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🎥 TikTok shop runs a three-week black friday campaign from November 11, and live sellers grew fastest last year, but lives aren't for everyone, TikTok, Reddit and X roll out new advertising features, and more!
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🎥 TikTok Shop livestreams vs short videos: two brands, two different answers
TikTok Shop's Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign runs November 11 to 30, with livestreams from brands such as Best Buy, Sephora, and Ulta Beauty, according to Mass Market Retailers on October 26.
TikTok's own numbers, reported by Social Media Today, explain the push. Sales passed $500 million over last year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Sellers who livestreamed grew sales 84% year over year. Posts tagged #holidayshopping rose 263% month over month in September.
So, livestreams or short videos? The answer depends on where you're starting. Meet two brands.
Brand A: a skincare line that has never gone live
Lives would suit the product. Skincare buyers have questions about texture, shade and routine, and a host can answer them in real time.
But a good live needs a host, someone watching comments and stock ready to move. Brand A has none of that practiced. A first stream during Black Friday week is an expensive rehearsal.
Brand A's call: put Black Friday effort into short videos, which can be made in batches, tested and boosted. Run two practice lives before November 20 with learning as the goal and sales as a bonus.
Brand B: a kitchen gadget seller that lives monthly
Brand B has a host who knows the products, a producer and a routine. Its lives already convert.
Brand B's call: schedule lives on the three biggest days and use short videos to pull viewers into them.
- November 11: open the campaign with the offer and best sellers.
- Black Friday: the biggest offer, with a time limit.
- Cyber Monday: the last-chance push.
Which brand are you?
How many lives have you run in the last two months? Zero puts you with Brand A. Several puts you with Brand B. That's my judgment, based on how much setup risk peak week can absorb.
If you do go live
Pin one offer at a time. Show the product within the first 30 seconds of each segment, and have someone answering comments by name. A viewer joining late should understand the deal within a minute.
Scorecard for either brand
- Average viewers and comments per live
- Sales per live hour against sales per short video
- Return rate on live-driven orders
Find your corner
Count your lives this year. That number tells you which brand you are, and which plan to run from November 11.
Together with HubSpot
What If Your Next Prompt Updated Your CRM?
A quick question about your customers shouldn’t turn into an afternoon of pulling data and explaining it to AI. Especially when you still have to update the CRM afterward.
On November 5 at 11 AM ET, join HubSpot’s free live session to see how working with your CRM inside ChatGPT or Claude can remove those extra steps.
You’ll leave knowing how to:
- Get answers based on your customer data, without gathering and pasting the background into every chat.
- Update your CRM from the conversation, reducing the manual work between getting an answer and acting on it.
- Control what AI can access, so your team can use business data within boundaries you set.
See the connector in action, then ask HubSpot’s product team about your own workflow before investing time in setup.
Bring one task your team keeps doing manually and use the live Q&A to find out how you can simplify it and what you’d need to get started.
Can't attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
📢 TikTok, Reddit and X roll out new advertising features
TikTok, Reddit and X are making it easier for advertisers to reach people who are actively searching, exploring products or showing interest in a brand, with new tools for search advertising, keyword targeting and lead generation.
The Breakdown:
- TikTok added two new Search Ads metrics: Impression Share and Top 1 Impression Share, helping advertisers see how often their ads appear in eligible searches and secure the top sponsored position.
- TikTok also introduced AI-powered Keyword Packs, which suggest ready-made groups of brand and category keywords, refreshed daily based on search volume, CPC and competition.
- Reddit is testing ads directly in its search results, matching promotions to what users are searching for. The feature is initially available to a select group of advertisers.
- Reddit says 72% of its users come looking for information, while 64% have a specific goal in mind, making search results a potentially valuable place for brands to reach interested buyers.
- X has made its updated Lead Gen Ads available to advertisers worldwide, allowing businesses to collect leads through prominent CTA buttons and send the information directly to their CRM or download it.
All three platforms are giving advertisers new ways to connect with people who are already showing interest. TikTok is helping brands improve their search campaigns, Reddit is testing ads where users look for answers, and X is making it easier to collect leads without sending people elsewhere.
👨💻 Quick Hits
📊 LinkedIn introduced expanded creator analytics, including post performance comparisons, follower profiles, saves, shares, and audience reach beyond connections, helping creators identify successful content and refine their posting strategies.
🎮 Reddit highlighted its 1,300+ gaming communities as advertising opportunities, citing an average $8.58 ROAS and research showing 71% of U.S. Reddit gamers purchased products based on platform discussions.
🔎 OpenAI says ChatGPT handles 20% of Google’s search volume, but Ahrefs data shows Google drives 24.74% of tracked website traffic, compared with just 0.36% from ChatGPT.
🛍️ Accenture reports 67% of U.S. consumers plan to shop Black Friday/Cyber Monday, including 84% of Gen Z and 77% of millennials. Meanwhile, 43% compare brands before choosing discounts.
💃Events
🔥 What Changes When AI Already Knows the Customer Context
Tomorrow | 11 AM ET | Virtual Event
Instead of gathering background before every prompt and cleaning up the CRM afterward, see what happens when the context is already there. HubSpot will demo the workflow live and show how teams can move from question to decision to action with far fewer manual handoffs.
Can't attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
That’s a wrap for today! Tell us your thoughts about today's content as we line up more Shorts! And don’t hesitate to share this with someone who’d adore it. 🥰