Platform pulse: January 2025

Google

AI-powered search for retail

Google Cloud is introducing AI agents and AI-powered search to help retailers enhance efficiency and personalise shopping experiences. These tools address evolving customer expectations and tackle issues like rising costs and supply chain complexities. This innovation marks a significant step in adapting retail operations to the AI era.

Read more: https://blog.google/products/google-cloud/google-cloud-ai-retailers-nrf-2025/ 

Consent settings hub

You can now learn about and manage consent settings from a centralised hub in Google Analytics Admin. This hub helps you understand how Google Analytics uses consent signals, view the collection status of consent signals across your property stream(s), and review and address consent-related diagnostics.

AI-powered image generation in editor

Google AI now enables users to generate new images and backgrounds within the image editor. The addition of reference images expands creative options, while the ‘Generate more like this’ feature allows for quick variations of generated images. This tool is particularly useful for creating diverse ad visuals efficiently.

Policy update: language consistency

From December 2024, Google will relax its supported language policy, allowing some differences between product feed language and website language. While this offers more flexibility, it’s important to note that mismatched languages may impact performance due to search term discrepancies.

Update to Google’s ‘Abusing the ad network’ policy

Google has announced a significant update to its Abusing the ad network policy, taking effect in December 2024. This change aims to align Google Ads more closely with Google Search’s spam policies, enhancing the overall quality of advertised content.

Meta

Community notes replace fact-checks

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the discontinuation of the platform's fact-checking programme. In its place, Meta will implement an X-style "Community Notes" system for claim clarification across its apps. This shift aligns with plans to reintroduce more political content to Meta's platforms.

Learn more here: https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/ 

SMS verification for lead ads

Meta has introduced a new feature for Lead Ads, requiring SMS verification for form submissions. This enhancement aims to improve lead quality by ensuring users verify their phone numbers with a one-time code before submitting forms. Marketers should include a required phone number field in their forms to utilise this feature effectively.

Instagram ads ‘Testimonial’ feature

Meta has introduced a ‘Testimonial’ feature for Instagram Ads, allowing advertisers to add custom testimonials from partners about their products or services. This feature, available when setting up Partnership ads, appears below the CTA button on Instagram Reels ads. Meta recommends using 125 characters or less, prioritising key messages at the beginning for maximum impact.

Lead labelling for customer lists

A significant update for Meta Ads lead generation allows advertisers to ‘Label’ leads when uploading new Customer Lists. Options include:

• Qualified leads: Leads that meet your qualification criteria

• Disqualified leads: Leads that don’t meet your qualification criteria

• Customers: Leads that have become customers

This labelling system aids in more effective audience targeting, potentially refining ad delivery based on lead quality.

LinkedIn

Precision targeting campaign launch

LinkedIn Ads has launched a new campaign highlighting the importance of precise audience targeting in B2B marketing. The "Only on LinkedIn Ads" initiative emphasises the platform's unique capability to target over 1 billion users based on industry, company, role, and more. This campaign aims to help marketers eliminate wasted ad spend and improve ROI by reaching the right audience.

Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/linkedin-ads/find-your-perfect-audience-only-on-linkedin-ads

New ways to get even more out of your LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn’s latest product update open up new capabilities and efficiencies for marketers, enabling them to maximise your resources and achieve stellar results. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know about Companies, Data Driven Attribution, Measurement Insights and Qualified Leads Optimisation.

Companies: enhanced engagement insights

LinkedIn has replaced the Company Engagement Report with ‘Companies’, offering more robust features for understanding brand interactions. This tool provides insights into engagement levels—low, medium, high, and very high—enabling more precise audience targeting and campaign refinement.

Data-driven attribution model

A new data-driven attribution model in Campaign Manager offers insights beyond last-touch models, uncovering the most impactful touchpoints in the customer journey. This feature helps advertisers allocate marketing spend more efficiently by focusing on activities that truly drive leads.

Measurement insights

A new tab in Campaign Manager that provides a centralised hub for actionable insights at the member, company, campaign and ad format levels. It helps you evaluate the business impact of your full-funnel marketing efforts without juggling between multiple tabs or reports.

Qualified leads optimisation

A powerful new feature for advertisers seeking to improve lead quality and conversion rates. This tool enables marketers to tailor campaigns to target leads that meet specific marketing or sales criteria. By connecting their CRM via CAPI, advertisers can share examples of qualified leads, allowing LinkedIn’s optimisation tool to find similar prospects.

LinkedIn tests paid boosting for personal updates

LinkedIn is testing a new advertising feature that allows users to boost personal posts, expanding on its existing “Boost” option for business page updates. This development offers professionals a powerful tool to increase their visibility and establish themselves as thought leaders in their sectors. Currently, LinkedIn is conducting a limited test of this feature, with access restricted to paying users.

TikTok

Valentine’s Day campaign tips

TikTok has shared insights for Valentine’s Day campaigns, highlighting the platform’s potential for SMBs to connect with users seeking inspiration for gifts and celebrations. The platform emphasises that Valentine’s Day content extends beyond romantic relationships to self-love and appreciation for friends and family, offering diverse marketing opportunities.

Amazon

Amazon opening up their ad network for other businesses to use on their own websites

Amazon has unveiled its Retail Ad Service beta, a groundbreaking initiative that extends its advertising technology to other online retailers. This move allows e-commerce platforms to leverage Amazon’s sophisticated ad tech on their own websites, potentially revolutionising the digital advertising landscape. This development presents significant opportunities for online retailers to enhance their advertising capabilities and for brands to expand their reach beyond Amazon’s marketplace. It also positions Amazon to capture a larger share of the growing retail media market, even from transactions occurring off its platform.

Apple

Branded mail feature for Business Connect

Apple has introduced Branded Mail in Apple Business Connect, allowing business owners to add their brand logo and name to emails. This feature enhances brand identity, builds trust in customer communications, and makes emails more distinctive in the Mail app on Apple devices and iCloud Mail. The review process for this feature can take up to 7 business days.

Read more: https://support.apple.com/en-mn/guide/apple-business-connect/abcb761b19d2/web 

Reddit

Reddit Pro Trends launch

Reddit has unveiled Reddit Pro Trends, a tool designed to help businesses uncover conversations about any topic on the platform. This launch aims to facilitate the development of organic Reddit strategies, capitalising on the platform's growing influence in product and brand decisions. Reddit Pro Trends offers valuable insights for businesses looking to enhance their 2025 marketing strategies.