The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 BRANDS HIT PAUSE ON DEI CAMPAIGNS

🥚 Marketing on eggshells: This year, Black History Month brand campaigns were quieter than usual, and Women’s History Month and Pride Month might follow suit. Amid U.S. President Trump’s ongoing war against diversity, equity and inclusion, several marketers told Digiday that brands have paused or adjusted marketing around days honouring marginalized communities. There's been a shift away from language tied to DEI, as brands navigate a more cautious approach.

• Marketers reported a slowdown in campaigns for these cultural moments, with some clients pulling back completely.

• One agency saw a drop from 20-30 requests in 2023 to a noticeable pause this year.

• However, brands like Rare Beauty and Code.org have kept their momentum, continuing to run campaigns for Black History Month and International Women's Day.

🥈 TIKTOK SHOP ROLLS OUT NEW SELLER FEATURES

TikTok Shop has added some new options for sellers:

• Sellers can now automate the approval process for aftersales requests like returns, refunds, replacements, and cancellations.

• They can also set their own return windows, ranging from 14 to 90 days. PO box deliveries can now be excluded from orders.

• Fashion sellers can now mark certain items as “final sale.”

• Retailers can set custom handling times for orders. Qualified sellers can extend shipping handling times from 3 to 7 business days.

🥉 LINKEDIN EXPANDS AI AD TARGETING

LinkedIn has expanded its Predictive Audiences tool, which uses AI to create audience profiles by combining your data with LinkedIn’s insights. The tool analyzes engagement data, like ad clicks, along with your data (such as conversions and lead forms) to find patterns and predict a new audience likely to act like your current one. more

• Starting this week, you can now include company lists.

• You’ll also now be able to add retargeting sources.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Google Ads & Ad Policies 🆕 

• 🫡The 10k commandments: Google GOOGL ( ▲ 1.87% ) has increased the negative keyword cap for PMax campaigns from 100 to 10,000 in response to user backlash. However, Google recommends using negative keywords carefully to avoid limiting the system's ability to drive conversions. The update is rolling out over the next couple of weeks. more

• Google has launched version 2.9 of the Google Ads Editor. the update brings several new features:

  • Support for manager account (MCC) owned labels.

  • Shopping ads on excluded brands.

  • Age exclusions in PMax campaigns.

  • Enhanced CPC deprecation.

  • Multi-tab export/import to Google Sheets.

  • Ad previews for RSA and asset groups.

• 🤔 No means… try it anyway: Google Ads might now prompt you to create an experimental ad when you dismiss its suggested recommendations. So, if you ignore a suggestion, the platform can get a bit pushy, encouraging you to test it out through an experiment. more

  • A user spotted this change, noting that when dismissing the “Add broad match keywords” recommendation, Google now suggests running it as an experiment instead.

• The company has updated its affiliate ads policy for Chrome extensions after PayPal’s PYPL ( ▲ 0.94% ) Honey extension was accused of replacing influencer affiliate links with its own during checkout. Under the new rules, affiliate links, codes, or cookies can only be included if they provide a direct and transparent user benefit. Violations include inserting affiliate links without offering discounts, cashback, or donations, or continuously injecting them without user action. more

Advertising 📣 

• Meta Ads Manager META ( ▲ 2.29% ) now lets you enable ‘Chat with Leads' for instant follow-ups. When someone submits a lead form and opts in, a Messenger chat starts automatically. Users can also access the conversation via a ‘View in Messenger' button on the thank-you page. more

• TikTok's ad revenue could hit $32.5 billion in 2025, a 25% YoY increase, if the U.S. doesn't ban the app, accounting for more than 10% of total social ad spend. With the U.S. as its largest market, nearly $12 billion in revenue is on the line. However, ad revenue growth outside the U.S. is outpacing domestic gains, which could help soften the blow of a potential ban. more

• New research shows that free ad-supported TV services (FAST) are rapidly growing, with active channels in key markets, including the U.S., UK, Germany, and Canada, nearly doubling since mid-2023 to more than 1,610. The U.S. leads with nearly three-fourths of the channels, offering more than 178,000 unique programs, episodes and movies. more

The Petty Legal Files 💼 

• A leaked Slack chat shows Matt Mullenweg is considering delaying WordPress releases until 2027, with the condition that Automattic’s contributions will only increase if WP Engine drops its lawsuit. One developer called this move “blackmail.” more

  • Mullenweg's Automattic has already reduced its WordPress core contributions, prompting a request for more support, which Mullenweg dismissed. The Slack post blamed WP Engine for the delay and encouraged others to pressure them to drop the lawsuit.

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