Our favourite platforms are making giant moves…some by choice, the others by force. Meta has opened up the Marketplace to competitors after an antitrust fine, Google is going full speed ahead with new ad tools, while Reddit is undergoing a major makeover.

Whether these changes will make marketing easier or not remains to be seen, but staying informed and acting quickly will be necessary to keep your campaigns effective. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s updates.

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1. Meta Welcomes Rival Classified Ad Providers

After being fined $828 million by EU antitrust regulators, Meta has (reluctantly) launched the “Facebook Marketplace Partner Program,” which allows rival classified ad providers to display their listings alongside Facebook’s own. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg insists the EU is unfairly targeting American firms, the company went ahead and began testing the program last month with eBay across Germany, France, and the US.

This move comes after the European Commission’s ruling that Meta gave its own Marketplace an unfair edge by imposing unfavourable conditions on competitors. The commission is currently assessing if this approach fully satisfied their ruling against the company’s anti-competitive practices.

What this means for you:

If you’re running classified ads on another platform, this could mean more visibility on Facebook Marketplace, once the program reaches the country. On the other hand, because this could make the Marketplace more crowded, make sure your ads stand out with eye-catching content and relevant messaging.

2. New Google Tools for Advertisers

Google has introduced a further development for its Performance Max program. The Usefulness Indicator is a tool designed to show whether added search themes actually generate fresh traffic or just recycle existing leads. This helps advertisers refine their targeting and budget allocation.

That said, even with this tool in place, you’re still dependent on Google’s automated systems. In other words, although it is an attempt at transparency, you don’t really gain more control over your campaigns.

Meanwhile, Google’s Demand Gen ads now come with automatic video shortening feature, which automatically trims your existing videos into short-form versions. This is a great way to boost engagement on mobile and social platforms without extra effort on your part.

What this means for you:

Google’s heart seems to be in the right place when they made it easier for advertisers to study campaigns and make automatic tweaks.

Control issues aside, the Performance Max updates should help you assess what’s really bringing in new traffic. The automatic video shortening feature on Demand Gen, on the other hand, is a potential time-saver. However, don’t forget to check the edited videos to make sure they didn’t butcher your original message.

3. Reddit Introduces AI Search and Paywalls

Popular social media platform Reddit is starting to roll out AI-powered search to make finding relevant content through its vast forums easier. This new system will summarise and recommend posts, with the aim of improving and retaining user engagement.

As CEO Steve Huffman hopes, this could be a step towards making Reddit the go-to platform for getting answers to complex questions.

Huffman also confirmed that they are actively developing paywalled subreddits that offer exclusive content. The CEO added that these paid forums will launch this year, but the details remain vague. The company is also considering expanding e-commerce options, but they clarified that this is further down the line.

What this means for you:

We can assume that Reddit is building itself to be more like mainstream networks such as Facebook and X. Its AI-powered search could make it easier for relevant discussions to surface; thus, you need to make sure your Reddit contributions have good enough substance and accuracy to be recommended.

On the other hand, if paywalled subreddits take off, they might create niche communities filled with engaged members that have purchasing power. You can use this as an avenue for offering exclusive, high-value content and personalised experiences for said audience segment.

Watch out for Reddit, as it could be a great space worth exploring, whether for organic engagement or future advertising opportunities.

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