Ad holding company WPP has unveiled WPP Open Pro, a self-serve version of its AI-powered marketing platform. This version expands WPP’s reach to SMBs with automated tools for every step of the marketing process. Earlier this month, WPP announced a partnership with Google for bespoke AI models.
Composable CDP Hightouch has launched ID Express, which converts emails and phone numbers into UID2 identifiers for The Trade Desk with a single click. By performing the conversions before passing to The Trade Desk, ID Express removes the need for technical setups. Unusually for tools of this kind, it works directly, not through a data warehouse.
A report from the University of Hamburg and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management finds that ChatGPT referral traffic lags behind Google search in both conversion rate and revenue per session. However, research from Ahrefs finds AI traffic outperforms on conversions, while Amsive finds no consistent difference at a statistically significant level. With overall leads going down, conversion rates are a tricky thing to consider.
Live shopping platform Whatnot has raised a $225 million Series F, more than doubling its valuation to $11.5 billion since its last funding round in January. The company reports that more than $6 billion worth of items have been sold on the platform so far this year. It’s more evidence that live shopping is growing.