Meta Introduces Threads Ads Globally | The Paid Social Marketer Newsletter

PLUS: Social Media Shorts Are the New TV Guide

Author

Zihan Lyu
April 30, 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 🌟

Marketing thought leadership has a tendency towards binaries. The funnel is either completely dead or very much alive. Brand marketing is either pointless or the solution to all your problems, and ChatGPT is ending 30 years of search overnight.

At Fospha, we love the measurement challenge of any new channel that offers our clients ways to reach more customers. However, Google is still very much the biggest advertising platform. Performance Max (PMAX) and Search products alone represent around 30% of our clients’ digital share of wallet.

In uncertain times, it’s more important than ever for brands to nail these core channels, so we produced the definitive best practice guide on PMAX and Paid Search. Here were our top findings:

  • ⚖️ Best performing brands allocate 55% of Google budget to PMAX and 12% to Paid Search.

  • 🏆 Brands that pair Search and PMAX with ~50% of their budgets in YouTube, Demand Gen and Paid Social see optimal results.

  • 🎨 Especially for PMAX, high-volume creative is key for AI-powered optimization.

Sector Spotlight 🎥

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Meta’s rapid rollout of Threads ads offers marketers early global access to new placements, though adoption is cautious as advertisers prioritize data-driven performance optimization and audience fit. Initial integration leverages Meta’s Advantage platform, but early indicators suggest conversions may be limited and budgets will stay with proven channels until results justify expansion.

Marketers should closely track performance, adapt creative to Threads’ culture, and anticipate ongoing tests before large-scale investment.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Reddit’s young user base and community-first culture make it an essential platform for marketers targeting Gen Z and millennials. Success requires authentic participation in niche subreddits, combining organic engagement with tailored ads for measurable growth. Marketers gain direct audience insights, improve brand trust, and see stronger campaign ROI.

PROGRAMMATIC INNOVATION

Yahoo’s new campaign positions its DSP as a high-performing choice for large advertisers, highlighting a 90% win rate in direct tests against rivals. Targeting Fortune 500 brands and leveraging increased Blueprint Performance adoption, the platform offers marketers tangible measurement tools and greater control in a competitive DSP landscape.

INFLUENCER PRECISION MARKETING

Coachella 2025 demonstrated that brands prioritizing measurable influencer performance, community engagement, and precise KPIs outperformed those focused on mass exposure. Marketers benefited most by aligning with creators who drove specific actions, invested in influencer upskilling, and adopted advanced measurement tools.

For marketers, actionable data and collaboration define future success.

Source: BRYANT

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Short-form social media videos have become essential discovery tools, with 71% of Gen Z finding content via platforms like TikTok, making them crucial for marketers engaging these audiences. Real-time data from shorts enhances acquisition, targeting, and monetization strategies, while in-app experiences drive customer retention and measurable ROI.

Influencer Corner 📢

Meta Ads vs. Google Ads: Which One is Better for D2C Brands?

Meta ads excel at:
👉 Building brand awareness.
👉 Nurturing new customers with engaging content.
👉 Retargeting cold leads who didn’t convert initially.

Google ads are great for:
👉 Capturing demand when people are actively searching for solutions.
👉 Generating high-intent traffic with low CPC.
👉 Converting cold leads into paying customers quickly.

Which one should you focus on?
👉 Meta ads work best if you’re focusing on top-of-funnel and brand-building.
👉 Google ads work best when you’re ready to convert customers actively searching for your product.

Rumour has it that OpenAI might be quietly working on a native Shopify checkout inside ChatGPT.

Apparently ‘leaked’ code shows:

👉 'shopify_checkout_url'
👉 'buy_now'
👉 'product_offer_ratings'

No redirects. No search. Just chat, compare, and buy in one flow. Unconfirmed, but catching attention.

If this happens?

Google, TikTok, even product pages as we know them are all about to change.

Optimization Hub ⚙️

SEARCH INNOVATION

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) integrates traditional SEO with AI-focused strategies, ensuring content is both visible in classic search results and cited by AI models like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Marketers must structure content to answer specific questions, prioritize authority, and track AI-driven citations. Adapting to GEO is essential for maintaining discoverability in an AI-driven search landscape.

DISCOVERY COMMERCE INNOVATION

TikTok Shop’s newly released playbook, developed with Accenture Song, provides marketers and brands actionable frameworks for driving growth through discovery commerce, leveraging real-time creator content and robust measurement. With TikTok Shop rapidly capturing eCommerce market share, ignoring these trends risks falling behind competitors capitalizing on content-driven online retail.

INNOVATIVE PERSONALIZATION STRATEGIES

Cookieless personalization is reshaping digital marketing by requiring brands to use first-party and zero-party data, contextual targeting, and server-side solutions instead of third-party cookies, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This shift enables marketers to maintain effective, consent-driven customer engagement while safeguarding user privacy. Marketers must adapt quickly to sustain relevance and trust.

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