Before November draws to a close with the distribution of Thanksgiving leftovers and the unofficial kickoff of retail’s Super Bowl, the holiday shopping season, other days command marketers’ attention, too.
Americans go to the polls for key midterm elections Nov. 3, and those who sacrificed are honored on Veterans’ Day on the 11th. November is also American Indian Heritage Month, and Nov. 8 marks Diwali.
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- Nov. 1: First day of American Indian Heritage Month
- Nov. 1: All Saints Day
- Nov. 3: Election Day
- Nov. 8: Diwali
- Nov. 8: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day
- Nov. 11: Veterans’ Day
- Nov. 11: Singles’ Day
- Nov. 13: World Kindness Day
- Nov. 19: International Men’s Day
- Nov. 26: Thanksgiving
- Nov. 27: Black Friday
- Nov. 28: Small Business Saturday
- Nov. 30: Cyber Monday
Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
Unwrapping AI for the Holidays
TikTok introduced several artificial-intelligence-powered updates for advertisers across all phases of the campaign process.
The platform is teaming up with commerce platforms and payment providers including Salesforce, Shopify, Shoplazza, and Stripe on agentic commerce shopping experiences, starting with Buy Direct and Shopping Assistant.
Buy Direct provides a seamless, in-application checkout solution, letting users conclude purchases from brands directly via the For You feed, without leaving the app.
And conversational AI agent Shopping Assistant provides real-time AI-powered shopping guidance including product details, shipping, sizing, availability, and purchasing within a single conversation, understanding context and remembering the needs of individual users.
Another new AI agent, Agentic Leads, helps businesses capture, qualify, and convert high-intent, actionable consumer prospects.
U.S. advertisers can now tap TikTok Ad Network to expand their campaigns beyond TikTok and across a premium network of almost 400,000 apps globally. TikTok Ad Network is fully integrated into TikTok Ads Manager and provides brand safety and placement controls for advertisers.
TikTok for Business Model Context Protocol is now available as a connector across AI platforms and registries including Claude, Kimi, Manus, Perplexity, Replit, Snowflake, Tencent WorkBuddy, and the IAB Tech Lab Agent Registry.
Search Ads Campaign Powered by Smart+ lets advertisers automate search ads across keywords and creative, and it includes extensive keyword targeting, bidding capabilities, and search budget management.
Finally, new feature Smart+ Creative Selection provides a single workflow for creative sources including advertisers’ assets, AI-generated creative, and creator content.
Who Needs the Mall?
TikTok shared metrics demonstrating the growth of e-commerce destination TikTok Shop, as well as trends it is seeing ahead of the upcoming holiday shopping season.
According to the company:
- Content featuring #holidayshopping rose 263% in September compared with August.
- There were over 100 billion searches with e-commerce intent on TikTok Shop in the U.S. in 2025.
- Since its launch in 2024, selection across product categories is up more than 1,200%.
- Major retailers that have joined TikTok Shop in the past year include Best Buy, Michael Kors, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, and Victoria’s Secret.
- GlobalData research found that 67% of Americans on TikTok say they trust a large brand the same or more when they encounter it on TikTok Shop, compared with another platform.
And trends that TikTok is seeing include:
- Pre-owned luxury goods are continuing to gain momentum.
- Jewelry is front and center, with 22% of U.S. users planning to purchase accessories on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Another hot gift category this year is collectibles such as sports trading cards, memorabilia, coins, figurines, and squishy toys
- One in five U.S. TikTok users plan bo guy gaming devices or items.
- People are already thinking about what to wear during the festivities, as #christmaspajamas content was up 297% in September compared with August.
- TikTok Shop shopping content leaped 1,017% over that same time period.
- TikTok Shop Live is making its mark again, with a livestream featuring Rihanna and Fenty Beauty tallying more than 1 million viewers over its 12-hour duration.
Finally, TikTok said eligible products will feature a 3-Day Delivery badge, and, for purchases that don’t quite work out, items can be returned at about 10,000 Happy Returns locations across the U.S., with no box or label needed.
Other TikTok News
- TikTok entered a strategic partnership with MADE BY US STUDIOS to coproduce a slate of creator-led micro-series, starting with romantic revenge thriller Player, starring Hannah Stocking, and genre series The Knock, starring Adam Rose.
- The new 2026 TikTok U.S. Economic Impact Report from PF Global found that the platform supported $81 billion in U.S. gross domestic product and 410,000 jobs in the country in 2025.
Assistance, Please
Instagram announced the rollout of its AI assistant for stand-alone app Edits across the U.S.
Edits assistant is free to use with a daily prompt limit, and Meta One subscribers will be able to unlock more usage.
Instagram said tasks that can be performed by the Edits assistant include:
- Determining successful initiatives on an account by combining information from metrics such as follows, views, video retention, likes, and shares, with comments, trending topics on Instagram, and audience interests.
- Surface ideas for video concepts, hooks, captions, and scripts from a creator’s own past efforts.
- Suggest video concepts and trending audio that match with a creator’s niche.
Riding the Carousel
Edits users can now craft carousels directly within the app.
Photos and videos can be combined using Edits’ existing creative tools, as well as new options built specifically for carousels.
Other Instagram News
- The platform will reveal the winners of the 2026 Instagram Rings, awards that celebrate creativity.
- Instagram shared a comprehensive guide to making Reels.
YouTube
Europe’s Creator Economy, By the Numbers
YouTube EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy David Wheeldon wrote in a blog post that the Google-owned video platform’s creative ecosystem contributed more than €8.4 billion ($9.4 billion) to the European Union’s gross domestic product and supported over 220,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
The company compiled a new report, Creative Capital, with input from more than 20,000 creators across all 27 EU member states.
Generative AI’s Relationship With Creativity
The YouTube Culture & Trends team shared a new report, Human Creativity and AI, examining the use of gen AI and its impact on creativity.
Surveys conducted with NRG found that:
- 72% of video uploaders between the ages of 14 and 44 use AI on videos or images.
- More than two-thirds said they do so to feature themselves in their content, and 61% said they are interested in doing so.
Meta
Building Those Brands
Meta introduced several updates for advertisers at its Meta Brand Building Summit.
Ads Super Burst enables brands wishing to tap a tentpole moment such as a product launch, an awards night, or the start of a sports season to book a window of three hours to 24 hours and reach their target audience at what the company called “TV-like scale,” with category exclusivity.
Meta also began testing First Impression Ads, making those ads the first thing someone sees when they access their Feed.
Reels Trending Ads enable advertisers to place their creative immediately following the most watched and most culturally relevant reels on Facebook and Instagram, and Meta said brands now have 15 always-on standard topics to choose from, as well as expanded targeting capabilities.
Finally, the company is testing Aggregated View Time, which gives advertisers a better way to measure and optimize the total time a user spends with their brand across the week, rather than looking at each impression on its own.
AI, AI, and More AI
Meta unveiled several new AI capabilities and campaign tools for advertisers and agencies at Advertising Week New York.
Creative workspace Ads Creative Studio is rolling out to more advertisers.
Creative insights from Ads Creative Studio are now available directly within Meta AI business assistant in Ads Manager.
The assistant also now has access to a deeper memory about each business, and Meta is testing ways for brands to import strategy, voice, and brand guidelines from the AI tools they already use.
Meta is also testing new capabilities for the assistant, including: the ability to plan and create campaigns, generate creative (images and texts), update targeting, or change budgets conversational; as well as scheduled tasks and alerts.
All advertisers now have access to Customer Lifecycle Strategy, giving them recommendations on whether to include existing customers into campaigns geared toward acquisition.
Advantage+ brands can now generate video from existing static assets via Ads Creative Studio, with the ability to change hooks, adjust audio and clip length, add text overlays and captions, and change end scenes.
Meta is also scaling smart product recommendations, which analyze an ad’s image, text, and landing page to identify the featured product, and then recommend other products from the same collection or best sellers that might be worth pairing with the ad.
A direct checkout experience with Shopify is being tested in Meta Business Agent on Messenger, so people can immediately purchase after learning about the product through the brand’s agent.
Finally, Meta will also begin testing a direct checkout experience in Meta AI with Adyen, PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe, and PayPal wallet is being added to its Muse AI agent.
Ain’t She a Beaut?
Pinterest rolled out AI-powered Beauty Guides, which tap the platform’s visual understanding technology to turn Pins related to topics like hair and nails into personalized, actionable guides, helping users re-create looks they discover on Pinterest.
The large language model behind Beauty Guides also gives users advice on things like what to ask for at the salon, what to expect during an appointment, and similar looks to explore.
Beauty Guides debuted for iOS users in the U.S., with more access to come.
Premium Programmatic
Programmatic Deals are now available in select markets worldwide, enabling brands to buy selected Pinterest display and video inventory alongside the other elements of their campaigns, via strategic supply-side and demand-side partners.
Pinterest’s premium inventory and intent are integrated into the planning, buying, and measurement workflows already being used by enterprise marketers.
Magnite is Pinterest’s primary SSP, joined by Google Ad Manager in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
On the demand side, Pinterest inventory can be purchased through DSPs including Amazon Ads DVA+, Google Display & Video 360, and Yahoo DSP.
Other Pinterest News
- Emma Chamberlain and Pinterest shared the second trend-inspired blend and merchandise collection from Chamberlain Coffee.
- Pinterest introduced a Barbie DreamHouse experience through its Restyle Pinterest Intelligence-powered feature.
- The platform shared research on Generation Z seeking alternatives to scrolling, its first-ever annual Beauty Trend Report, best practices to convert on the Cyber 5 (Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday), and omnichannel shoppers and the long-term value they deliver for brands.
Snapchat
Spend Smarter
Snapchat introduced global performance platform Spend Smarter, which is aimed at encouraging marketers to more closely examine their regular practices and take a different approach to analyzing how their budget can bring them the best results.
The company turned to the 1990s and its “nostalgia, quirks, and questionable technology” to help determine why old media habits are so hard to break.
Creators across advertising, culture, and marketing are teaming up with Snapchat on Spend Smarter, including: Brian Blum, Eugene Healey, Annie-Mai Hodge (Girl Power Marketing), Matej Lancaric, Joel Marlnarson, Sophie Miller (Pretty Little Marketer), Ashleen Narula (Grad Girl Marketing), Farah Nyadu, and Carmen Vicente.
Other Snapchat News
- Robert Downey Jr. was named honorary chief customer experience officer for SPECS augmented reality smart glasses.
- Finally, the company shared research on: how digital maps are becoming more social, with eye square and Horizon; and how AI is rewiring human behavior, with Ipsos and WPP.
Using AI to Tweak the Algorithm
Facebook debuted Your Algorithm, a series of AI-based tools that allow users to use their own words to tell the platform what type of content they want to see in Feed and Reels.
Your Algorithm is easily accessible via the app’s three-dot menu, and Facebook said LLMs incorporate users’ interests, context, and intent.
Google It
LinkedIn announced that it is expanding programmatic buying for its connected TV ads through Google’s Display & Video 360.
The combination enables advertisers to use the professional network’s targeting by criteria including job title, industry, and seniority, across premium CTV inventory, while continuing to use the tools and workflows they are already managing campaigns with.
In addition, Gemini-powered tools help advertisers manage campaigns more efficiently, from planning and optimization to performance reporting and measurement.
Other LinkedIn News
- Ryan Roslansky, executive vice president of LinkedIn and Microsoft 365, is leaving the company at year-end. Dan Shapero will continue as CEO of LinkedIn.
Lead the Way
Reddit introduced several new features for lead generation on its platform.
Leads can now be connected to existing CRM (customer relationship management) workflows, and advertisers can send prospects to landing pages on their own sites, directly to customized forms, and route lead data into their CRMs, helping them optimize campaigns for lead submissions.
Max campaigns, which optimize campaign setting and creative rotation for each impression to boost performance, are now available for lead generation.
Reddit is beta-testing in-market audiences in Max, helping advertisers reach people who are actively researching or considering purchases.
Finally, Reddit announced integrations with: Bombora, Demandbase, Clay, G2 through the Bombora connector, and Octane 11 for audiences; Octane 11 and Dreamdata (alpha-test) for measurement; and HubSpot for attribution, reporting, and account setup.
Other Reddit News
- Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds due to scraping by AI bots.
- Chief Product Officer Maria Angelidou-Smith left the company.
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