We Are Social’s Tuesday Tune Up

TikTok to display ads in search results 

TikTok is bolstering its ad offering by allowing advertisers to place ads within search results. Ads will appear next to organic content, and will be labelled as ‘sponsored’. Search ads are set to “on” by default for advertisers. Good news for those targeting social shoppers – younger generations are increasingly turning to TikTok for product recommendations and more.

X offers $250 ad credit to advertisers  

X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) is channelling a gameshow vibe by offering advertisers some free money (sort of). The company announced last Wednesday that it would offer a one-time ad credit of $250 to select businesses when they spend $1,000 or more on new ad campaigns over the next 30 days. Targeted at small and medium sized businesses, the initiative is X’s latest attempt to attract advertisers back to the platform.

Threads launches its highly anticipated web app

Meta’s Threads is coming to a computer screen near you. In a post on the platform Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said that the web version would be “rolling out over the next few days.” Users will be able to post a thread, view their feed and interact with other people’s threads on the web version, but they won’t be able to edit their profile or send a thread to Instagram DMs. Meta says it will add more functionality in the coming weeks as it seeks to make the web and mobile experience of the app the same.

In other news 
Snap is working on a new generative AI feature called ‘Dreams’; YouTube tests a search feature where users hum to identify songs; X changes its API to retire legacy tiers and endpoints; WhatsApp rolls out support for HD video.