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In this newsletter, you’ll find:
📺 TikTok just turned episodic content into a paid channel
💬 ChatGPT ads are showing up more and becoming conversations
🏆 Ad of the day
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Your Buyers Asked AI. Did Your Brand Appear?
AI is already deciding which B2B tools reach your buyers’ shortlists. If your brand is missing from trusted sources, competitors can win consideration before sales enters the conversation.
On September 29, Foundation CEO Ross Simmonds and AirOps search marketing lead Josh Spilker will unpack research spanning nearly 380,000 AI answers, 3 million citation events, and 81 enterprise software topics.
You’ll walk away knowing how to:
Build a platform-specific source map across six AI engines, showing where to earn visibility for the buying prompts that matter
Turn the 84-of-100 dominance of comparison pages and listicles into a clear publishing plan for content AI platforms already cite
Find and fix unfavorable comparisons before they spread across hundreds of answers and quietly steer buyers toward competitors.
You’ll leave knowing which prompts to track, which sources to prioritize, and where your team should invest first to influence AI-driven buying decisions.
Join live at 1 p.m. ET on September 29.
Can’t attend the session live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the recordings in 24 hours.
📺 TikTok just turned episodic content into a paid channel
TikTok launched Mini Series this month, an in-app format that lets brands publish episodic, drama-style content directly on the platform, discoverable through a dedicated Minis Center and through Search rather than only appearing in a feed scroll.
Alongside it, TikTok introduced Growth Max, an ad solution built to amplify that content once it’s live, turning what used to be a one-off branded video into something with a real distribution mechanic behind it.
That pairing matters more than either piece alone. A single branded video competes for attention against everything else in a feed and mostly loses.
A series a viewer can follow, with a discovery surface built around finding more episodes, changes the retention math entirely, and pairing that with an ad product designed to amplify it means the format has a paid path from day one instead of hoping organic reach carries it.
Test the format on a low-stakes storyline before committing production budget
Mini Series is new enough that nobody has a reliable playbook for episode length, release cadence, or how many installments before a viewer drops off. Guessing wrong on a big production is expensive. Guessing wrong on a short, low-cost test is just information.
Build a three-to-five episode arc around something small, a product origin story, a customer transformation, a behind-the-scenes thread, before investing in anything longer.
Watch completion rate episode over episode, since that curve tells you where the format’s actual retention ceiling sits for your audience. TikTok for Business is where Mini Series and Growth Max both live.
Treat Growth Max as the amplification layer, not the discovery layer
Organic discovery through the Minis Center and Search gives a series its first audience. Growth Max is built to extend reach past that first audience once the content has already shown it retains viewers.
Don’t route paid spend into Growth Max on episode one. Let the series prove its completion and return-viewer rate organically first, then amplify specifically the episodes already working, a more efficient use of a newly launched ad product still finding its own benchmarks.
Build the discovery hook into episode one, not episode three
A viewer deciding whether to follow a series makes that call inside the first episode, which means the hook that gets someone to tap “follow” has to arrive immediately, not after a slow-build first installment.
State clearly, within the opening seconds, what the series is about and why there’s a reason to come back. Setting up an account is the starting point for testing either format.
A branded video used to be a single shot. A series is a channel, and channels are worth building deliberately.
💬 ChatGPT ads are showing up more and becoming conversations
New data shows sponsored ads appearing across a growing share of ChatGPT shopping conversations, while OpenAI is expanding the ad experience with Sponsored Agents, AI campaign tools and marketing integrations.
The Breakdown:
Ads Become Conversations - OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents, letting users move from an ad into a separate branded chat where they can ask about features, sizing or compatibility before visiting the advertiser.
Campaigns Move Into ChatGPT - Advertisers can create, update and analyze campaigns through ChatGPT Work, generate and customize ad creative with AI, and connect advertising workflows with HubSpot and Shopify.
Gaming Ads Jump to 47% - Comscore found sponsored ads in 47% of tracked U.S. desktop gaming conversations in June, up from 3% in March. Toys and hobbies reached 24%, while books, music and video hit 22%.
Ad Rollout Is Expanding - The jump followed OpenAI’s May rollout of self-serve Ads Manager and CPC bidding, although Comscore does not establish what caused the increase. Its data covers an opt-in U.S. PC panel.
ChatGPT is starting to look less like a place where ads simply appear and more like a full advertising platform. OpenAI is combining growing ad distribution with conversational sales experiences, campaign creation, creative generation, optimization and commerce data inside the same ecosystem.
🏆 Ad of the day
What Works:
Perspective Builds Energy - The low-angle composition makes the models feel larger and more dynamic, creating strong thumb-stop potential while naturally showcasing the apparel and iconic three-stripe footwear.
Lifestyle Drives Desire - The relaxed poses, blue-sky setting and youthful styling sell an identity rather than individual products, strengthening emotional appeal and making the collection feel socially aspirational.
Branding Stays Strong - The oversized Adidas logo anchors recall immediately, while repeated stripe cues across shoes and apparel reinforce distinctive brand assets without adding unnecessary cognitive load.
Show multiple people embodying the same style world, then repeat one recognizable brand code across outfits. This builds belonging while keeping product and branding recall high
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