☕️ Snapchat launches sponsored AI chat agents

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In today's MarketingShot:

💬 Snapchat launches sponsored AI chat agents

📅 LinkedIn extends event ads beyond its platform

🍎 Apple splits annual subs into monthly payments

🔔 YouTube cuts push notifications for inactive subscribers

🚸 EU finds Meta in breach over underage users

💡 + 6 strategies & tactics

🎁 + 7 other news & articles you might like

🧰 + 1 trending marketing tools

FROM OUR PARTNER

• Snap Inc. has rolled out AI Sponsored Snaps, a new ad format that lets brands place AI agents inside Snapchat's Chat feature so users can ask questions, get recommendations, and interact without leaving their conversations.
• Snapchat users sent over 950 billion chats in Q1 2026, and more than half a billion people have interacted with My AI since its launch, giving the format access to nearly one billion monthly active users.
• The underlying Sponsored Snaps product delivers 22% more conversions, nearly 20% lower cost per action, and twice as many conversions per full-screen ad view versus other ad inventories, with Experian partnering on the alpha launch.

• LinkedIn is expanding its Event Ads format to let marketers send traffic to destinations outside the platform, removing the requirement to host campaigns on a native LinkedIn Event Page.
• Advertisers can now build an Event Ad using a third-party URL, add details like date and format, and pick objectives spanning awareness, engagement, traffic or lead generation, with metrics tracked in Campaign Manager.
• Off-Platform Event Ads are rolling out globally and are expected to reach all advertisers by May 6, letting marketers pair LinkedIn targeting with webinar platforms, landing pages or livestream sites they control.

• Apple has rolled out a new billing option that lets developers break annual subscriptions into 12 monthly payments, giving users the discounted yearly rate without the upfront cost while locking in a full-year commitment.
• A $99 annual plan works out to about $8.25 monthly under the new setup, compared with $10 or more for standard month-to-month pricing, and paid subscriptions across Apple now top one billion worldwide.
• The feature launches next month with iOS 26.5 and matching updates across iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, tvOS, and visionOS, skipping the U.S. and Singapore, while developers can configure plans now in App Store Connect and test in Xcode.

• YouTube has permanently stopped sending mobile push notifications to subscribers who have the "All Notifications" bell setting turned on but have ignored recent alerts and not watched the channel for about a month.
• Creators should expect a drop in the "Bell notifications sent" metric in YouTube Studio, though the platform says this does not reflect lost views since the suppressed alerts were already going to disengaged subscribers.
• The existing cap of 3 video notifications per channel per day still applies, and inactive subscribers automatically resume receiving push alerts once they watch any content from the channel again, from any source.

• The European Commission has issued preliminary findings that Meta violated the Digital Services Act by failing to stop children under 13 from opening accounts on Facebook and Instagram, following a nearly two-year investigation into the company.
• About 12% of children under 13 in the EU use Instagram and Facebook, and if the finding is upheld Meta could face a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover, which reached $201bn in 2025.
• The commission found children could sign up with a fake birthdate without checks, and it also urged member states to roll out an EU age verification app by the end of the year to prove age without sharing personal details.

Strategies & Tactics

Other news & articles you might like

• Meta revises transparency policies for advertising partners LINK

• Life stage matters more than age for in-app brand promotions LINK

• Roku Curate bundles retail purchase data with CTV inventory in one package LINK

• YouTube Leads Ad Recall, Purchase Influence in U.S. Teen and Millennial Survey LINK

• Podcast engagement drives brand audio spending ahead of World Cup LINK

• Minty launches cashback app inside ChatGPT shopping chats LINK

• IAB Tech Lab Announces New OpenRTB Attributes LINK

Trending Marketing Tools

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