Fake company, real products — inside the elaborate secret Amazon scheme. Also: How to get your ads beside the most popular Shorts content. Your brand's Facebook group might break on Monday. And X is having another very bad week. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Companies are now selling their users' brainwave data to target consumers with ads, and lawmakers are just now catching wind of it. Also: What to expect from ads on Threads. Why ad tech AI is watching episodes of The Office. And a long-time Google ad extension is going away. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's happening — tappable links might be coming to TikTok videos. LinkedIn's new Premium company pages have a creepy but probably very effective new feature. The digital ad industry didn't suck as much as you think it did last year. And Elon has a plan for ridding X of bots: Give him more money. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What a difference an S makes — why one single letter could change the future of your brand. Also: Amazon runs in where others have bolted out. DMs are coming to Threads, only they're not. The self-fulfilling prophecy of one heavily SEOed article. And the brilliant reason McDonald's latest billboards have nothing on them — literally, not even their logo. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tod speaks with Dr. Cat Armstrong Soule who co-authored a marketing research paper about how marketers should use numbers and percentage in marketing copy. The paper is called “Manipulating Consumers with the Truth: Relative-Difference Claims in Advertising and Inferences of Manipulative Intent.” Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Your product sales could be on autopilot, after TikTok unveils its latest scheme. Roblox branches into the programmatic market. Amazon's not preferring its own products over yours any more (well, not as much, anyway). And how Wordpress's latest plugin can tell the future. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

CPMs up, morale down: Is Temu behind the recent downturn in Meta ads? LinkedIn's scam solution will cost you. YouTube videos for kids are getting comments back. And why TikTok says videos in two languages will get you better results. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A new report on the PPC industry is out; we have expert analysis. Google is training its AI on your public Google Docs... Hootsuite buys a major social listening platform. And the guy selling an empty bottle might just be the year's most innovative product marketer. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Under Pressure: TikTok is about to push out a new app, as Instagram says "Let's Dance." The Modern Love between third-party platforms and APIs. And Life on Mars might seem easier than the Space Oddity we're seeing in Meta's ad auction these days. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this special deep-dive episode, Tod speaks with Ioannis Evangelidis, Associate Professor of Marketing at Ramon Llull University in Spain. He recently published a research paper in the Journal of Marketing Science called “Shrinkflation Aversion: When and Why Product Size Decreases Are Seen as More Unfair than Equivalent Price Increases” Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Understanding Attribution — 7DC, 1DV... which do you use now? Also: What post type on LinkedIn will get you more engagement. Snapchat bolsters its agency program. And the new retail media network with more purchase data than you can imagine. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Google's new ad format might hide your ad behind a scroll — but it's not as bad as you think. Your LinkedIn campaigns can now run on TV. Everything's going vertical on Facebook. And the massive company thinking of buying Hubspot — would be its biggest deal ever. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We know what will kill TV in the end, and it turns out, you're listening to one. Gmail is blocking some Outlook emails. Walmart keeps chipping away at Amazon's ad business. X suffers a 30% drop in usage. And some new conversion tracking from Microsoft's ad platform. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

AI is writing more marketing copy these days — but how many consumers can tell you cheaped out? Also: LinkedIn tries its hand at a TikTok clone. Amazon abandons one of its most talked about technologies. And Google promises to stop doing what none of us realized it was doing. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

There are a lot of things to consider when you make a product video, or a promotional video for your company. Do we make it look polished? Or go with the amateur look popular on TikTok? Do we focus the viewer’s attention? Or employ the one-cut-every-second technique? Well, add one more to the list: Whether you should show your products being used in slow motion. Anika Shtuppy is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Tilburg University. She and her colleagues recently published some research...

Copycat tactics — how you can target customers of your competitors and not run afoul of Google's ad policies. LinkedIn now has DMs for Pages. The ad market keeps defying reports of its death. And YouTube gives marketers more control over their channels — why you should steer clear. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's not a rumour, it's official now: Deleting videos from your brand's YouTube channel can hurt your reach. And now we know why. Also: A study finds half of Google ads are being pushed down by a new content block designed to keep people away from your web site. And Instagram adds a fantastic new engagement feature in the most awkward way possible. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's happening again — Meta charging way more than your daily budget allows. But is this a case of Operating as Intended? Also, a deep dive into the three main bid strategies and which you should be using. The myth of the TikTok watch time might be busted. And that anonymous review you left the other day — yeah, it might have your real name on it now. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Pin Sin: How bad actors are pushing their competitors off Google Maps. Google makes things a little easier for data nerds. Threads makes its first real steps into the Fediverse. And the social media trend of the week could very well be the single laziest content idea the industry has seen yet. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Marketing agencies say trust is disappearing in their client relationships and client CEOs are partially to blame. Also: Some updates for Google media buyers, and why is YouTube letting any random person edit your brand video captions? Trust me. You actually want this. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Under Pressure — Meta might be forced by Europe to slash the price of its Verified subscription plans. When being enthusiastic backfires for influencer marketing. Instagram is testing longer Reels. And the Facebook Poke is back, and Gen-Z are loving it. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As Google battles AI spam in a fight for its relevancy, will TikTok’s pushes in Search topple the King? Also: Is this the end of "being real"? YouTube adds more disclosure requirements. And LinkedIn decides what is business users really want... is to play cheap mobile games. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Reddit's new ad format mimics a popular organic post format. LinkedIn will now let you sponsor almost anyone. Microsoft cleans up its Ads UI. And YouTube finally lets you clean those embarrassing moments from your livestream. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Meta is thinking of beefing up its paid checkmark program — but will it ever be worth it to marketers? Amazon will set your products up in one click. Where the money would go if TikTok disappears from America. And exploiting gap topics on the video apps for fun and profit. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A final answer — perhaps — on the age-old question: How much does user experience matter to your Google ranking? Meta adds some new tricks to its ad campaigns. TikTok now offers more performance data, even from opted-out users, and Instagram is working on a very meme-worthy update. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy