When it comes to the holidays, tech giants like Google, Meta, and Pinterest have one message for retailers: Let AI do the heavy lifting.
Retailers are witnessing AI’s absolute fever pitch with new tools dropping at mind-blowing speed. At its Think Retail event, Google widened access to AI-powered tools like AI Max research campaigns and introduced new omnichannel buying features into Demand Gen to help retailers boost sales. The Demand Gen feature makes it easier to reach shoppers across YouTube and Google’s other visual platforms.
Meta, meanwhile, has taken its Reels trending ads out of beta, giving advertisers access to AI-curated, culturally relevant Reels inventory designed to pull in shoppers. And Pinterest is making its ads more shoppable with new where-to-buy links, letting users tap once to see multiple in-stock retailer options for a single product.
These ad platforms are positioning the tools as a way for brands to boost conversion rates, while driving ad revenue growth for the platforms themselves. Experts noted that while these tools are marketed as AI-driven, they are essentially upgraded versions of existing features. Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, told Retail Brew that retailers should be more concerned with the effectiveness of ads than the AI technology itself.
“We find that when advertisers are measuring conversions across those three areas [app, website, and in-store], AI can learn from that and optimize for total value much better,” Dan Taylor, VP of global ads at Google, said at a press briefing on September 10.
Google is also offering new AI-powered insights in Google Merchant Center that allow brands to adapt to shifting consumer demand. Google is also expanding access to campaign total budgets, which enables users to “set a start date and an end date and a budget for up to 90 days and start to optimize based on the best performance and also peak demand periods,” Taylor said.
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Meta said that the trending Reels ad unit delivered 32% higher ad recall and six times better favorability than regular ads for department store chain JCPenney in a test that ran with media buying agency Dentsu.
Moving on to Pinterest, the platform is spending time focused on discovery of items on its service. According to Eric Martell, co-founder and CEO at Pear, an e-commerce ads platform that works with Pinterest, the where-to-buy links enables a new way for pinners to find products. “This is the kind of partnership we get excited about, one that shifts how shoppers discover and buy their favorite products,” Martell said in a statement.
“With Pear powering Pinterest’s where-to-buy links, we’re unlocking a first-of-its-kind experience for CPG brands, and the best part is that any advertiser can access it directly in the Pinterest Ads Manager without needing to be a Pear customer,” he added.
Goldberg said brands spending money on these advertising platforms should “test every new tool” to make sure they’re using the ones that are the “best fit” for them. “They’re all getting better,” Goldberg said. “But at the end of the day, the audience that that platform provides is much more important than the tool.”
According to Katya Constantine, CEO of agency Digishopgirl Media, Reels trending ads and Google AI Max are responding well for her clients.
“Many leading online platforms have rolled out new AI tools just in time for the holidays,” Constantine wrote in an email. “We’ve been experimenting with many of them actively and expect to leverage them heavily during the holiday season.”