Weekly Marketing Rundown - December 13th, 2024

Weekly Marketing Rundown - May 2, 2025 Hi everyone! In this week's edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown we discuss weak Meta's potential breakup, Open Ai's new foray into social media, Government censorship on Bluesky and more. Enjoying the Weekly Marketing Rundown? Support our work and keep it free for missions teams worldwide: https://www.kavanahmedia.com/donatetoKM Government Censorship on Bluesky and Türkiye Bluesky, at the request of the Turkish government, has restricted 72 accounts on the platform. This development raises concerns about freedom of expression and the potential impact on user content. What this means for mission teams: This is a good reminder to always be prepared to shift strategies and highlights the importance of implementing cybersecurity measures. Government censorship could affect how you share your message and engage with your audience, making it important to stay informed and adapt your strategies accordingly. Kavanah Media Founder and CEO Jon Ralls discusses risk management in missions in a 3 part series of the Christian Media Marketing Podcast. Listen here. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/23/government-censorship-comes-to-bluesky-but-not-its-third-party-apps-yet/ OpenAI Explores New Social Media Platform OpenAI is exploring the development of a new social media platform to rival X, following a $40 billion funding round. This move aims to create a competitive alternative in the tech industry, potentially reshaping the landscape of digital platforms. What this means for mission teams: This development is significant as it could offer new opportunities for outreach and engagement for missions teams to integrate into their digital strategies. https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/openai-explores-platform-to-rival-x-following-40b-funding-round/ Meta Breakup Threat: What Marketers Need to Know Meta is facing a potential breakup due to antitrust concerns, which could lead to the separation of its major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This situation raises questions about the future of digital advertising and the impact on marketers. What this means for mission teams: Changes in Meta's ownership of it's platforms could SIGNIFICANTLY affect digital engagement strategies and how teams use these platforms for outreach. https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/meta-breakup-threat-what-marketers-need-to-know/ Meta Advantage+ Tools and Ad Performance In their latest update Meta claims that their Advantage+ AI ad tools are showing impressive results across various campaigns. AI-generated backgrounds have increased click-through rates (CTR) by 11%, and advertisers using Advantage+ earn $4.52 for every $1 spent, which is a 22% increase compared to standard campaigns. The new sales setup has reduced the cost per action by 9%, and opportunity score recommendations have cut the cost per result by 5%. What this means for mission teams: While most mission teams likely are not utilizing Meta's systems for sales ads Advantage+ ads and utilizing AI content tools could improve your results. Members of the Kavanah Media team have experimented with these AI tools and did see similar performance improvements and lower costs. It should be noted, however, that any targeting parameters advertisers set when using Advantage+ Audiences (i.e. age, gender, location) are merely suggestions and the algorithms can and will ignore them if it believes it can achieve your performance goals elsewhere. In these scenarios it is best to utilize Original Audience targeting. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-advantage-plus-ads-overview-ai/746042/ Branding in Ads Manager: AI-Generated Text and Images Meta has rolled out another update to it's Branding tools under the Identity section of Ads Manager. Previously users could upload logos and select font and colors choices. However, now they can ad text tone and visual style. These selections help guide the AI content tools in ads manager. What this means for mission teams: These AI tools can significantly improve your content creation process. Meta claims they can lead to lower engagement costs and higher performance. It should be noted, however, that these tools - especially the text specific ones, do not always function well in languages other than English. Teams should experiment in their context before utilizing the new features. http://jonloomer.com/qvt/branding-in-ads-manager-ai-generated-text-and-images/ WhatsApp Adds AI Tools Without Sacrificing Privacy WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature called Private Processing, which allows users to use AI features like message summarization or editing suggestions—all without breaking the app’s end-to-end encryption promise. The messages will be processed in a secure environment where neither WhatsApp nor Meta can access the content, even as AI is applied. This move aims to balance privacy with the growing demand for helpful AI features, and Meta plans to open the system for feedback, bug bounties, and security audits. What this means for mission teams: This is a positive move for user privacy, especially as concerns grow about LLMs being trained on scraped user data. If Meta follows through with these features missions teams could feel safer when experimenting with WhatsApp's AI integrations in their digital strategies. https://therecord.media/whatsapp-in-app-tools-secret-messages Stay Equipped for Digital Engagement At Kavanah Media, we’re committed to helping mission teams use digital tools to make God known around the world. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, practical insights, or in-depth strategy, we’ve got resources to help: Intentional Newsletter – Be encouraged each month with stories of transformed lives, ministry milestones, and the latest updates from our team. Subscribe here. Kavanah Media Blog – Learn from our experiences serving hundreds of mission teams worldwide. We share practical lessons, real stories, and best practices to help your team avoid mistakes and grow in digital outreach. Subscribe here. Christian Media Marketing Podcast – Tune in for weekly deep dives with CEO Jon Ralls on everything from digital strategy to cybersecurity. Subscribe here or on your favorite podcast app. Digital Strategies got you stumped? Reach out anytime—we’re ready to help. Contact Us Thanks for reading this edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown! For more up-to-date insights in digital marketing, make sure to follow us on Instagram @kavanah_media and stay connected through all our social media channels via the link below. https://linktr.ee/kavanah_media Authors: Cody Adams and Cherry Messimer Article Published: May 2, 2025

Weekly Marketing Rundown - February 6, 2026 Welcome to this week’s edition of Kavanah Media’s Weekly Marketing Rundown! We’re diving into the latest updates you need to know regarding new Meta Advantage+ Creative Enhancements, Social Media trends for 2026, new social media platforms and more. Enjoying the Weekly Marketing Rundown? Support our work and keep it free for missions teams worldwide: https://www.kavanahmedia.com/donatetoKM AI-Generated Video with Advantage+ Creative Meta is testing a new AI feature that automatically creates short videos from your existing images. The tool uses artificial intelligence to turn static photos into 15 to 20 second clips with movement and music. For Mission Teams This tool enables teams to quickly and easily create additional video creative for ads. As with all of Meta’s Creative Enhancements, users are encouraged to review outputs before publishing. The feature helps teams reach more people through visual storytelling while keeping digital outreach simple and cost-effective. https://www.jonloomer.com/advantage-plus-creative-video-generation-beta/ U.S. Senators Propose New Rules to Stop Fake Social Media Ads Lawmakers want to pass a law that forces social media companies to prove who their advertisers really are. This bill aims to stop criminals from using paid ads to trick people and steal their money. Some platforms, such as Meta, already employ identity verification for advertisers in certain instances. For Mission Teams This law could make it harder for teams to run ads because platforms will require much stricter identity checks. While this helps prevent scams, the potential for paper-trails could raise security concerns for teams working in secure contexts. https://archive.is/AGR28 2026 Social Media Study Shows Big Changes in Popularity A new study looked at millions of posts to see how people use social media today. For organic campaigns the study found that TikTok is the best place to get attention, while sites like Facebook and Instagram are seeing fewer people interact with posts. It should be noted that this engagement data was primarily comment driven as DMs do not show on public data feeds. It also does not reflect global platform differences based on regions and other important nuances. For Mission Teams Teams running global campaigns with lower-level engagement goals may prioritize TikTok, but it’s important to recognize that user behavior varies by platform. For example, users may be more likely to send direct messages on Instagram than on TikTok. Teams should experiment with platforms and strategies to determine what works best in their specific context. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/2026-social-media-benchmarks-infographic/811179/ France Considers Restricting VPN Access to Protect Younger Users France is looking for ways to stop children under fifteen from using social media apps. They are thinking about limiting the use of VPNs so kids cannot hide their location to bypass age rules. For Mission Teams If countries ban VPNs, it will be much harder for mission teams to stay hidden and safe online. This change could also prevent seekers in restricted areas from safely finding and viewing your evangelism content. https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/france-might-seek-restrictions-on-vpn-use-in-campaign-to-keep-minors-off-social-media-205308716.html New Video App UpScrolled Gains Users by Promising More Freedom A new app called UpScrolled is becoming popular because it promises not to sensor or hide people's posts. Many people are joining this platform because they want an alternative to TikTok that shows posts in the order they were shared. For Mission Teams This platform presents an opportunity to share the gospel without the concern of content being shadowbanned or suppressed by algorithms. As with any emerging platform, the user base is still limited, and teams should experiment before committing to full adoption. https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/01/30/upscrolled-tiktok-alternative-open-platform-no-censorship/ Meta Predicts AI Will Power All Parts of Social Media in 2026 Meta plans to use artificial intelligence to suggest videos and help people spend 20% more time on their apps. These new tools are also helping businesses grow by allowing computers to chat with over one million people every week. For Mission Teams Improved AI ranking and dubbing tools can help your evangelism videos reach significantly more people across multiple languages. Advertisers are also reporting 24% improvement in conversion attribution, underscoring the growing importance of video-based content. One thing is clear: AI enhancements are here to stay. However, it remains unclear how these changes will impact teams around the world that rely on Meta’s platforms for digital engagement. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-outlines-ai-powered-system-improvements/810886/ Meta Reports Significant Growth in Users and Revenue for Late 2025 Meta’s latest report shows that daily active users across its apps have grown to 3.32 billion people. The company also saw its revenue climb by 18% as more people spent time watching Reels and interacting with AI-suggested content. For Mission Teams With over 3 billion people active on these platforms, the potential to reach unreached groups through social media advertising is greater than ever. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-posts-increases-in-users-and-revenue-in-q4/810801/ Foundations of Digital Engagement Strategy Course May 13-16, 2026 (Pre-EMDC Training) Chiang Mai, Thailand This course is for you. Digital permeates virtually every aspect of people's lives and it should be present in every stage of your mission and ministry strategy. Join Kavanah Media staff during the Pre-EMDC training week for a time of practical training in digital engagement. This course is designed for you to examine your end to end strategy and find ways that digital components can be added or improved whether you are just ready to begin or an experienced practitioner. Follow the link or contact us for more details. https://emdcon.org/ Stay Equipped for Digital Engagement  Looking for ways to use digital tools to grow evangelism and disciple-making? Check out our other resources: Kavanah Media Blog – Learn from our experiences serving hundreds of mission teams worldwide. We share practical lessons, real stories, and best practices to help your team avoid mistakes and grow in digital outreach. Subscribe here. YouVersion Reading Plan– Jon Ralls, CEO of Kavanah Media, just launched a powerful 4-day devotional on YouVersion called "Love Where You Are." Subscribe here Ad Resource Store- Stumped on what ads to run next? Check out Kavanah Media's Ad Resource Store for ideas, templates and more! Digital Strategies got you stumped? Reach out anytime—we’re ready to help. Contact Us Thanks for reading this edition of Kavanah Media's Weekly Marketing Rundown! For more up-to-date insights in digital marketing, make sure to follow us on Instagram @kavanah_media and stay connected through all our social media channels via the link below. https://linktr.ee/kavanah_media Authors: Cody A. and Cherry Messimer Article Published: February 6, 2026