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Whatâs your go-to fun fact when this question comes up? Hit reply and send it our way. Our team wants to hear âem.
Hereâs whatâs in todayâs newsletter:
𤌠Your Team Is STILL Cold-DMing Creators? Pick From 90,000+ Instead.
If your affiliate program has plateaued, your team might be spending more time finding partners than making money with them.
Levanta has a marketplace of 90,000+ vetted creators, influencers, and affiliates across Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart. Search, recruit, and pay them in one place.
Need proof? NatPat added 150+ partners through the marketplace and tripled (âźď¸) its annual affiliate revenue in a few months. Turns out, having more of the right people selling your product helps.
Curious whoâs available in your category? Book a demo to see which creators you could access through Levanta. And if you qualify for a demo, lunch is on them: $100 via Uber Eats or DoorDash to enjoy while you browse your next winning creators.
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â ď¸ Metaâs AI is freelancing on your ads
Picture opening your live ads and finding an illustration youâve never seen before. Thatâs what happened to Bookshop.org. Agency Exverus found translations, sitelinks, and AI-generated images it never approved. Both pulled live ads over it.
Meta also just pushed its updated terms back from October 30 to November 20 after pushback from publishers and advertisers. The delay doesnât change whatâs in them. Advertisers are responsible for reviewing, approving, or removing creative, targeting, and placements, even when Metaâs own tools made or picked them. Mess it up and Meta can cancel ads, suspend your account, or terminate it.
Meta says you can turn off individual Advantage+ features in Ads Manager anytime. It hasnât said whether youâre on the hook for features you never switched on.
Translation: before BFCM budgets go up, go through every live ad and every Advantage+ enhancement setting. Yes, one by one.
đą Did your Shopify checkout just change?
Maybe. @OliverKenyon spotted that eligible checkouts now show payment methods as tiles instead of a list. Having four or fewer payment methods is one of the criteria.
He thinks itâs easier to scan. Whether it gets more people through checkout? Nobody knows yet.
Open your checkout on your phone. If youâve got tiles, Pilothouse would compare this weekâs checkout conversion to the period before, just to make sure nothing slipped.
đď¸ Schedule your BFCM catalog and go to bed
Nobody wants to be flipping prices at 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Shopifyâs new Rollouts update lets you schedule a switch between existing catalogs, covering pricing and product availability by market, and package it with theme and checkout changes in one go.
Available on Basic and up. Catalog experiments need Grow or higher.
đş Instagram is coming for YouTubeâs long videos
Instagram is testing a format called Features: horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, for now from select creators only. Podcasts, interviews, the stuff that usually lives on YouTube. Reels can link into the full video, and itâs headed to Instagramâs TV app.
@BarryHott points out the ad angle. More watching means more inventory for Meta to sell eventually. But longer sessions, especially on a TV across the room, probably mean fewer clicks, and that makes attribution messier.
There are no ad placements for Features yet. But if Meta adds them, youâll want to know how youâre going to measure them.
đ¨ Canvaâs new image model thinks first
Canva just launched Craft, its first homegrown image model. The twist is that it plans the layout, text, and element placement before it generates anything, which Canva says means cleaner complex designs and text thatâs actually readable. Anyone with Canva can try it now in Dream Lab.
Got a pile of holiday email headers and sale graphics to make? Give it a few. Feed it the exact headline, offer, and layout, then proofread like your margins depend on it.
đŚ Give your Amazon listing a BFCM checkup
Weâre officially one month away from Black Friday! đđđ
Before you increase BFCM spend, check what shoppers see when they reach your Amazon listing. Unanswered questions about sizing, compatibility, or product benefits could be holding back purchases.
Here are some tips from the Pilothouse Amazon team:
1) Let customer feedback do the talking
Your customers are already telling you whatâs missing. Dig into reviews, product Q&As, and recurring comments to spot the questions or concerns that keep popping up.
Are shoppers confused about sizing? Unsure how a feature works? Missing a key detail that would help them picture the product in their lives?
Donât guess what needs fixing when the clues are right there.
2) Fix the friction, one image at a time
Once youâve found a common sticking point, give your listing a targeted refresh. Use an image to make sizing or compatibility crystal clear, show a product in action, or highlight a benefit customers may be overlooking.
Pilothouse recommends using A+ Content when a product needs more explanation. Keep it focused. Shoppers should find the answer in a couple of seconds.
3) Make your content work for holiday shoppers
Review your listing from the perspective of someone buying a gift. Can they tell who the product suits, whatâs included, and whether they need any accessories?
Bring those answers into your image sequence and A+ Content. Show the full set, explain sizing or compatibility, and highlight gift-ready packaging if you offer it. Make sure the creative matches the exact product or bundle shoppers will receive.
4) Check whether your little refresh made a big difference
Where possible, use Amazonâs Manage Your Experiments on eligible listings, or compare relevant performance metrics before and after the update.
Keep an eye on conversion-related metrics, and remember that price changes, promotions, inventory, traffic mix, and seasonal demand can all influence the results.
If you have a clear test and a measurable outcome, youâll have a much stronger story than âwe changed an image and hoped for the best.â
Try this today
Pull up your top-selling listing and read the last 20 reviews and Q&As. Write down the question that comes up most. Then check whether your first three images answer it. If they donât, thatâs your first fix before you raise spend or cut the price again.
đ§ BFCM shoppers want value
A lower price might not be the biggest reason someone chooses your product this BFCM.
On the latest AKNF, Tyler from Pilothouse shares what his team learned from Amazonâs summer and fall Prime events and what those patterns could mean for November.
One of his biggest takeaways? Consumers appear to be looking for value for money, rather than simply choosing the cheapest option.
That matters for premium brands.
Tylerâs theory is that some shoppers already know which higher-priced product they want. Theyâre researching ahead of major deal days, understanding the differences between products, and waiting for the right opportunity to buy.
That means the work before BFCM is just as important as the discount itself.
Make it easy for shoppers to understand why your product is worth more. Clearly communicate the features, quality, and differentiators your target customer actually cares about, then build awareness before the deal goes live.
Then, when your BFCM offer lands, shoppers already understand what makes the product worth buying.
âśď¸ Watch here | đ§ Listen on Spotify
âđ¸ Black Friday is a month away. Can AI shopping agents see you? Make sure they aren't skipping your products before BFCM starts. Check your SKUs and claim your free plan. *
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