In partnership with

Reddit Launches Trend Tracking & AMA Ads 📡 What 2025 Has In Store For Influencer Marketing 🤳 TikTok's Role In A New Era Of Commerce 💸

Also: How To Get Better Customer Insights Using AI

Drowning In Support Tickets? Maven AGI is here to help.

Maven AGI platform simplifies customer service by unifying systems, improving with every interaction, and automating up to 93% of responses. Seamlessly integrated with 50+ tools like Salesforce, Freshdesk, and Zendesk, Maven can deploy AI agents across multiple channels—text, email, web, voice, and apps—within days. Companies like Tripadvisor, ClickUp, and Rho slash response times by 60%, ensuring quicker support and exceptional customer satisfaction. Don’t let support tickets slow you down

Request a free personalized demo today.

🗞 Marketing News

Reddit Launches Trend Tracking And AMA Ads [2 min read]

Reddit is launching "Reddit Pro Trends," a new feature in their Pro dashboard that allows businesses to track custom keywords and trending topics in real-time, offering visualization of conversation volume, community listings, and access to over 100,000 pre-programmed "smart" keywords. The platform is positioning this tracking tool as a valuable market research feature that goes beyond Reddit-specific campaigns, enabling businesses to monitor brand feedback, track competitor discussions, and understand user responses to product launches in real-time. Also, Reddit is introducing "AMA (Ask Me Anything) ads," a new advertising format that allows brands to promote their AMA sessions within the app, complete with features like a "Remind Me" button and RSVP tracking to help maximize participation in brand-hosted conversations.

What 2025 Has In Store For Influencer Marketing [6 min read]

Influencer marketing is evolving its format with a more democratized approach that includes regular customers alongside influencers, while also seeing a shift toward long-form content and increased participation from athletes as content creators. The business model of influencer marketing is simultaneously transforming, with significant growth expected in social commerce and affiliate marketing, as influencers expand beyond traditional social posts into broader business ventures like brands and podcasts. Meanwhile, the industry is experiencing major platform and technology shifts, with TikTok facing an uncertain future and traditional TV advertising declining, while AI-generated influencers fall out of favor despite AI's continued utility for analytics and backend tasks.

TikTok's Role In Ushering In A New Era Of Commerce [20 min read]

TikTok has revolutionized product discovery through its "For You" feed and search capabilities, with three-quarters of its shoppers considering it their primary platform for finding new brands and products. The platform's success is built on authenticity, with creator-centered content fostering trust among users, as 74% of users find TikTok creator content authentic and 55% are more likely to trust brands they learn about through TikTok creators. The platform has developed a comprehensive commerce strategy that works both on and off TikTok, offering businesses multiple pathways to reach customers through in-app commerce, cross-platform tactics, and hybrid media approaches, resulting in 70% of TikTok shoppers making purchases after seeing ads or shoppable content.

🤖 AI

A New Benchmark For Evaluating The Factuality Of Large Language Models [4 min read]

The FACTS Grounding benchmark has been introduced as a new way to evaluate how accurately Large Language Models can ground their responses in source material and avoid hallucinations, comprising 1,719 examples across various domains. The evaluation process employs three frontier LLM judges (Gemini 1.5 Pro, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet) to assess responses in two phases: checking if they adequately address user requests and verifying factual accuracy against provided documents. To track and encourage industry-wide progress, the initiative includes a public leaderboard on Kaggle and is designed to evolve over time, with the team committed to continuously raising standards as the field advances.

Microsoft's $80B AI Move [1 min read]

Microsoft plans to invest $80 billion in AI data centers by June 2025, with more than half of this massive investment focused on United States facilities, demonstrating their commitment to American economic development. This significant announcement follows previous discussions between Microsoft and OpenAI about constructing a $100 million supercomputer called Stargate, indicating a pattern of strategic AI infrastructure investments. The investment is expected to have wide-reaching benefits, not only strengthening Microsoft's position in the AI industry but also creating jobs, boosting the US economy, and fostering better relationships with local governments and businesses.

How To Get Better Customer Insights Using AI [8 min read]

Recent research demonstrates that combining human expertise with AI for market research produces superior results compared to either working independently, with AI-simulated responses showing significantly higher depth and informativeness scores than human responses alone. The power of AI in market research comes from its ability to conduct endless questioning, access synthetic respondents from hard-to-reach demographics, and rapidly process large amounts of information, though human oversight remains important for optimal results. Researchers have developed a practical implementation framework that includes creating AI-generated personas, designing research questions, gathering customer information, conducting virtual interviews with AI-generated customer clones, and maintaining human supervision throughout the process to ensure quality and depth of insights.

🧠 Hacks & Tactics

Why Great Marketers Look At Pipeline Coverage, Not Just Pipeline Generation [5 min read]

Successful marketing should prioritize pipeline coverage over merely meeting pipeline generation goals to ensure sales can succeed. Relying too heavily on generation metrics can obscure underlying issues, as companies may hit targets while still struggling with starting pipeline coverage. Ultimately, effective marketers focus on collaboration with sales to enhance overall performance and support shared success.

17 High Impact Strategies For Conversion Rate Optimization [22 min read]

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is vital for maximizing return on investment, enhancing customer experience, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of a business. It involves implementing a variety of strategies, such as improving website navigation, increasing page load speeds, optimizing for mobile devices, creating compelling calls-to-action, and leveraging social proof to boost conversion rates. Also, effective CRO requires a systematic approach that includes identifying drop-off points, focusing on high-impact pages, and continuously testing and refining strategies based on data and customer feedback.

How To Apply Color Psychology To Marketing And Branding [2 min read]

Color psychology influences consumer perceptions and purchase decisions, and can allow businesses to connect more effectively with their target audiences. When selecting colors, brands must consider factors such as brand identity, audience preferences, competitor color schemes, user experience, and color hierarchy to ensure their choices resonate positively and differentiate them in the market. Successfully integrating scientific insights about color impact with creative design helps create strong, memorable brands that enhance user engagement and drive consumer loyalty.

⚙️ Machine Shop

10 pMax Segmentations For More Control & Scalability [6 min read]

Advanced segmentation of Performance Max (pMax) campaigns can significantly enhance control, scalability, and results, especially when there are sufficient conversion volumes. Specific segmentation strategies, including segmenting by category, bestsellers, and price competitiveness, can optimize campaign performance. Continuous experimentation and adjustment are key to identifying the most effective strategies for each unique situation.

Makeover Your Annual Marketing Plan Approach [8 min read]

Traditional task-based marketing planning often results in budget cuts and undervalues marketing's role in driving growth. Shifting to outcome-based planning reframes marketing as an investment aimed at achieving specific business outcomes with a positive return on investment (mROI). Implementing strategies such as aligning marketing initiatives with business goals, using AI for accurate projections, and regularly sharing performance metrics with leadership can enhance marketing's impact and value.

7 Best Facebook Ads Tactics from Demand Gen Pros [14 min read]

Using authentic, "ugly ads" that resemble organic content can bypass users' internal ad filters and achieve higher engagement. Leveraging Facebook's dynamic ad features and data-driven strategies, such as Dynamic Creative Optimization and first-party data collection, helps optimize ad performance. A strategic approach to campaigns involves engaging the audience, targeting potential buyers, and scaling successful efforts with lookalike audiences.

🔮 The Future

The 15 Most Impressive Products So Far At CES 2025 [6 min read]

CES 2025 is showcasing a significant shift toward AI integration across products, with major TV manufacturers like Samsung, LG, and Google incorporating advanced AI features for enhanced viewing experiences, recommendations, and user interaction. Health and wellness technology is becoming more accessible to everyday consumers, demonstrated by groundbreaking announcements of over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors from Dexcom and Abbott that make this technology available to both diabetics and health-conscious individuals. The show also revealed major innovations in everyday consumer electronics, including Roborock's obstacle-removing robot vacuum, Lenovo's expandable rollable laptop, and breakthrough charging technologies like Swippitt's two-second phone charger and Ugreen's 500W charging system.

Creator Physical Spaces Will Make A Comeback In 2025 [2 min read]

Major creator agencies Whalar and Billion Dollar Boy are opening physical spaces in early 2025, providing creators with production facilities, coworking spaces, and networking opportunities through their respective ventures, The Lighthouse and FiveTwoNine. The move reflects the professionalizing creator economy, where US creators are projected to earn $15 billion from social media in 2025, though these spaces could also address reported loneliness issues in the creator community. While these physical locations aim to improve brand-creator partnerships, with 89% of creators claiming they have unique audience insights, there's uncertainty about demand since only 39% of US and UK creators expressed interest in such spaces, highlighting questions about their long-term viability.

Meta To End Fact Checking And Replace With Community Driven System [2 min read]

Meta has announced a major shift in its content moderation strategy, ending its fact-checking program in favor of a community-driven system similar to X's approach, impacting billions of users across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Mark Zuckerberg framed this decision around the 2024 U.S. presidential election as a "cultural tipping point," though the company will continue moderating specific issues like terrorism and child exploitation while relying on community moderation for other content. The timing of this change appears strategically aligned with Donald Trump's presidential victory, as Meta takes steps to repair its relationship with Trump following his previous platform ban, including adding Trump ally Dana White to its board and donating $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

AI Will Be Dead In Five Years [2 min read]

The term "AI" today represents a blend of machine learning technology and marketing strategy, as captured by the joke that "people do statistics in R, machine learning in Python, and AI in PowerPoint." The author predicts that AI will "die" within five years, not due to failure but rather because it will become so integrated into our daily information interactions that we'll stop explicitly labeling it as AI. This evolution mirrors what happened with "big data," where technologies that were once buzzworthy marketing terms became so commonplace that they lost their novelty, much like how Netflix recommendations were once considered cutting-edge AI but are now viewed as routine features.

👩‍🏫 Vocab

Customer Journey: The complete path a customer takes from first becoming aware of your brand to making a purchase and beyond. This journey includes every interaction and touchpoint between your business and the customer. Understanding the customer journey helps you improve each step of their experience.

Example: Sarah discovers a skincare brand on Instagram, reads reviews, signs up for their newsletter, tries a sample, and finally purchases a full product line - each step represents part of her customer journey.

Omnichannel Marketing: A cross-channel approach that provides customers with a seamless, integrated experience across all platforms and devices. It connects every touchpoint, from physical stores to digital platforms, creating a consistent brand experience. Omnichannel marketing ensures customers have the same quality of interaction whether shopping online, in-store, or through social media.

Example: Target allows customers to browse products on their app, check in-store availability, order online, and choose between home delivery or in-store pickup, all working together smoothly.

Build a Course. Monetize Your Knowledge.

KwaKwa is an innovative mobile platform designed for content creators, educators, and knowledge experts to transform their knowledge into revenues. It offers an intuitive platform to build courses in a familiar, social media-like vertical feed format. With bite-sized lessons that include videos, interactive surveys, quizzes, and links, KwaKwa helps creators engage their audience through micro-learning experiences. Whether you have organic followers or paid traffic, you can easily monetize your content and deliver unforgettable learning journeys through this dynamic, interactive app.

Turn Your Knowledge Into Revenue

That's it for this week! See you next week. 😎

Forwarded this email? Click here to subscribe. Don't want to miss out? Make sure to whitelist our email! 🥳😉

Something else you’d like to see here? Hit reply and let us know what you think. 🧠 Or smash a button on our feedback poll at the bottom!

✌️ Team Marketing Machine

🗳️ Feedback Dept!

🥞 Stack

Tools we use to keep our business running.

Discord - find community with text, voice, and video chat. Join us!
Beehiiv - engage newsletter audiences and grow subscribers
Clickup - project management and team collaboration
WordPress - build websites and blogs
Elementor - drag-and-drop builder for WordPress
Buffer - streamline social media scheduling and analytics
ElevenLabs - convert text into realistic voiceover
Riverside - record high-quality audio and video remotely
Transistor - all-in-one podcast hosting platform
Zapier - automate tasks by connecting web apps
Claude - AI language model focused on safe and ethical text processing
Midjourney - generate images from text prompts using AI
*contains affiliate links - let us know if you have any questions or recommendations!