January Rewards The Fastest
đ€© Creator momentum resets before pricing catches up, Google reshapes how advertisers control Demand Gen and Performance Max, and more!
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In this newsletter, youâll find:
đ€© The Smartest January Media Advantage Most Teams Miss
đ Google Is Rewiring Demand Gen Control
đ Ad of the Day
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đ€© The Smartest January Media Advantage Most Teams Miss
January is when most brands slow down. Budgets reset. Performance teams audit. Creatives regroup. Everyone waits for âclearer signals.â
That pause is exactly why January is the most mispriced attention window of the year.
Not because CPMs magically drop, but because momentum resets faster than pricing does, especially on TikTok. And the brands that understand this do something counterintuitive at the start of the year. They stop hunting for big creators and start hunting for acceleration.
Why January rewires creator economics
On TikTok, growth does not compound evenly across the year. It spikes in cycles. January is one of those cycles.
Creators return from holiday breaks, posting frequency increases, formats shift, and the algorithm aggressively retests distribution baselines. New faces get surfaced. Dormant accounts reignite. Breakout arcs begin quietly before anyone updates their rate card.
This creates a short-lived imbalance. Distribution expands faster than creator pricing or reputation. Attention moves before the market notices.
That is not a âsmall creatorâ opportunity. It is a timing opportunity.
January planning should prioritize velocity, not scale
Most January plans focus on stabilization. Fewer experiments. Fewer risks. Cleaner execution. That mindset works for ops. It fails for media.
Early-year creator partnerships should be designed to capture velocity, not lock in long-term relationships. You are not hiring talent. You are temporarily attaching your product to creators whose distribution is being actively explored by the platform.
The goal is speed. Launch fast. Learn fast. Extract reach while it is still mispriced.
Why commission-first structures work best in January
January creators are in growth mode. They want momentum as much as money.
Strong commission structures align incentives during this phase better than flat fees. They encourage volume, iteration, and performance-driven posting at the exact moment when creators are experimenting hardest.
Flat fees make sense once attention has stabilized. January is about upside, not predictability.
The operational shift most brands need to make
Treat rising creators as short-term media assets, not long-term brand partners.
That means lighter briefs, faster approvals, and fewer creative constraints. The signal you are buying is authenticity plus algorithmic curiosity. Heavy scripting dilutes both.
Brands that win in January build systems to spot momentum early and move without friction. Tools like Insense help teams identify rising creators, activate collaborations quickly, and repurpose momentum-driven content across TikTok, Meta, and paid partnership ads.
You can book a free strategy call before Jan 9th and get $200 toward your first collaboration.
The real January advantage
January is not about cheaper ads. It is about earlier signals.
Creators whose attention value has not yet caught up to their distribution are everywhere at the start of the year. Most brands will miss them while planning decks and debating forecasts.
The ones who move early do not just save money. They buy velocity before everyone else realizes what it is worth. That is how January sets the tone for the entire year.
đ Google Is Rewiring Demand Gen Control
Google is quietly reshaping how advertisers control Demand Gen and Performance Max. New channel selection, native location targeting, and expanded reporting all point to a move away from opaque automation toward clearer, more intentional media planning.
The Breakdown:
1ïžâŁ Google Maps Enters Demand Gen Inventory - Advertisers can now run Demand Gen ads on Google Maps alongside YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, or build Maps-only campaigns, enabling location-driven reach during high-intent moments like navigation and local discovery.
2ïžâŁ Location Targeting Is Now Built Directly Into Setup - Demand Gen campaigns now include Presence and Presence or Interest targeting directly in campaign setup, removing the need for manual exclusions and reducing accidental geo-leakage and wasted spend.
3ïžâŁ MCC-Level Channel Reporting - Channel performance reporting is appearing at the MCC level, showing how Performance Max delivers results across YouTube, Search, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, with visual summaries of each channelâs contribution to conversions.
Google is steadily loosening the black box. With clearer placement control, native targeting, and channel-level reporting, advertisers can finally scale automated campaigns with greater precision, accountability, and strategic confidence.
đ Ad of the Day
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This ad works because it removes fear before it sells function. By framing technology as humane and limited, it meets parents at an emotional decision point, not a rational one.
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