Welcome to Katalys Connect – your weekly shortcut to the latest in performance marketing.
[Read time: 4 minutes]
What’s in this issue? Each week we pack the latest trends, actionable insights, and industry breakthroughs into a quick read – ensuring you’re not just keeping up, you’re staying ahead.
- Monetization: Explore how Complex Shop leverages seamless content-commerce integration and data-driven strategies to drive 50% of its revenue, and how predictive analytics help a regional publisher turn Google Discover into a revenue powerhouse.
- Growth: Discover how Temu and Shein’s aggressive Black Friday keyword tactics reshape holiday campaigns, OpenAI’s ad ambitions signal a shift in AI monetization, and TikTok’s $100M Black Friday showcases its growing e-commerce dominance.
- The Future of Commerce: Dive into Cyber Monday’s new sales records, Shopify’s Sphere campaign innovating real-time sales visualization, and AI-powered chatbots promising to remedy customer frustrations.
⭐ Katalys’ Choice
Introducing Katalys’ Choice • Katalys’ Choice highlights a select group of high-quality partners, carefully handpicked by Katalys for their exceptional offerings and proven impact. These partners are industry leaders, providing unique opportunities to help brands achieve outstanding results.
Today we’re excited to feature Everyday Health!
- Everyday Health is a trusted leader in health and wellness content, combining award-winning editorial expertise with insights from a network of board-certified physicians and health professionals. Their evidence-based articles, videos, tools, and more empower millions to make informed health decisions.
- Advertisers can explore high-impact opportunities and performance-driven partnerships with Everyday Health and other top publishers through Katalys!
Join the Katalys Marketing Platform
💸 Monetization
Complex in Commerce • Following its acquisition by live-stream shopping platform Ntwrk, Complex Shop’s launch cements its shift from publisher to commerce powerhouse, blending retail, events, and editorial.
- Complex Shop’s expanded inventory including over 100 brands integrates seamlessly into editorial content, providing personalized shopping experiences and providing Complex with valuable shopper data.
- Commerce now drives 50% of Complex’s revenue, with plans to scale to 66% by next year and surpass $100 million in retail sales by 2025. By unifying retail, events, and video into a cohesive ecosystem, Complex strengthens its appeal to advertisers while boosting consumer engagement across platforms.
Missteps in AI Search Attribution • OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search faces criticism after a Columbia study found 76.5% of ChatGPT Search responses were inaccurate, frequently citing syndicated or unauthorized content.
- ChatGPT Search struggles with reliability, often generating different answers to identical queries, further eroding confidence in its content accuracy.
- Publishers face diminished control as ChatGPT Search inconsistently attributes content, whether or not they allow OpenAI’s crawlers, raising questions about ethical AI use in journalism.
Cracking the Discover Code • A Swedish publisher, VK Media, turns Google Discover’s unpredictability into a subscription and revenue powerhouse using predictive analytics and creative problem-solving.
- VK Media’s Article Horn predictive tool alerts its newsroom when stories are about to go viral on Google Discover, enabling strategic paywall and content access adjustments to maximize both ad and reader revenue.
- This innovation has driven a tenfold increase in reader revenue and a 60% rise in digital ad revenue while boosting VK Media’s ranking in Google’s ecosystem – showcasing how regional publishers can thrive with data-driven strategies.
📈 Growth
Keyword Wars Heat Up • Temu and Shein’s aggressive Black Friday strategies are reshaping holiday campaigns by driving up CPCs and forcing advertisers to rethink their approach.
- By targeting competitors’ branded keywords with large budgets, these fast-fashion giants are reshaping the competitive landscape, driving up costs and capturing valuable traffic.
- This ripple effect challenges advertisers and affiliates to innovate, emphasizing smarter keyword strategies and alternative channels to stay visible and profitable in an increasingly fierce marketplace.
OpenAI Eyes Ad Revenue • As OpenAI explores advertising alongside its AI offerings, it hints at a major evolution in how AI and digital advertising might intersect.
- OpenAI, valued at $150 billion, is eyeing ad integration to diversify revenue, drawing on leadership expertise from veterans of Instagram and Salesforce who have pioneered ad-supported products.
- Early discussions suggest ads could seamlessly integrate into AI platforms, potentially transforming how users engage with AI tools while keeping the experience intuitive and valuable.
TikTok’s $100M Black Friday • TikTok Shop is making waves in US e-commerce, driving $100M in single-day Black Friday sales and hosting over 30,000 livestreams, including a $2M session by Canvas Beauty.
- TikTok Shop’s success highlights its rapid growth in e-commerce, leveraging live shopping to engage users with over 30,000 sessions in one day—a strategy inspired by the booming social-shopping market in China.
- With top-performing categories like fashion, beauty, and home, TikTok is proving its potential to compete with established giants like Amazon and Walmart, despite being a newcomer to the space.
🚀 Future of Commerce
Cyber Monday Breaks Records • Cyber Monday 2024 became the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever, with $13.3 billion spent domestically and $49.7 billion globally, fueled by steep discounts and mobile shopping dominance.
- U.S. shoppers spent $15.8 million per minute during peak hours, driving record-breaking $13.3 billion in online sales and showing 7.3% growth from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics.
- Mobile shopping continues to dominate, accounting for 57% of sales ($7.6 billion), while BNPL transactions hit an all-time high of $991.2 million, with over 75% occurring on mobile devices.
Shopify’s Sphere Takeover • Shopify’s BFCM campaign transformed the Las Vegas Sphere into a real-time showcase of global commerce, visualizing live sales data and celebrating merchants worldwide.
- Powered by Unreal Engine, this immersive marketing campaign amplifies Shopify’s scale, showcasing the achievements of millions of merchants and driving excitement for its e-commerce ecosystem.
- As part of its campaign, Shopify also launched an interactive web portal, allowing users to explore real-time sales and translate data into unique sounds, blending technology with creativity.
The Chatbot Challenge • Ineffective chatbots frustrate 43% of online shoppers, highlighting an urgent need for businesses to prioritize smarter, AI-driven solutions to enhance the digital shopping experience.
- By integrating AI, chatbots collect rich customer data—demographics, preferences, and behavior—allowing brands to refine marketing strategies, personalize campaigns, and better align with consumer needs, ultimately driving higher ROI.
- Advanced chatbots enhanced with AI can understand nuanced customer queries, deliver personalized recommendations, and address issues in real time, creating stronger emotional connections with users.
