered by TikTok's GamePlan offering, where fans discover content, engage with trending videos, and complete fan-based tasks to earn exclusive benefits, plus more highlights and archival moments.

Posts using the #NFL tag rose more than 32% over the past year, and advertisers gain new chances to tap into NFL-related trends through TikTok's Pulse Premiere offering.

🔍 Gemini 3.8 Flash is now powering your Google Search results LINK

Google Search has moved its AI Mode to the newest Gemini model, Gemini 3.8 Flash, arriving only a couple weeks after AI Mode ran on Gemini 3.7 Flash.

Robby Stein, Google's VP of product, called it the most intelligent workhorse model yet, with improvements over 3.7 Flash in software engineering, agentic tasks, and multi-step reasoning.

The model is available today in AI Mode for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers worldwide, reached by tapping the plus icon in the dropdown menu, with a wider rollout to free plans expected later.

💸 X now pays creators through X Money, not Stripe LINK

X said that starting today, all of its U.S. creator payouts will run through X Money, the app's own payments service, replacing the prior method that was powered by Stripe.

The new system pays creators instantly, ending the old process where payments came every two weeks and required a $30 minimum payout, covering both the Original Content Rewards Program and creators' subscriptions.

Creator payouts count toward X Money users' direct deposit requirements for a better APY rate, with X Premium users getting a 6% rate compared to the standard 4% rate.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> What to Test Next? 21 Google Ads Experiment Ideas: Match your Google Ads experiment to the account's problem, whether scaling winners, reviving weak campaigns, or fixing traffic that clicks but never converts.

> Meta Description Best Practices for SEO: Tips and Examples for 2026: Write meta descriptions that match search intent and lead with a clear benefit, since Google keeps only the 30% worth controlling your search snippet.

> What your Google Ads hour-of-day report doesn’t tell you: Stop excluding weak ad hours based on the report alone, since Google's automated bidding already weighs time per auction; restrict only for genuine business constraints.

> Is AI Making It So Anyone Can Run Effective TikTok Ads?: TikTok's new AI tools let anyone manage ads and generate videos through plain-language chat, but human judgment and native-feeling creative still separate winners.

> Rapid AI changes mean GEO is a weekly job now: Coordinate PR, SEO, and content teams weekly around the actual questions buyers ask AI tools, because AI answers now replace clicks to your site.

> How brands can catch problematic creator ads before they go live: Add clear checkpoints, detailed briefs and reshoot clauses to your creator review process, and empower reviewers to reject risky ads before they publish.

Other news you might like

• Adobe is making its tools available in SlackLINK

• Google’s AI Mode shows the same products at higher prices than regular Search, study findsLINK

• TikTok comments are getting more interactive with voice comments, polls, and moreLINK

• The Impact of Content Freshness on AI CitationsLINK

• Performance unlocked: Reddit Max campaigns are now available to all advertisersLINK

• Bad websites lose 23% of AI-referred shoppers to rivals, Contentsquare findsLINK

🧰 Trending tools

ExploreYC: searches over 5,700 YC companies with maps, funding, and hiring data to validate ideas, research competitors, and find co-foundersLINK

Astute: monitors your brand's presence across new media and automates creator partnerships with buyers, using data to guide B2B marketing strategy.LINK

Goose Ads Remixer: analyzes top-performing ads in your niche and generates fresh variations using your logo, product images, and messaging within minutesLINK

Artifacts by Databox: query your live business data in plain English across 130+ sources like Salesforce and HubSpot, getting instant answers without SQL or analysts.LINK

ditto.site: converts any public URL into clean Next.js or Vite code, deterministically extracting components, design tokens, fonts, and hover states via a free API.LINK

seo: provides 70+ SEO audit tools via a local CLI and MCP server using your crawl, Search Console, and GA4 data.LINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!