Meta's AI ran discounts you switched off

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Meta's AI ads offered discounts you never approved LINK

• Meta's AI-powered ad tools have been pulling discounts from a store's website and showing them in Facebook and Instagram ads, even when the shop had switched off promotions on the ad being copied.
• Digital marketing advisor Bram Van der Hallen found that when the option to display detected offers is enabled in Commerce Manager, Meta may automatically place those offers in ads, letting a discount meant for one campaign or audience appear elsewhere.
• Van der Hallen said advertisers can stop this by updating Commerce Manager settings, a concern for any business running more than one live offer on Meta, where improved ad ranking drove over 8% more clicks last quarter.

Advertisers now want your conversions, not followers LINK

• Advertisers have stopped signing creator deals based on follower count and viral reach, and now demand proof of conversions and sales before spending any media money.
• To agree to a deal, brands ask creators for cost per lead, cost per conversion, return on ad spend, and earned media value, and some request Instagram link clicks and engaged YouTube views up front.
• Agency HYDP reviews a creator's content over a 30-day window, excluding viral posts to set realistic expectations, while follower count turns into a vanity metric that no longer proves purchasing behavior.

Google Ads just dropped language targeting from Search LINK

• Google Ads has removed the campaign-level language targeting setting from Search campaigns, with practitioners reporting on November 3 and 4 that the control had vanished from live accounts, though the rollout remains uneven.
• Google now matches Search ads to users based on the language of the ad copy and landing page rather than a chosen setting, reading the search term and the user's own language settings to decide who sees each ad.
• Anyone running ads in more than one language is affected, and brands whose location and language did not line up, such as travel firms or those reaching expatriate communities, must now express that targeting through creative text that Google interprets.

ChatGPT is giving you a Search Console for your brand LINK

• OpenAI is building a tool, similar to Search Console or Webmaster Tools, that lets businesses claim their presence in ChatGPT and track how often they get mentioned in conversations.
• The feature measures impressions and clicks, how many times a business appears in ChatGPT responses and how many people click links to its website, showing those daily events as a chart, open only to businesses that have verified ownership, such as by connecting a Shopify store.
• It does not show prompt data, user data, or any competition benchmark or ranking, so it won't explain why mentions or clicks rise or fall, though paired with external prompt-tracking tools it gives first-party data on whether GEO/AEO strategies work.

How your software buyers now use AI to decide LINK

• A Wynter survey of 200 software buyers shows how people use AI tools to research and decide on purchases, finding that AI often reopens their shortlist by adding vendors they had not considered.
• Among 158 respondents who already had vendors in mind, 62.7% added another through AI, while most of the 40 who started with no candidates got a shortlisted vendor from the tool.
• Buyers kept evaluating through follow-up questions, most often about pricing, vendor comparisons, integrations, and setup, and 67.5% used more than one AI platform, with Claude and ChatGPT the most common engines.

Strategies & Tactics

> Combining MMM with post-purchase survey attribution: Ask buyers how they discovered the brand to feed media mix modeling signals for word-of-mouth and offline channels that click tracking misses.

> B2B CTV tactics that go beyond brand awareness: Target streaming-TV ads at named accounts, trade-show attendees, competitors' renewing customers, and partners' lists, so campaigns tie back to pipeline rather than just awareness.

> Branded vs. unbranded queries in AI search — and how to track them: Track AI search mentions for brand-name and category queries separately, because combining them hides whether new buyers are actually discovering you.

> When does your ecommerce site need a new category page?: Build a new category page only when demand data and distinct inventory prove it helps shoppers choose better than an existing filtered view.

> Google ties consistent PMax spend to 15 conversions every 30 days: Google now tells advertisers that Performance Max campaigns need at least 15 conversions every 30 days for steady spending, a benchmark that strains small and lead-generation accounts.

> Social Commerce Club’s Jordan West Breaks Down 6 Tactics Behind Its TikTok Shop Launches: Launch on TikTok Shop by seeding products to many affiliate creators, keeping the best 4%, and clearing the first 200 sales before buying ads.

Other news you might like

• New Data Manager In Google Analytics Beta LINK

• YouTube description updates linked to 359% rise in AI retrievals LINK

• How Ogilvy uses AI to unlock scale, protect rights for brand talent shoots LINK

• Why Reddit's Influence Isn’t Going Down LINK

• Only 8% Click AI Search Links, Forcing Agencies to Rethink Earned Media Value LINK

• Facebook Offers Some Creators $5,000 Bonus for Publishing Video Series, Per Posts LINK

• Google Demand Gen ads can now show discount tags on YouTube Shorts LINK

Trending tools

Anysite.​io: provides B2B company and contact data to AI agents through MCP or REST APIs, returning decision maker names, titles, and work emails without scraping. LINK

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

Floot MCP: links Claude and ChatGPT to build full-stack apps from chat, managing databases, logins, hosting, emails, and publishing automatically. LINK

Pexo: an AI video agent that turns ideas into finished videos through natural conversation, requiring no editing or technical skills LINK

PixVerse R2: generates interactive video in real time, producing continuous streams that respond instantly to your input for live creative control LINK

Youkti: tracks every account and deal, then tells sales reps the next move, flagging slipping deals and surfacing dormant accounts showing fresh buying signals. LINK

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