Threads turns one week old today, and the platform already has 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing platform ever. Instagram’s new venture looks just like Twitter but feels kind of like Facebook, and its first few days have been a wild west for marketers. Here’s what marketers should consider in their Threads strategy.

Meta is way ahead of competitors in US video ad spend, with 30.1% share this year compared with YouTube’s 8.3% and TikTok’s 6.5%, according to our forecast. TikTok is on YouTube’s tail as it gains share, but the short video newcomer won’t surpass YouTube before the end of our forecast period in 2025.

The company is threading artificial intelligence into its core products and services used by millions of users while doubling down on AI accountability. Read online

While the platform’s ad-supported tier gains momentum, Netflix needs to beef up its targeting capabilities to win advertisers over. Meanwhile, viewers may be turned off by a heavy ad load and a crackdown on password sharing. But global growth shows promise for Netflix’s future.

TikTok is launching ad product Pulse Premiere, an extension of Pulse that allows publishers like Condé Nast, Buzzfeed, and NBC to make money off of ads featured by all of their own content, according to the Wall Street Journal. The new product is part of TikTok’s efforts to make the platform more appealing to publishers, even as risks of a US ban loom.

On today's episode, we discuss whether watching TV with other people ruins the potential of targeted connected TV (CTV) ads, who's winning the CTV advertising race, and how CTV stacks up against traditional TV ad spending. "In Other News," we talk about Netflix's road map for video games and what to make of its 1 million user milestone for its ad tier. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Paul Verna.

As brands seek ways to stretch their marketing budgets, advertisers may lean on automation to help them create more cost-efficient campaigns. Here are some best practices on creating and measuring Google Performance Max campaigns, including how to choose the right budget and bid strategy and the right variety of creative assets.

Marketers may be nervous about increasing advertising spend in an unstable economic climate, but doing so can be a strategic move given that recessions are often followed by periods of prosperity and growth.

Another delay for Apple’s mixed reality headset: It’s been working on the technology for its next big product since 2015, but now delays are due to software and hardware issues. How can Apple succeed at a time of economic upheaval?

“I think it’s kind of a hard sell,” said our analyst Daniel Konstantinovic of Netflix’s Basic with Ads tier. Existing Netflix users are used to ad-free content, and even a cheaper price won’t win most of them over, he said. Could a potential recession change that?

What’s got the go-ahead? Pushing boundaries, leveraging social media, and engaging with audiences beyond the TV. But be wary: don’t go too far, lose focus on offline opportunities, or forget to connect the dots.

There’s a lot of noise surrounding customer data platforms (CDPs). Yet even with all the buzz, more than one-third of brands with a deployed CDP say they deliver little to no value. Atlassian shared what it learned while improving campaign awareness and strengthening customer acquisition, loyalty, and advocacy.

On today's episode, we discuss a mixture of new store formats, whether there are too many ads on Amazon, how consumers keep spending in the face of inflation, the battle for the TV ratings crown, whether you can guarantee delivery, the number of books that have ever been published, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Suzy Davidkhanian, Blake Droesch, and Paul Verna.

Despite the Basic With Ads subscription tier being released just two weeks ago, we’re forecasting Netflix will see US ad revenues of $830 million in 2023, growing to $1.02 billion in 2024. It’s an impressive acceleration in ad revenues, but it puts the company behind a few streaming rivals.

The average US household was served the same podcast ad 4.76 times in Q2 2022. That quarter marked an unusual decrease in ad frequency, and as a result conversion rates went up, according to Podsights.

“As TV takes on more elements of digital, institutional barriers around those centers of knowledge are being broken down, and TV and digital teams are being integrated,” said our analyst Evelyn Mitchell on our “Behind the Numbers: The Daily” podcast. But “institutional change takes time.”

Among US podcast ads, pre-roll spots generated about 5% more website visits during Q2 than those in the middle of an episode. While that margin is fairly slim, both placements produced better results than post-roll, likely because earlier spots catch listeners before they drop off.

TikTok announced new Shopping Ads this week in an effort to streamline in-app ecommerce.

As of February 2022, nearly 30% US households with Wi-Fi had an Amazon Fire TV device. More than 20% owned an Echo smart speaker, Fire tablet, or both.

Several forces are driving up costs per thousand on both linear and connected TV. On the linear side, audience levels have dropped at a faster rate than ad spending, so more dollars are chasing fewer viewers.