Social shopping is losing shoppers

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

📉 Just one in four shoppers bought via social, DoubleVerify finds

🎙️ Fans trust creators as much as friends, Wondery finds

🛒 Google's new Universal Cart puts your products in one AI checkout

💰 You can now cap your Display ad spend in Google Ads

📊 Your AI visibility score may be hiding a problem

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

Just one in four shoppers bought via social, DoubleVerify finds

Source: PPC Land

• A DoubleVerify report released today found that one in four consumers bought something through a social platform in the past year, down from 30% in its 2025 edition, and influencer impact on purchases slipped too.
• The report, "Scroll, Stop and Shop: Walled Garden Trends," drew on a survey of 22,000 consumers in 21 countries and about 2,000 marketers in 25, with influencer-driven purchase decisions falling to 48% from 54% a year earlier.
• Even as those figures dropped, DoubleVerify says consumers are "warming up to ads," with 8% more calling social platforms suitable for advertising than in 2025, and projects $408 billion in global social media ad spend for 2026.

Fans trust creators as much as friends, Wondery finds

Source: campaignlive.com

• A study Wondery commissioned from SmithGeiger found that more than four in five fans trust their favorite creator as much as or more than a close real-life friend, and 85% see that creator as a friend.
• The survey polled 3,000 U.S. adults who regularly follow creator shows, and found that most trust creators more than social media influencers, a gap Wondery ties to deep connection over reach.
• Fans demand long-term authenticity: half warned that a one-off brand mention never revisited signals the creator didn't like the product, and seven in ten need consistent, multi-episode brand presence before seeing an endorsement as genuine.

Google's new Universal Cart puts your products in one AI checkout

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

• Google has turned on its Universal Cart in Search and Gemini across the United States, letting shoppers combine products from several retailers into one cart and pay through a single checkout.
• Built on the Universal Commerce Protocol, the cart tracks price changes based on shopping history, adds available promo codes at checkout, and takes payment through Google Pay.
• The cart works with merchants including Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair, and many Shopify stores, and arrived just before the holiday shopping season.

You can now cap your Display ad spend in Google Ads

Source: PPC Land

• Google Ads now lets advertisers cap how much of their budget goes to the Display Network and Search partners by setting a percentage, announced on October 14 by Tal Akabas, director of product management for Google Ads.
• Two optional controls do the work: channel prioritization sorts inventory into high and low tiers and funds high ones first, while budget allocation sets a daily cap, so a 5% allocation on a $1,000 budget aims to limit that channel's spend accordingly.
• The controls cover Search, Shopping and Performance Max and begin rolling out from today, but a help page warns the cap works "on a best-effort basis," and from February 2027 Search campaigns using Display migrate to the new system.

Your AI visibility score may be hiding a problem

Source: martech.org

• A single AI visibility score can mask two separate problems, according to Semrush's "2026 AI Visibility Index", which covered 22 categories and four AI platforms and found that fewer than half of the top-mentioned brands also made the matching citation lists.
• The report splits visibility into two metrics: a mention means the brand appears in the answer, while a citation means a domain appears as a source, and Ford shows the gap by sitting in all four top-100 mention lists yet ranking past 700th for citations on every platform.
• When cited sources are mostly publishers, retailers, or reference sites rather than a brand's own domain, the fix may belong to content, engineering, or communications rather than SEO, so marketers need to find which platform and category holds the gap before spending to close it.

Strategies & Tactics

> Making Instagram Reels Easier, Faster & Scalable: Explains how to produce more Instagram Reels by using Instagram's auto-editing and analytics tools, since consistent volume paired with constant refinement builds skill and reach.

> Claude skills vs. plugins vs. MCP connectors: A simple guide: Skills teach Claude a procedure, connectors give it live access to outside tools, and plugins bundle both so teams install everything in one step.

> How to combine SMS and email marketing (9 ecommerce workflows): Coordinate email and SMS as one journey, using email for storytelling and texts for urgent follow-ups while tracking behavior to avoid duplicate messaging.

> In B2B, influencer marketing takes on a different look: Business influencer marketing works through long-term partnerships starting with employees and customers, not the commission-based creator deals that drive consumer sales.

> Why brands struggle with influencer measurement — and what to do about it: Brands should amplify influencer posts with paid media for clearer metrics and assign one internal team to own all creator relationships.

> How Criquet Shirts Uses AI Segmentation to Send 40% Fewer Emails: Scoring each customer individually with AI to send fewer, better-targeted emails cut Criquet Shirts' volume 40% while lifting revenue 30%.

Other news you might like

• We analyzed 5,000+ Google Ads accounts: Seasonality adjustments backfire on Black Friday by Optmyzr martech.org

• Does LLMs.txt impact your AI visibility and citations? No, according to research seranking.com

• Google Ads introduces automotive model feeds for vehicle manufacturers Search Engine Land

• TikTok Shop Buyers Rank Reviews Above Influencer Recommendations When Deciding to Buy, Study Finds NetInfluencer

• Snap reports on Snap Map data for brands Social Media Today

• Niche Creators Win Attention on YouTube While Scale Wins Views, Report Finds NetInfluencer

Trending tools

CREEM 2.0: a payments platform for AI builders that handles checkout, tax, payouts, affiliates, and usage billing so you can sell globally faster. creem.io

Monospace from Directus: wraps any SQL database with instant REST and GraphQL APIs plus a no-code app for collaborative data management. monospace.io

Meridian: open-source, locally-run activity tracker that logs work with context, showing where your time goes and which blockers stall projects. meridiona.com

Clara AI SDR: engages and qualifies website visitors in real time, handles objections, books meetings, and syncs continuously with your CRM clarasdr.ai

Onepin: a QA layer for AI voiceover that fixes mispronounced names, prices, and dates across 30+ voice engines without re-rendering takes. onepin.ai

trypost: an open-source social media scheduler that lets AI agents and teams create, schedule, and publish posts across networks via MCP or REST API. GitHub

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