Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup

Amazon Debuts ‘Rufus’, An AI Shopping Assistant In Its Mobile App

Amazon have announced the launch of a generative AI-powered shopping assistant its calling Rufus, that’s been trained on the Amazon catalogue as well as information from around the web. Users will be able to converse with Rufus inside Amazon’s mobile app to get help with finding products, performing product comparisons, and getting recommendations on what to buy. “It’s still early days for generative AI, and the technology won’t always get it exactly right,” the company said in a blog post. “We will keep improving our AI models and fine-tune responses to continuously make Rufus more helpful over time.”

Tiktok Tests Feature To Make All Videos Shoppable

In an effort to further expand its rapidly growing e-commerce business in the U.S, TikTok is testing a new feature that would link real-world products to any posts on the app. Meaning users would see shoppable content in all videos on their FYP (For You Page). The feature is able to automatically identify objects in user videos and then persuades viewers to “find similar items on TikTok Shop.” Viewers will then be presented with a page of products, which they can click on to buy. The company, which is basing its ecommerce revenue goals on the proven success of China’s doppelganger app Douyin, is hoping TikTok Shop will become a direct competitor to Amazon, Temu and Shein.

Google Maps Is Introducing A Generative AI Feature To Help You Discover New Places

Google Maps is introducing a generative AI feature to help you discover new places, using large language models. The new feature analyses the over 250 million locations on Google Maps and contributions from over 300 million Local Guides to pull up suggestions based on what you’re looking for. The new feature is designed to feel more conversational than the original search experience and is able to generate recommendations on even the most specific query. “This is just the beginning of how we’re supercharging Maps with generative AI.” Google wrote in a blog post.

Snapchat Distances Itself From Harmful Social Media In New Campaign

Image-sharing app Snapchat is aiming to distance itself from rival services facing scrutiny for perpetuating harm on the internet in a new campaign titled “Less social media. More Snapchat.” Instagram, TikTok, Snap and others have long been accused of facilitating social harm to venerable teens and children by using an always-on algorithm that manipulates users’ attention and emotions. According to Colleen DeCourcy, Snap’s chief creative officer, Snapchat is different to social media as it is intended for private messaging, as opposed to curating public feeds meant to draw attention to oneself. The one-minute campaign video will air on TV, out-of-home placements, social media and full-page ads in The New York Times.

Meta Enhances Non-Click VIdeo Ad Conversions Insights 

Meta advertisers can now measure conversions that occur within one day of a video ad play. The introduction of the Engaged-view attribution setting addresses a video trend where viewers prefer to complete their session before taking action on a video ad, minimising distributions to their viewing experience. Meta has said it introduced this setting to enable advertisers to capitalise on this behaviour. By incorporating engaged-view alongside other attribution settings, you gain a more cohesive view of your ad performance. Engaged-view is included in ads measurement reporting when viewers play video ads for at least 10 seconds. A Meta spokesperson said in a statement: “The Engaged-view measurement can help you decide how to optimise for actions beyond a click such as deciding how you can optimise for people who engage with your video ads and do not click.”

Google Ads Introduces A Simpler Way To Create Solutions Script Templates  

Google Ads’ Solutions script templates are now more accessible and simpler to create. Solutions can now be found under the “Bulk Actions” menu in Google Ads, allowing users to swiftly create automated and customised workflows for tasks. Simple adjustments like this make a big difference in how efficiently users can navigate Google Ads, saving time overall. Google Ads’ script templates simply report creation and campaign management, saving time without manual changes to website code. However, using templates means giving more control to Google, which may make some advertisers uncomfortable, as Google aims to maximise its own revenue.

Brands And Media Buyers Wait For Performance Metrics Before Investing More In The Platform

Amazon has recently introduced advertising on its streaming service Prime Video. Ad-free viewing is now locked behind an additional $2.99 fee on top of the overall Amazon Prime monthly subscription cost. Marketers are cautious, anticipating a shift in ad budgets to Prime Video by year-end but not significant changes until 2024. Due to a late launch, Amazon faces challenges of missing upfront deals for 2023-2024. To counteract this, Amazon is offering bonus impressions for a $50,000 spend on Prime Video’s launch. While Amazon’s built-in subscriber base and lower CPMs are advantageous, the $2.99 fee may lead to some Prime Video subscriber loss.

Shopify Is Rolling Out An AI Powered Image Editor For Products

Shopify’s Winter Edition rollout introduces new features, including an generative AI-powered media editor which offers enhanced product images, advanced semantic search, and improved merchandising tools for showcasing product variants. The new feature, called “The Magic Media Editor” lets merchants choose from seven styles or generate new backgrounds using generative AI, maintaining brand consistency. Shopify’s semantic search provides more accurate results beyond keyword matching. Merchants can now also effectively showcase up to 2,000 product variants using the product creation and classification tool.

Contract Negotiations Between The Two Companies Failed To Result In New Licencing Agreement

Universal Music Songs Universal Music Group announced it will stop licensing its songs to TikTok starting the 7th of February, due to issues like pay disagreements and AI concerns, meaning millions of TikTok videos using these songs will be muted. UMG reportedly sent a letter to streaming services asking them to prevent AI platforms from using songs on their services to train AI models. However, TikTok may be embracing AI-generated music as it began testing a feature earlier this month called “AI Songs”, which lets users enter text prompts that then generate songs. When songs and sounds are removed from the platform, the videos they were used in will be muted, not deleted.

Spotify’s New Snapchat Lens Lets You Capture Yourself Or Your Surroundings When Sharing A Song 

Spotify is launching a new “Share Track Lens” to expand its partnership with Snapchat and offer users a new way to share their favourite songs on the streaming app. The new feature allows users to capture the world around you on camera while sharing a song, overlaying the song title, artist name, cover art and a link to listen to the track on Spotify. To access the feature, users first need to ensure both Spotify and Snapchat are up to date on their device, then select a track on Spotify that they want to share. Then simply select the Snapchat “Lens” icon in the share menu to generate the track information on Snapchat.

Google Analytics 4 Launches Additional Instant Support Options And New Video Tutorials 

Google Analytics 4 introduced new instant support features to assist users in navigating the platform more effectively. The platform is also launching a new set of GA4 video tutorials which will offer detailed guidance on extracting more meaningful insights from your website’s data. The covered modules in the series include:

• How to find where your users are coming from in Acquisition Reports
• How to discover different ways in which users are interacting with your site or app using Engagement Reports
• Measuring ecommerce performance using monetisation reports
• Identifying unexpected trends using Google Analytics reports

Google Is Releasing A New AI-Powered Tool, Imagefx, For Image Creation

Google is launching a new AI-powered tool, ImageFX, for image creation. The model offers a prompt-based UI to create and edit images. ImageFX’s unique twist “expressive chips” which are “designed for experimentation and creativity and lets you create images with a simple text prompt, then easily modify them” Google writes in a blog post. ImageFX may present the potential for abuse, however Google claims that it has taken steps to ensure that ImageFX can’t be used in ways that it wasn’t intended. For example, by adding “technical safeguards” to limit “problematic outputs” like violent, offensive and sexually explicit content.

Google Search Cpcs Up 19%, Pushing Ad Spend Up 17%

In the fourth quarter of 2023, advertising spend on Google search ads in the U.S increased by 17% compared to the same period last year. Google click growth remained steady at 8%, but the CPC accelerated to 9% over the same period, according to Tinuiti’s Q4 report. The report also found that mobile is continuing to lead the way in terms of generating Google search ad clicks, with a 19% increase in spend, 10% increase in clicks, and a 9% rise in CPC. The report also noted that 91% of retail advertisers included Performance Max campaigns in their Google search ad strategies during the peak of the holiday shopping season in Q4 2023, compared to 80% the previous year.

Threads Is Working On Surfacing Trends, Says Instagram Head Adam Mosseri

Instagram Threads is set to incorporate a new feature, Trends, similar to Twitter and Meta’s X. Threads has faced criticism by some who felt the app’s “For You” algorithm prioritised creators and posts from those they didn’t follow and don’t care about, making it feel stagnant. Trends aims to address these concerns by tapping into popular topics and discussions, providing users with real-time and relevant conversations. Despite user demand for Trends on Threads, the feature could be potentially problematic – especially if Trends are algorithmically curated, instead of being curated by human editors or with human oversight.

New Tool Removes Need To Involve Developers In Implementing Intricate Coding For Tracking And Attributing Website Activity  

LinkedIn is simplifying action tracking with a new tool called Website Actions. This new data layer enables B2B marketers using LinkedIn’s Insight Tag to set new conversions, build retargeting audiences and measure campaign impact without the need for additional tracking codes on your website. It is now much simpler to track website activity because there is no need for complex coding knowledge. This simplification allows for straightforward creation of ad audiences, improving campaign optimisation and boosting conversions. The LinkedIn Insight Tag is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a small library of functions you can use to track LinkedIn ad-driven visitor activity on your website by relying on LinkedIn cookies.