TikTok Ad-free subscription
I often think the one thing Elon Musk missed with his subscription service was the option for no-ads for subscribers. I know people would pay for that. It’s one of the reasons I pay for YouTube Premium.
And now TikTok is experimenting with a subscriber model that will exclude ads. For $4.99 a month, subscribers will have an ad-free experience on the app.
This could be attractive to many but it won’t eliminate influencer marketing, only traditional ads on the site.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/02/tiktok-begins-testing-4-99-ad-free-subscription-tier/
New Canva AI
Canva just became the most user-friendly and fun AI design tool.
It just released a slew of AI tools under the ‘Magic Studio’ banner. They include ‘Magic Grab’ which will let you pick up and move an element in your image, filling the background you leave behind.
Magic expand that will fill the space around an image that doesn’t fill the full frame.
And a nifty tool that will not just generate text for documents but allows you to add your brand voice.
There are simple tutorials which will remind you of the early days of Canva and make learning the new tools simple. I can’t wait to get stuck in.
https://mashable.com/article/canva-magic-studio-ai
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No opt-out of ad personalisation on Reddit
Online discussions suggest that people are more aware of their online privacy than they have ever been before. Social networks are jumping through hoops to appear to be privacy-focused.
But not Reddit. This week it announced that it is getting rid of the ability for users to opt out of personalised ads. In screenshots shared by TechCrunch, it looks like some countries, I’m guessing EU countries, will retain the option whilst the rest of the world will lose it.
Reddit claims this will mean more relevant ads for users, which is probably true, but will users be more concerned about privacy than the quality of the ads they see?
AI stickers on Instagram
Ever get bored of using the same stickers over and over on Instagram?
Now you can create your own AI stickers on the go. When you create a story or send a message you’ll be able to type a prompt into the sticker search bar and it will produce sticker options based on your prompt.
This feature is still rolling out. On the downside, people are already using this to create NSFW stickers.
https://help.instagram.com/231732506511219/?cms_platform=iphone-app&helpref=platform_switcher
LinkedIn AI for ads
The whole process of creating ads can be painful. It’s not just the optimisation, it’s choosing and creating images that will work for your audience.
But that’s going to get a lot easier on LinkedIn with ‘Accelerate’ AI ads.
When you set up your campaign in Accelerate you will give LinkedIn your link. It will scrape it, get intelligence from your company page and the AI will kick in to suggest a campaign type, copy and images for your ads.
It won’t be perfect, you’ll need to edit, but as with all AI, it will speed up the blank page procrastination stage of creation.
https://searchengineland.com/linkedin-ai-powered-ad-creation-tool-campaign-manager-432849
New Twitter link layout
Twitter links just got harder to spot.
Not only is the Twitter algorithm barely showing you any links, but the links it is showing you are getting hidden.
A new update uses the key image from a link post with a small overlay of the URL. No headline, no description, nothing.
Ad links remain the same.
Will this result in even less traffic to websites from Twitter, or will we see a surge in accidental clicks?
LinkedIn CTA button
What if you could add a subtle call to action to all your LinkedIn posts?
Well, you can now, if you are a premium subscriber.
Subscribers can add a CTA button to their profile which automatically appears at the top of each post. Which seems cool.
The downside is that only other premium members will see your CTA. Which makes it kinda… pointless?
