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10/17/25: Ads on Mute?! Google tests “Hide Sponsored” Plus TikTok AI tweaks, Amazon Accelerate wins, and a loud-ads ban.

HK Digital Paid Media News

HK Digital Paid Media Industry News, Updates & More

Happy Friday!


Google’s Demo Slam 2025 made one thing crystal clear: AI continues to move quickly and your brand needs to get on board! Expanding rapidly across Search, YouTube, and PMax, our quick read calls out some of the highlights that you should look into right away.


Top Headlines

Ads on Mute?! Google tests “Hide Sponsored” Plus TikTok AI tweaks, Amazon Accelerate wins, and a loud-ads ban.

 ​Google allows you to “Hide Sponsored Results”

Google is now testing a button that groups all search ads into one 'collapsible section' at the top of the page with a single, larger label that remains in view as you scroll. At the bottom of the section, you’ll see a button to hide sponsored results, so you’ll have to scroll by them first. Impression reporting might lose some value, and CTRs are sure to see fluctuation. 

 

 TikTok updates AI ad tools ahead of holidays

AI/Automated Smart+ campaigns are nothing new here but they continue to see improvements for faster setup and more AI assists for creative and commerce. Like many of these ads platform updates we've seen, the struggle lies in a lack of control and often you're opted into things (i.e. ugly/tacky creative outputs) that you'd rather not be.

 

 Key Takeaways from Amazon Accelerate 2025

Amazon Marketing Cloud is now available directly in the Ads Console with no-code templates and AI assistance, enabling near-real-time analytics and audience building without SQL. Amazon also introduced a Sponsored Products placement to target “Amazon Haul” shoppers and rolled out tools to boost visibility for new product launches (enhanced search placement, creator collabs, targeted deals) to overcome the cold-start problem.

In Other News




California bans overly loud streaming ads for services like YouTube/Prime Video/Hulu, effective July 2026.

  • We've all been there...volume is perfect for the series or movie we're watching, and maybe we even have the volume low because we're multi-tasking on our phones or in a good book or something and then...BLAH!!!! An ad comes SCREAMING on at max volume trying to tell you about the latest organic dog food craze! haha welp...help has finally arrived!

  • Starting next year, streamers will be banned from airing commercials at a louder volume than the content being watched.

Fun Stuff


I turned myself into a 3D figurine with Google's Nano Banana - here's how you can hop on the latest AI image trend


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That's All Folks!

That’s it for this edition of First Impression, hopefully you found some valuable nuggets in here. Feel free to send any feedback and suggestions for future topics our way.


 
 
 

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