Good morning. Itttttās Monday.
Tiny hard hat on. Doing our best.
Hereās your start of the week morning read:
š¤ Google brings AI shopping tools to YouTube and Merchant Center
Google is rolling out several AI shopping updates ahead of the holidays.
AI performance insights are now available in Merchant Center across the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand. Retailers can compare their share of voice across AI Mode and AI Overviews to see how often shoppers encounter their products.
Google is also testing Business Agent inside YouTube ads, allowing shoppers to ask product questions without leaving the video. Updates to its Universal Commerce Protocol will let shoppers transfer carts to merchant sites and give retailers more ways to test checkout.
The product feed remains central to all of this. Google says merchants following its core feed recommendations see a 5% average increase in conversions the following month.
During a test with Lululemon, conversational product attributes appeared in 50% of relevant AI Mode recommendations.
Operators should audit their Merchant Center feeds, fix missing or inaccurate product data, add conversational attributes and video links, and connect loyalty information so Google can surface member pricing, free shipping, and other perks.
š§ Mars Men built a different quiz for every ad angle
@vilobatirkedis spotted that Mars Men sends each angle to its own quiz flow.
Campaigns about beer belly, GLP-1 use, switching TRT providers, and sleep continue asking questions about the exact problem that earned the click. That consistency keeps the experience feeling relevant. Each answer builds on the problem mentioned in the ad and helps the final recommendation feel more personal.
Check where your highest-spend campaigns send traffic. If every campaign lands on the same generic quiz or product page, build a tailored opening flow that continues the promise made in the creative.
š¬ AI agents can now set up WhatsApp Business
Meta now allows AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and Codex to handle parts of WhatsApp Business setup.
Agents can create accounts, verify phone numbers, register businesses for the Cloud API, and build messaging templates.
The update could make it easier for brands to launch automated support, answer product questions, and send approved transactional messages through WhatsApp.
š Get 50 creators vetted before Q4
Creator sourcing can swallow 15+ hours before you have a shortlist worth sharing.
Archie, Archiveās Creator Search agent, searches hundreds of thousands of creators based on what they post, who theyāve worked with, and how their audience responds.
Describe the campaign in plain English and Archie does the research for you. Youāll get a vetted shortlist showing who passed, who didnāt, and why, delivered through Slack.
Archive is already trusted by 1,000+ brands, including GrĆ¼ns, Ruggable, SET ACTIVE, and Jolie.
Join the waitlist and get your first 50 creators vetted free.
*Ā sponsored
š° 5 checks to run before Prime Big Deal Days starts
Amazonās Prime Big Deal Days returns October 6 for a 48-hour event across 22 countries, including Canada. Prime members will receive deals across more than 35 categories, with new offers dropping three times daily.
For sellers, the event creates another major promotional window before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It also gives brands an opportunity to reach Prime members as they begin shopping for seasonal products and holiday gifts.
Start with these five checks to get your Amazon account ready before the event begins.
1ļøā£ Review your Account Health Dashboard
Check your Order Defect Rate, Late Shipment Rate, Pre-Fulfillment Cancel Rate, Valid Tracking Rate, and Account Health Rating. Investigate any warnings or metrics that fall outside Amazonās current target for your account, marketplace, or fulfillment method.
Pilothouse notes that several of these metrics use rolling calculation periods, so problems during the event can continue affecting your account afterward.
2ļøā£ Resolve warnings and suppressed listings
Review suppressed listings, unresolved policy warnings, compliance flags, and variation issues. After addressing each problem, confirm that the affected ASIN has returned to an eligible status.
A suppressed listing can lose search visibility and promotional eligibility, preventing a brand from taking full advantage of its event offer.
3ļøā£ Confirm Amazon has received your inventory
Inventory cannot support a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) offer until Amazon has received and processed the units. Shipping inventory to Amazon does not guarantee that it will be available before the event.
Check stranded inventory and review the receiving status of your FBA and Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) shipments. For priority ASINs, consider preparing Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) backup offers if your operation can meet Amazonās delivery and tracking requirements.
4ļøā£ Check your pricing history
Amazonās requirements vary by promotion type, so review the eligibility details shown in Seller Central before submitting an offer.
For example, Amazon says a Price Discount must be at least 5% below the lowest non-promotional price customers paid during the previous 30 days. Recent discounts may affect the reference price Amazon uses, so compare each proposed event price with the pricing history and eligibility message for that ASIN.
5ļøā£ Stress-test fulfillment and customer service
Estimate event order volume and confirm that staffing, carrier pickups, order cutoffs, tracking workflows, and customer support can handle the forecast across both days.
A concentrated increase in late shipments, cancellations, tracking problems, or unresolved customer issues could affect account performance after the event ends.
Most of these checks can be completed using tools and reports already available in Seller Central. Running them in September gives your team time to fix problems before order volume increases.
After the event, use Amazon Business Reports to compare traffic, conversion rate, ordered-product sales, and promotional performance with a relevant baseline from your account.
š Need more Amazon homework? Aves has a full Ad-venturous episode on keeping your listing creative fresh, testing images and positioning, and making sure Rufus has the right product information to work with.
ā¶ļø Watch here | š§ Listen on Spotify
š§ Send less, earn more? What Brevoās data says about email volume *
More emails should mean more chances to make a sale, right? Brevoās data suggests otherwise.
Channing Ferrer, CRO and CEO of the Americas at Brevo, shares that brands sending fewer emails saw higher conversion and click-through rates, while high-volume senders had lower conversion, click-through, and open rates.
The key is sending more relevant messages. Channing explains how brands can use customer data, behavior, and preferred channels to personalize when, where, and what they send.
The episode also digs into mobile wallets as a retention channel, why flows can reveal customersā preferred communication channels, and how some Brevo customers are running campaigns entirely through Claude and ChatGPT.
ā¶ļø Watch here | š§ Listen on Spotify
āš¬ Your customers want to talk to humans. Human Touch CX never goes rogue on your customers and is fully AI-EU compliant. First 100 stores get a 24-month price lock. Claim your spot. *
*Ā sponsored
Did you find this valuable? Support us by checking out our businesses:
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
