The Friday Cut
Social media marketing news, cut down to what matters. Every Friday from Oscar Owen.
This week
Social Media Marketing News: UK Probes Meta AI Terms, Brands Chase Shows
This week: the UK CMA opens a probe into Meta commercial terms for AI, TikTok lets AI pick creatives for Smart plus campaigns, and L Oreal bets on microdrama entertainment.
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.
This week I am in New Jersey directing a brand shoot, and earlier my Double O Noir playing cards Kickstarter went live. At Advertain we create YouTube and social content for global brands every week, so we watch how platforms rewrite the rules for creatives and for brand sites at the same time. This week’s theme is control: regulators pressing Meta on AI terms, TikTok offering to pick your creatives, and a big beauty group betting on entertainment first shows.
In this issue
- 01UK probes Meta commercial AI terms
- 02TikTok AI picks Smart plus creatives
- 03L Oreal bets on microdrama shows
UK opens a probe into Meta commercial terms for AI
On 30 October the UK Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into Meta’s commercial terms for businesses that use its platforms. The CMA is looking at whether those terms abuse a dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on publishers and advertisers, including terms that would let Meta collect website content to build its own products and AI features (PPA, 30 October; Euronews, 30 October).
Meta has paused the rollout pending consultation with industry groups, and its existing terms stay in place. The CMA’s case page sets an indicative timetable of October 2026 to January 2027 for early information gathering; no finding has been made. Meta told Reuters there are “no grounds” for the investigation (AdShift update, 2 November).
When a platform can rewrite your ad and train on your site, brand control has to be written into the brief, not assumed.
Treat Advantage plus creative enhancements as live until you check them. Before Black Friday creative goes out, open each active ad and switch off the AI edits you do not want, then spot check what actually served. Agree in writing who approves AI made changes. This is a genuine follow up to last month’s story on Meta making advertisers responsible for AI output: the legal wording is on hold, the product behaviour is not.
TikTok lets its AI pick creatives for Smart plus campaigns
TikTok’s fourth quarter product preview, posted on 30 October and covered this week, introduces Smart plus Creative Selection. It proposes videos for a campaign from creator posts, a brand’s past ads and AI generated assets. Advertisers choose how much control to keep: lock the list, check each new suggestion before it runs, or let suggestions go live on their own (AdTestBench, 3 November; AdShift, 30 October).
Search ads also get impression share metrics and ready made brand and category keyword packs, refreshed daily using competition, cost per click and search volume, which TikTok says are backed by its machine learning models. TikTok does not name every market for each feature (AdTestBench).
Set Creative Selection to review before live before Black Friday. AI and creator assets should not enter a brand campaign unseen. Treat keyword packs as a starting list, not a finished media plan, and keep a human check on claims, offers and creator permissions.
L Oreal bets on microdrama entertainment over product ads
Marketing Dive reported on 5 November that Urban Decay, a L Oreal brand, launched a six episode vertical series on ReelShort titled Ghost Hunter Hotline on 24 October. The brand said the series generated 3.8 million views in the five days after launch and sat at number two on ReelShort’s most viewed shorts ranking, company figures (Marketing Dive, 5 November).
Han Wen, chief digital and marketing officer at L Oreal USA, said the primary purpose of the work was entertainment for the audience first, and that the series was produced with ReelShort in about four weeks rather than as a hybrid agency campaign. She framed speed as central because trends move quickly (Marketing Dive).
This is the same lesson I keep giving brands on YouTube: build shows, not campaigns. A short series that people choose to watch compounds; a product advert disappears when you stop paying. If you test a new format, give it a clear story, a fixed episode count and a production window measured in weeks, not quarters.
The rest of this week's social media marketing news
- UK social spend keeps rising. AA/WARC put UK ad investment up 11.0% to £12.3 billion in Q2 2026, with social media up 22.2%. Full year spend is forecast at £51.3 billion, and Q4 at a record £14.0 billion with social up 18.5% (Advertising Association, 29 October).
- Meta ranks ads with new AI stack. Meta said upgrades to Andromeda, GEM and GenRecs drove 8.3% more clicks and a 15.7% lift in conversions on Facebook in Q2, Meta’s own figures. Advertisers do not change settings to receive the upgrades (AdExchanger, 28 October).
- Meta product browsing is on by default. From 28 October, tapping a Meta ad can open an in app product browse instead of the website. Meta claims about 3% more conversions on average from a test across roughly 117,700 advertisers, Meta’s own number (ClickDose, citing Meta).
UK ad spend growth by channel, Q2 2026 year on year
What to do next week
| Story | What changed | Your move |
|---|---|---|
| Meta AI terms | UK CMA opened a probe on 30 Oct; rollout paused; existing terms stay | Audit Advantage plus AI edits on live ads before Black Friday creative goes out |
| TikTok Smart plus | AI can propose creatives from creators, past ads and AI assets | Set Creative Selection to review before live; keep a human gate on offers |
| L Oreal microdrama | Urban Decay series hit 3.8m views in five days, company figure | Brief one short entertainment series with a fixed episode count, not a product spot |
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 answers getting ads covers the Google AI Mode 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 is the CMA investigating about Meta?
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is examining whether Meta’s commercial terms for businesses abuse a dominant position by imposing unfair conditions on publishers and advertisers, including terms that would let Meta use website content for its own products and AI features. No finding has been made (PPA).
What is TikTok Smart plus Creative Selection?
It proposes creatives for a Smart plus campaign from creator posts, past brand ads and AI generated assets. Advertisers can lock the list, review each suggestion, or let suggestions go live automatically (AdTestBench).
How fast is UK social media ad spend growing?
AA/WARC reported social media ad spend in the UK up 22.2% year on year in Q2 2026, with full year social growth forecast at 20.7% (Advertising Association).
Sources and methodology
News from the seven days to 6 November 2026. Items announced on 28 to 30 October are included where there was a clear follow up inside the window. Platform, company and vendor figures are labelled. Opinions are my own. Photos: Birthe Vembye (stage); Oscar Owen (studio portrait).
- PPA: welcomes CMA investigation into Meta commercial terms (30 Oct 2026)
- Euronews: UK probes Meta over commercial terms for media (30 Oct 2026)
- AdShift: Meta Self Serve Ad Terms AI Features liability, updated 2 Nov 2026
- AdTestBench: TikTok adds AI picked creatives and keyword packs (3 Nov 2026)
- AdShift: TikTok Q4 2026 Product Preview (30 Oct 2026)
- Marketing Dive: L Oreal Urban Decay microdrama strategy (5 Nov 2026)
- Advertising Association / WARC Expenditure Report (29 Oct 2026)
- VideoWeek summary of AA/WARC Q2 2026 (29 Oct 2026)
- AdExchanger: Meta Andromeda, GEM and GenRecs ad ranking (28 Oct 2026)
- Meta Engineering: Andromeda next gen ads retrieval (28 Oct 2026)
- ClickDose: Meta AI edits and product browsing (citing Meta and Adweek)
