How to Use AI to Connect with Your Audience | The Paid Social Marketer Newsletter

PLUS: Prove the Impact of Your Brand Investment

Author

Zihan Lyu
May 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Welcome to The Paid Social Marketer, your essential newsletter for social media marketers and eCommerce professionals.

Editor’s Pick 🌟

For too long, brand has been shorthand for expensive campaigns with little proven impact. Fospha's groundbreaking new research definitively connects brand investment to tangible business outcomes like conversions and AOV.

From cutting-edge machine learning analysis across 70+ brands, this report reveals:

  • The Business Impact of Brand: Discover the causal links between brand spend and bottom-line impact.

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  • Real-World Success: Learn how Sweaty Betty demystified their brand ROI using this methodology.

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Sector Spotlight 🎥

MEDIA INFLATION STRATEGY

Media inflation in 2025 is forecasted to ease to 2.5%, with digital channels—especially social, CTV, and search—facing the highest cost pressures due to intensified demand and limited inventory.

Marketers must anticipate rising ad costs in “safe” verticals, reevaluate channel strategies, and adapt messaging to maintain visibility amid fluctuating media environments. Smart allocation toward cost-efficient video and search channels, ongoing performance assessment, and vigilant monitoring of platforms like TikTok are essential for sustaining campaign effectiveness.

SOCIAL CHANNEL PRIORITIES

Retail marketers are increasing spend on paid social channels—particularly in apparel—while still relying heavily on email and text for higher personalization and conversion. Despite enthusiasm for paid social, email proves resilient across all age groups, and direct messaging channels remain essential for measurable ROI.

Data gaps hinder full adoption of AI-driven personalization, underscoring the need for improved data management to drive conversion-focused outreach.

FILM FESTIVAL TRENDS

Jennifer Lawrence in “Die My Love,” one of several buzzy titles premiering at Cannes.
Credit: Kimberly French, via Festival de Cannes

Cannes Film Festival 2025 features a Hollywood-heavy lineup with major premieres, high-profile directorial debuts, and strong Oscar contenders, presenting substantial visibility opportunities for talent and studios. Neon’s attempt at a sixth consecutive Palme d’Or win is highly anticipated, signaling evolving industry trends marketers should track.

SOCIAL MEDIA INNOVATION

AI is transforming social media marketing through advanced data analysis, rapid content and image generation, and chatbot-driven influencer engagement, enabling marketers to personalize campaigns, scale content, and optimize audience targeting.

These developments increase efficiency and present new ethical challenges around privacy, authenticity, and bias. Marketing professionals must balance AI-driven productivity gains with a continued emphasis on authentic connection and transparency.

Influencer Corner 📢

Meta ad costs are up 14% year-over-year. Trump’s tariffs are about to push… | Jessie Healy

🎨Meta ad costs are up 14% year-over-year. Trump’s tariffs are about to push your COGS even higher.

If you’re not obsessed with efficiency right now—you’re going to feel it in your margins.

So I just dropped a podcast episode that could save you thousands in wasted ad spend.

It's the recording of a live webinar I ran with two brilliant minds in the space:
→ Sarah Levinger of Tether Insights, on crafting psychographic, identity-driven creative that converts
→ Phoenix Ha of AdBeacon, on data you can actually trust (and how to stop flying blind inside Meta)

Attention to Arrows: Pointing to a New Direction - Jelena Ristic, Alan… | Sarah Levinger

Been in marketing for (almost) 17 years...how am I just now hearing about this?? 🤯 According to science, adding arrows → to your ad will increase the time people spend on your ad...even if they don’t point to anything at all! WHY THIS HAPPENS 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗳 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻.

Optimization Hub ⚙️

INNOVATIVE ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGIES

PayPal’s Offsite Ads empowers marketers to target consumers based on transaction data rather than cookies or browsing, offering audience precision and real purchase insights across premium digital channels. This approach enables more effective campaign optimization, directly linking media investments to measurable business outcomes for brands.

AI PERSONALIZATION REVOLUTION

Meta’s standalone Meta AI app—integrated across mobile, web, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses—offers marketers valuable new personalization, contextual memory, and rich conversational features powered by Llama 4. Enhanced web search, image generation, and document tools refine campaign insights. Early adoption enables marketers to optimize omnichannel engagement.

PERFORMANCE MARKETING

Google Ads campaigns deliver better results when structured by keyword themes instead of buyer personas, as Google’s automation optimizes for search intent, not marketer assumptions. Marketers should include varied ad messaging within tightly themed ad groups to reach different personas, while only splitting campaigns for fundamentally distinct keywords or regions. This approach provides better data density, improves automated bidding performance, and results in more effective, easier-to-manage campaigns.

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