This week: YouTube captured sports viewer attention with expanded ads, Meta launched AI-powered creative tools for brand campaigns, Google rolled out clearer PMax reporting and deeper web-to-app connections, TikTok strengthened its search ads with impressive purchase lift metrics, and Reddit introduced new publisher insights to help media brands track content performance.
YouTube opened its Reels Trending Ads format to more advertisers after a closed beta period, allowing brands to place ads alongside the platform's most popular short-form content. Early tests showed a 20% boost in unaided awareness – performing on par with YouTube Select and outperforming TikTok Pulse.
With Reels seeing over 4.5B daily shares and dominating watch time, advertisers can now ride cultural moments at scale through this premium placement. For brands spending significantly on awareness, this represents a prime opportunity to align with trending content and drive proven lifts in recall without throwing money into the wind on untested placements.
Google launched AI Max for Search campaigns worldwide, making it available across Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360, and the Google Ads API. The update includes one-click experiments for testing AI Max strategies within campaigns and new text guidelines that give advertisers more control over brand-safe ad copy.
The global expansion of AI Max gives media buyers access to Google's most advanced campaign optimization tools, providing a strategic advantage during Q4. The inclusion of one-click experiments simplifies testing, while text guidelines address concerns about brand safety – creating a more viable option for enterprises that need both AI-driven performance and creative control.
TikTok released data showing its Search Ads Campaign drove 2x higher purchase lift compared to non-search campaigns across the U.S. and Canada. Enterprise advertisers saw even stronger results with 2.2x purchase lift, while retail brands experienced 1.9x lift and improved ROAS versus standard campaigns.
With searches on TikTok up 40% year-over-year and 86% of Gen Z searching weekly on the platform, these campaigns offer advertisers a way to capture high-intent users at the moment they're researching products. For brands that have mastered TikTok's feed-based ads, Search Ads Campaign provides an additional layer to the platform's sales funnel, especially for categories where consumers conduct product research.
Meta introduced several advertiser updates, including Value Rules for awareness and engagement campaigns (previously limited to sales), expanded carousel formats for Threads ads, and new Landing Page View optimization for brands without direct pixel access. Early tests showed the latter cutting cost per view by 31%.
Meta's updates address efficiency gaps by extending AI-powered targeting beyond direct response. For CPG brands and others with less direct measurement access, the landing page view optimization solves a significant death by dashboard problem, while Value Rules enables more sophisticated audience targeting for upper-funnel campaigns. With 400 million users, Threads is also becoming a more viable channel for brand conversations.
Reddit introduced Reddit Pro for Publishers, giving media brands new tools to track and optimize their content on the platform. The beta program includes article insights for monitoring views and engagement, auto-import for RSS feeds, and AI-powered community recommendations that suggest where to share content.
With 110 million daily active users, Reddit represents a significant opportunity for publishers struggling with declining referral traffic from search and social. Early testers like The Atlantic and NBC News saw Reddit emerge as a top referral source, making this a strategic channel for media buyers working with content partners. The tools address the table stakes problem of attribution while helping publishers identify platform-specific audience opportunities.