Snap and Amazon are turning their AI tools into your new sales reps

Someone new just moved into your DMs, and it’s trying to sell you something.

The modern day Herbalife guy: Snapchat is placing branded AI chatbots directly inside users’ inboxes. They sit among real conversations and answer product questions through suggested prompts.

It’s a format worth paying attention to: Sponsored Snaps already convert 22% better than other ad formats.

And with 500M users having already chatted with My AI, the audience is already in the habit of talking to bots. Snap is piloting the format now before opening it to all brands.

Getting in early means claiming inbox space before it becomes as crowded. Just don’t be the brand that turns the inbox into a place people avoid.

There’s a robot seller on Amazon’s product pages, too: The company’s new “Join the chat” feature drops US shoppers into AI audio summaries where they can ask real questions and get answers pulled from reviews and product details.

The AI picks up the thread.

Shoppers raising their hand mid-browse to ask about fit, compatibility, or ease of use are already halfway to buying.

They’re self-selecting as high-intent, and the AI is getting to the quick without human intervention needed. It’s the salesman who never clocks out.

Life stage beats age for purchase intent; and YouTube tops ad recall for two generations

Age is just a number, and apparently, a pretty bad targeting signal too.

It’s more about vibe: Meta partnered with BAMM Global to survey nearly 10,000 people across eight markets and found that life stage predicts purchase intent far better than age.

People navigating a major milestone like graduating, getting married, or having a baby show up to 26 percentage points higher purchase intent than those who aren’t.

A 23-year-old planning a wedding and a 45-year-old expecting a baby have more buying behaviour in common with each other than either does with someone their own age.

If age brackets are still doing the most in your targeting strategy, it might be time to rethink it.

The chronically online never logged off YouTube: Precisify’s Gen Z and Millennial report found that ad recall is strongest on YouTube for over 50% of both groups.

It beat TikTok, Facebook, Netflix, and everything else tested.

83% of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials use YouTube, making it the only platform that reliably pulls in both groups. Nearly 45% of each spend 30 to 60 minutes there daily.

And here’s the hearty side dish: Long-form content beats YouTube Shorts on ad quality perception among Gen Z by a margin of 36% to 11%.

It looks like long-form YouTube placements might deserve a bigger slice of your media mix.

How to balance text and visual in your social media campaigns?

You’ve just launched a campaign with a stunning image and a clever copy.

But there might be a problem. If they’re saying completely different things, your audience might scroll straight past.

Science Says analyzed over 30,000 organic brand posts across Facebook and Instagram to reveal exactly why that happens, and how to fix it.

The core finding: Posts performed better when text and visuals reinforced the same message. When they competed, however, engagement dropped.

Why this matters: Our brains are wired to chase visually rich content like multiple faces, busy backgrounds, and lots going on.

But pair that complexity with large text overlays, and neither element gets processed properly. The brain splits its attention and commits to nothing.

Our take: This isn’t just about aesthetics but also about cognitive load.

The easier you make it for someone’s brain to process your post, the more likely they are to act on it. Simplicity isn’t laziness; it’s just a form of strategy.

Here’s what the data says actually works:

1) Keep text centered with a positive and informative tone. “New arrivals this season” outperforms “Check out all the amazing new products we just added this week” every time.

2) Match your message. If the visual already communicates the idea, your text should echo it, not introduce something new.

3) Scale text to image complexity. Busy image? Smaller overlay. Simple image? You have more room to work with.

One caveat worth noting: The study only measured likes and comments.

How these ratios affect clicks or conversions remains an open question. And since this report touches organic posts only, paid ad performance may differ slightly.

Still, the principle holds whether you’re running ads or not.

Your customers aren’t as loyal as you think they are

The view from the C-suite? Rosy. From the checkout line? Not so much.

There is a massive 50-point gap between perception and reality.

While 89% of executives believe customers are more loyal in recent years, only 39% of consumers agree.

In fact, 52% of consumers feel there has been absolutely no change in their loyalty levels, and 7% admit they are actually less loyal now.

The implication? Companies are mistaking “repeat purchases due to lack of options” or “habit” for genuine brand loyalty.

Executives are patting themselves on the back for metrics that don’t reflect the customer’s heart. Don’t fall into that trap.

Stop relying on internal assumptions. Run a Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey immediately to see where you actually stand.

Think your customers are loyal? Think again. Pro members get weekly data on perception vs. reality gaps and tactics to close them before they cost you revenue.

$349/year covers your whole team (up to 10 people).