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Today In Digital Marketing is a daily podcast and daily newsletter showcasing the latest in marketing trends and updates. This week, Tod touches on:

AI: Meta is testing generative AI elements for Facebook and Instagram ads, aiming to revolutionize ad creation.

Partnership: TikTok announces a partnership with Smartly.io, facilitating video shopping ad creation for brands.

Music: TikTok tests exclusive deals with music artists, potentially encroaching on music labels' territory.

Advertising: Where the major social platforms are spending their ad budgets to attract new users.

Security: Google's efforts to combat Calendar spam are under fire.

E-commerce: Online prices continue to drop, according to Adobe's recent analysis of digital commerce trends.

App: Meta is ending support for its Messenger app on Apple Watch on May 31.

Video: Twitch's new clip editor makes it easier to share vertical video on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

AI: Snapchat influencer launches CarynAI, a virtual girlfriend bot powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, for $1 a minute.

Meta’s Turn To Play in the AI Sandbox

Meta has officially entered the generative AI ads race with a new 'AI Sandbox' for marketers. The company has started testing generative AI features for Facebook and Instagram Ads with select advertisers.

The AI Sandbox includes three elements for building ad campaigns:

1. Text Variation

Which uses AI to generate multiple variations of ad text.

2. Background Generation

Which creates backgrounds for product images from text inputs, similar to DALL·E.

3. Image Outcropping

Which adjusts ad visuals to fit different aspect ratios across multiple formats, like Stories or Reels.

Updates to Advantage+

The company is also adding new targeting options to Advantage+ campaigns.

Advertisers will soon be able to switch from manual to Advantage+ campaigns with one click, while Catalog Ads for Advantage+ campaigns will include video elements.

It's also adding new manual inputs into Advantage+ targeting to help advertisers reach their desired audience, along with a new Performance Comparisons report.

These updates will be available in Ads Manager starting this week.

Images: Canva / Meta

TikTok and Smartly Collab to Enhance Video Shopping Ads

As Meta moves towards more automation, TikTok added a new option for building video shopping campaigns yesterday.

The company has partnered with Smartly.io, offering advertisers new ways to facilitate in-stream commerce.

TikTok's Video Shopping Ads streamline the shopping process by guiding users from a video to check-out within the app. With Smartly's integration, brands can now sync their product catalogs and offers, automate and streamline campaign workflows, scale creative production, and more.

The tool is now available for all commerce and retail advertisers to use in their TikTok campaigns.

Images: TikTok

TikTok Coming for Major Record Labels?

The TikTok takeover continues – this time the company is coming for major record labels.

The Information reported today that TikTok has been pursuing exclusive distribution deals with several artists through its service SoundOn, in custom deals that are more typical of record labels, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Talks of Starting a Label

Some artists have already signed up with SoundOn, which mostly operates as a self-service platform to place musicians’ works on streaming sites, and sources say that TikTok senior managers have even discussed starting their own label.

The company confirmed "a couple" of deals, but denied reports it plans to start its own label, which would put it in direct competition with music giants like Universal Music Group, Sony, and Warner, as well as streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Goodbye, Licensing Fees

According to current and former employees, the plan is for artists to use SoundOn to distribute their content, promote it on TikTok, and stream it on ByteDance's music-streaming service, Resso.

At a time when the company is already under fire over national security concerns, that could put it at odds with major music companies. However, such initiatives could reduce licensing costs in the long run.

Image: Canva

Where Major Social Platforms Are Spending

Want to know where the big players in social media are spending their ad budgets?

New U.S. ad spend figures from Vivvix, along with paid social data from Pathmatics, have revealed how major social media platforms are opening their wallets.

While most brands increased their investment in digital media last year, each platform's strategies differed.

YouTube and Snapchat invested more in traditional channels such as:

• Print
• TV

Pinterest, on the other hand, spent almost one-third of its total ad budget on theaters last year, which is 10 times higher than the industry average.

Interestingly, the data shows that TikTok is reducing spending in paid social advertising.

Image: Adweek

Google’s Efforts to Stamp Out Calendar Spam Under Fire

Google recently changed the default setting for adding invitations to its Calendar service, in an attempt to block spam, but it's causing problems for third-party products.

Accusations of Stifling Competition

Some accuse Google of trying to stifle appointment booking services like Calendly in favor of its own offering.

Google recently expanded its appointment scheduling features, adding ways to filter out what it calls invitation spam — specifically, the ability to display events only from known senders.

Revised Default Settings

However, Google recently revised most users' default setting to not show third-party invitations in Calendar unless the booker previously emailed the host, or explicitly accepted the invitation in an email.

The setting change was launched late last year as an opt-in but Google began rolling out the default change in January.

In response to the changes, Calendly published a help center message yesterday informing customers about the new default settings and advising how to modify them.

In Brief

E-COMMERCE: Online prices continue to drop, with prices falling nearly 2% year-over-year last month, according to Adobe's recent analysis of digital commerce trends. Computers and electronics saw the largest price decreases, while grocery prices increased by 9%.

META confirmed it's killing its Messenger for Apple Watch app on May 31. Apple Watch users will still receive notifications for new messages, however, they won’t be able to respond to them.

TWITCH launched a new clip editor yesterday that lets streamers produce and share short, vertical video clips. The tool is accessible via the clips manager in the creator dashboard, and users can choose between a split view that captures both the game stream and the camera or a full vertical snippet. The clip editor also includes direct integration for social sharing to YouTube Shorts.

And Finally…

Just in case you're looking for a side gig...

One Snapchat influencer has developed an AI version of herself that will be your girlfriend for $1 per minute.

Powered by OpenAI and her own voice recordings, Caryn AI has attracted more than 1,000 "boyfriends" to spend several hours conversing with the chatbot daily, where they discuss future plans, share intimate feelings, and even sext.

Despite only being in beta testing for a week, the AI GF has already generated more than $70,000 in revenue... And here I thought selling pics of your feet online was a lucrative business.

Image: Caryn AI

Credit to Tod Maffin and the Today In Digital Marketing podcast, Produced by engageQ.com