Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup

The Rise Of Authenticity: Why Genuine Connections Will Drive Social Media In 2025

Authenticity is becoming the cornerstone of social media success as users grow weary of AI-generated content, fake reviews, and influencer fraud. Consumers are seeking genuine connections, favouring platforms like Threads that encourage real conversations over highly curated content. Brands that embrace transparency—whether through relatable storytelling, user-generated content, or honest brand advocacy—are more likely to build trust and engagement. AI has a role in content creation but lacks the emotional depth that resonates with audiences. Social media platforms are actively fighting misinformation, and businesses must follow suit by disclosing partnerships and ensuring authenticity. In 2025, brands that prioritise meaningful interactions over polished perfection will thrive, as consumers increasingly value honesty over hype.

Google Launches AI Phone Assistant To Call Businesses For You

Google has launched ‘Ask For Me’ an AI-powered tool that makes phone calls to businesses on behalf of users, initially for auto repairs and nail salons in the US. Available via Search Labs, users can request quotes or book appointments through Google Search, saving time by automating calls and summarising responses. This feature builds on Google Duplex technology, which previously assisted with restaurant reservations. Businesses can opt out of AI-generated calls, and all interactions are monitored for quality. Google emphasises transparency, informing businesses when calls are AI-driven and using human reviewers to assess accuracy. While currently a pilot, ‘Ask For Me’ could expand to other industries, signaling a future where AI handles more everyday tasks.

Instagram gives creators more insight into their reels’ performance

Meta is aggressively targeting TikTok creators following the U.S. TikTok ban, offering big bonuses for posting Reels and introducing new Instagram analytics tools. The platform launched View Rate, showing how many viewers stay past three seconds, and Views Over Time, comparing a Reel’s performance to a creator’s average. Instagram will also provide actionable insights, encouraging creators to replicate successful content. These efforts, along with content deals and growth support, aim to lure TikTok creators while the platform remains unavailable in U.S. app stores.

Amazon Brand Awareness Ad Tool Emerges From Beta

Amazon has launched Brand+ in its Demand-Side Platform (DSP), an AI-powered tool designed to optimise brand-awareness campaigns by delivering video ads across Prime Video, Twitch, and premium publishers like Buzzfeed and Fox. Using trillions of Amazon’s shopping, browsing, and streaming signals, Brand+ predicts high-converting audiences for advertisers. During beta testing, some brands saw over 10% sales growth and 70% more website traffic, with companies like Thorne expanding their streaming TV strategy due to improved ad performance. This launch follows Amazon’s other AI-driven ad innovations, including Performance+ for optimising conversions and Ad Relevance for better ad matching.

Meta AI can now use your Facebook and Instagram data to personalise its responses

Meta is enhancing Meta AI with a memory feature, allowing its chatbot on Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp to remember user preferences, like travel interests or dietary choices, for more personalised interactions. Additionally, Meta AI will now pull user data from across Meta’s platforms—such as home location or recently viewed Instagram videos—to refine its responses, though users can’t opt out. While Meta frames these updates as beneficial, the move may raise privacy concerns given the company’s history with data trust issues. The new features are rolling out in the U.S. and Canada first.

Google offers tagging support appointments for advertisers

Google is introducing one-on-one appointments with technical experts to help advertisers properly implement conversion tracking tags on their websites. Since accurate tracking is key to optimising ad performance and ROI, this initiative addresses a common pain point for advertisers struggling with setup. The 30-60 minute sessions will guide advertisers and their developers through tagging implementation, ensuring they can track performance across channels, unlock features like Smart Bidding, and gain better campaign insights. Advertisers must book sessions for specific Google Ads accounts, not Manager accounts, to participate.

Microsoft Performance Max testing LinkedIn targeting, measurement tools

Microsoft Ads is enhancing Performance Max with four major updates, improving targeting, measurement, and optimisation. Key changes include LinkedIn integration, allowing advertisers in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, France, and Germany to target audiences based on company, industry, and job function. Reporting will become more granular, enabling advertisers to analyse performance by audience segments and track asset effectiveness. Smart conversion tracking introduces real-time value adjustments based on location and device, refining automated bidding. A new customer focus feature lets advertisers prioritise new customers by increasing bids or targeting them exclusively. These updates position Microsoft’s Performance Max as a stronger competitor to other automated ad platforms, particularly for B2B marketers leveraging LinkedIn’s professional audience data.

YouTube testing cost-per-hour masthead

YouTube is testing a Cost-Per-Hour (CPH) Masthead, allowing brands to own its most prominent ad space exclusively by the hour across all devices. This guarantees 100% share of voice during key moments like product launches, holiday campaigns, and livestream promotions. Unlike traditional CPM-based Mastheads, CPH offers predictable pricing and precise timing control, helping advertisers maximise impact during critical timeframes. This move reflects YouTube’s push to give marketers more strategic flexibility in premium advertising. While pricing details remain undisclosed, advertisers can contact YouTube representatives to explore CPH Masthead opportunities.

Threads adds a ‘media’ tab and the ability to tag people in photos

Meta’s social network Threads is rolling out a dedicated media tab for photos and videos, allowing users to easily view all their shared content in one place. This comes after similar moves by competitors like X and Bluesky. Additionally, Threads will now let users tag people in shared photos. Instagram head Adam Mosseri called the media tab a “long overdue” feature. These updates are designed to help Threads better compete with video-first platforms like TikTok. Alongside this, a markup feature is being introduced to allow users to add commentary to others’ posts. Meta also revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (up from 300 million last month), signaling significant growth despite the slowdown of other platforms like Bluesky.

Google expands Demand Gen ad tools ahead of Video Action Campaigns sunset

Google announced updates to its Demand Gen advertising platform, adding new controls for ad placement and enhanced creative tools. Starting in March, advertisers will have more precise control over ad placements on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, with specific targeting for YouTube Shorts and expanded Google Display inventory. New creative tools include vertical 9:16 image ads for Shorts and a tool to quickly create shorter versions of videos. Additionally, retail-specific features like better product feed integration and local inventory display will also be available. These updates aim to help advertisers create more engaging content and better measure performance across platforms, particularly with Gen Z audiences on YouTube, which delivers higher returns on ad spend than paid social media. As part of this shift, Video Action Campaigns will be retired in April, and advertisers are encouraged to switch to Demand Gen before the automatic upgrade in July.