The Friday Cut
Social media marketing news, cut down to what matters. Every Friday from Oscar Owen.
This week
Social Media Marketing News: AI Edits the Ads, Brands Carry the Risk
This week: Meta and OpenAI make advertisers responsible for AI edited ads, Meta partnership ads pass a $15 billion run rate, and P&G grows on flat spending with a social first model.
Morning,
I’m Oscar Owen, CEO and Cofounder of Advertain. Each week I round up the social media marketing news that matters, from how AI is changing the platforms to where the world’s biggest brands are putting their money, and what I would do about it.
I have spent more than a decade building my own audience on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and at Advertain we bring that same judgement to the brand content we make every week. This week’s theme is control: AI is now writing and changing ads at scale, and the platforms have made it clear that the brand carries the responsibility for what it produces.
In this issue
- 01Meta’s AI tools reach nearly 10 million advertisers
- 02Meta and ChatGPT make you liable for AI ad edits
- 03P&G grows on flat spending, social first
Meta’s creator ads pass $15 billion as AI tools go mainstream
Meta reported third quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26%, with ad impressions up 10% and the average price per ad up 14% (Meta investor release, 21 October). The more useful numbers for marketers came on the call. CFO Susan Li said “nearly 10 million advertisers used at least 1” of Meta’s generative AI creative tools in the quarter, and advertiser adoption of its video generation features grew 25% quarter on quarter (earnings call transcript).
Creators are now a serious revenue line too. Li said partnership ads grew over 97% year on year and “surpassed $15 billion in annual revenue run rate”, and that the Creator Marketing Hub has now rolled out globally to all advertisers, with more than 10 million creators discoverable. All figures are Meta’s own.
Partnership ads at a $15 billion run rate means creator content is no longer a test budget. It is a media line, and it should be planned like one. Make sure every creator contract includes the rights to run their posts as paid partnership ads, and brief AI video variants off the creator’s strongest hook rather than generating from scratch.
Meta and OpenAI hand advertisers the risk for AI edited ads
Two platforms moved in the same direction in the same week. Meta’s updated Commercial Terms add an AI Features section that makes advertisers “solely responsible” for what its AI creates or changes in their ads, including features Meta switches on itself. The terms state the AI “may make mistakes and may not always produce accurate, complete, or suitable results”, and advertisers bear “any and all risks”. The update takes effect on 30 October (PPC Land, citing Adweek, 22 October).
OpenAI told ChatGPT advertisers it will switch on creative enhancements for new and existing self serve campaigns from 30 October. In its words, “these ads can run automatically without requiring you to review or approve each version”. The system can rewrite headlines, translate copy, resize images and change the destination URL. Its help page gives 29 October, a day earlier than the email (PPC Land, 21 October). The same week, Reuters reported ChatGPT ads expanding to 26 more countries, 89 in total, with more than 100,000 advertisers having run campaigns (Reuters via The Star, 21 October).
When AI can change an ad without your approval, approval has to move upstream into the settings.
Treat 29 October as the deadline. Before then, check every Meta and ChatGPT ad account for automatic creative settings, switch them off for regulated categories, claims led products and anything with legal copy, and name one person who owns those settings. AI enhancements can lift performance, but they should be a decision you make, not a default you inherit.
P&G grows on flat spending with social first brand building
P&G grew organic sales 4% in its first fiscal quarter, and CFO Andre Schulten was clear about how: the company is transforming its brand building so that spending works harder. “So that is driving top line growth at flat spending,” he said. He described a new premium Pampers range in the US as “built on an engaging social first brand building model”, cited a user generated content campaign for one of its dishwashing brands that delivered engagement at “20x our branded content benchmark”, and said of China that “all parts of the business were shifting towards digital and social” (earnings call transcript, 22 October).
The world’s largest advertiser is growing without adding budget, and social first creative is part of how. The lesson for CMOs is not to cut spend. It is to judge creative by what it earns in the feed. Set your own branded content benchmark, run creator and customer content against it, and move money to whatever beats it.
The rest of this week's social media marketing news
- YouTube says AI is now standard for young creators. In a Google and NRG survey, 72% of US video posters aged 14 to 44 said they use AI on videos or images, and 61% are interested in using AI to insert themselves into content (survey of 694 people, April 2026, YouTube Culture and Trends).
- YouTube Shopping adds AliExpress in the UK. Creators in the UK, US, Brazil and Germany can tag AliExpress products and earn commission, and YouTube plans affiliate listings in 35 markets by the end of 2026 (Social Media Today, 20 October).
- Consumers are wary of personalised AI ads. Research from Snap, Ipsos and WPP found 70% of AI users find personal data used in hyper personalised AI ads intrusive, and 56% call fully AI generated content soulless. UK consumers were in the sample.
How AI users feel about AI in content and ads
What to do next week
| Story | What changed | Your move |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Q3 | Partnership ads passed a $15bn run rate; nearly 10m advertisers use its AI creative tools | Add paid partnership rights to every creator contract |
| AI ad terms | Meta and ChatGPT shift AI edit risk to advertisers from 30 Oct | Audit automatic creative settings by 29 October and name an owner |
| P&G | Organic sales up 4% on flat spending, with a social first model | Set a branded content benchmark and fund what beats it |
Right hand column is my recommendation, not data.
P.S.If there is a topic you would like covered in a future issue, send it to us. To receive The Friday Cut every week, subscribe here. Last week’s issue on AI platforms competing for ad budgets covers the background.
That’s the cut.
About the author
Oscar Owen
CEO and Cofounder, Advertain
Oscar Owen is CEO and Cofounder of Advertain, the YouTube and social content agency for global brands. He leads creative strategy across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, and has built an audience of more than 2.6 million followers across his own channels, earning YouTube’s Gold Play Button along the way.
In front of the camera and behind it.
Oscar has spent more than a decade on camera building his own audience. Today he brings that same instinct to every brand Advertain works with, from the idea and the script to the edit.Frequently asked questions
What changes in Meta’s ad terms on 30 October 2026?
A new AI Features section makes advertisers solely responsible for content Meta’s AI creates or changes in their ads, including features Meta turns on itself (PPC Land).
How do I turn off creative enhancements for ChatGPT ads?
Use the Creative enhancement setting in ChatGPT Ads Manager, at account or campaign level, before 29 October to be safe (PPC Land).
How big are Meta partnership ads?
Meta says its partnership ads product grew over 97% year on year and passed $15 billion in annual revenue run rate in Q3 2026 (Meta earnings call).
Sources and methodology
News from the seven days to 23 October 2026. Platform, company and vendor figures are labelled. Earnings quotes are taken from published call transcripts. Opinions are my own. Photos: Oscar Owen, Advertain.
- Meta: Third Quarter 2026 Results (21 Oct 2026)
- Meta Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (21 Oct 2026)
- PPC Land: Meta AI ad terms, citing Adweek (22 Oct 2026)
- PPC Land: ChatGPT creative enhancements (21 Oct 2026)
- Reuters via The Star: ChatGPT ads expand to 89 countries (21 Oct 2026)
- P&G Q1 FY2027 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (22 Oct 2026)
- YouTube Culture and Trends: generative AI and video creativity (20 Oct 2026)
- Social Media Today: YouTube and AliExpress affiliate deal (20 Oct 2026)
- Snap Inc. for Business: Navigating the age of AI (22 Oct 2026)
