AdParlor Newsletter: Edition #18

Hey creators and campaign connoisseurs 👋 November’s here, which means two things: pumpkin spice overload and full-throttle holiday campaign mode. While everyone else is obsessing over “last-minute gifting guides,” we’re over here focused on last-minute wins – smarter creator strategies, data-driven ROI, and stories from brands that actually got it right.

This edition’s stacked with must-listen convos, scroll-stopping insights, and a case study that proves micro-influencers are the main characters of Q4. Let’s dive in.

~ The Editors

In this edition, you’ll find:

• Webinar & Podcast Recs
• Case Study: How Platinum Born Drove Record Engagement with Micro-influencers
• Holiday Influencer Fails Are Everywhere – Make Sure Yours Isn’t One of Them 
• Creator Economy & Industry Updates (surprise, there’s more AI updates)

We’re hosting a webinar!

The New Playbook for Influencer ROI: Lessons from TP-Link and AdParlor

🗓️ Date: November 17, 2025
🕒 Time: 2:00 PM ET
Hosts: Kristina Coughlin (GM, AdParlor) & Mikaela Viloria (TP-Link)
What to Expect:

Join TP-Link and AdParlor for a live discussion on November 17 at 2 PM ET as we reveal how one global tech brand shifted from a “reach-first” influencer approach to a measurable, ROI-driven strategy that’s delivering real business impact.

In this brief webinar, you’ll learn:

• A framework for measuring influencer performance across the funnel
• Practical tips for balancing influencer quality, cost, and content impact
• How to integrate paid amplification into creator campaigns effectively
• Actionable steps to strengthen your brand–agency collaboration
  

Hosted by Kristina Coughlin (GM, AdParlor) with special guest Mikaela Viloria (TP-Link), this is your chance to see how real brands are evolving their influencer programs in 2026.

🎧 This Week’s Podcast Picks

AdParlor x Agorapulse – Agency Edition

Our GM, Kristina Coughlin, joins Agorapulse’s Agency Edition podcast to talk about how AdParlor turned market challenges into strategic advantage. It’s a must-listen for agency pros navigating tighter budgets and shifting client expectations.
Listen here

Creator Economy Live

Join Keith Bendes and Brendan Gahan as they sit down with Ashwinn Krishnaswamy (Forge Design Partner + viral branding guru). They chat about building authentic brands in the algorithm era and balancing agency life with personal content creation.
Listen here

How Platinum Born Drove Record Engagement with Micro-influencers 

The Goal: Drive engagement and traffic through creator-led storytelling ahead of the holidays.
The Approach: AdParlor activated five micro-influencers with aligned audiences – ambitious, modern women drawn to authenticity and understated luxury. Each created a blend of feed posts, Stories, and UGC Reels, which were then repurposed into paid ads and email content.

The Results:
📈 4.8% engagement rate
💬 8% in-feed engagement rate
👀 120K impressions
⭐ 139% higher engagement than luxury benchmarks

TL;DR: Platinum Born proved that micro > mega when it comes to luxury storytelling. With UGC at the core and whitelisted amplification to extend reach, they not only hit record engagement but built a sustainable content engine for future campaigns.

Read the full case study HERE

Holiday Influencer Marketing Fails Are Everywhere – Make Sure Yours Isn’t One of Them 

The holidays are influencer marketing’s Super Bowl, but too many brands still fumble the play. This piece breaks down why most creator campaigns flop (hint: awareness ≠ sales) and exactly how to fix it before Cyber Week.

Highlights:

• 30% of consumers discovered a new product through creators in 2024, it’s even higher this year.
• 62% of brands now use micro-creators for better engagement and lower CPAs.
• Most holiday campaigns fail because they skip measurement, licensing, and audience architecture.

Key takeaway: You can’t scale what you can’t measure. Build for velocity, proof, and amplification.

👉 Read the full article + get your free 14-Day Holiday Influencer Launch Plan!

Or go right to the source and download the free launch plan HERE!

📈 On The Industry Pulse

Pomelli: Google’s New AI Marketing Assistant

Google just dropped Pomelli, a shiny new AI tool from Google Labs designed to help small and mid-sized businesses create on-brand social media campaigns, without needing a design team or a big ad budget. The tool builds a “Business DNA” by analyzing your website, visuals, and tone of voice, then generates campaign ideas and branded creative assets in minutes.

Why it matters:

• The tool is designed for marketers and SMBs without large design teams.
• It can deliver campaign ideas, copy, and branded visuals in minutes.
• It’s still in early-stage beta with variable output quality and privacy details still unclear.
  

Our take? Pomelli could be an additional tool in the belt, making AI-assisted branding more accessible, but it’s limited and needs a human touch for polish and nuance.

Instagram’s SEO Update

Instagram went full SEO mode. As of July 2025, posts from professional accounts are now indexed by Google and show up directly in search results. That means your Reels, carousels, and posts can now drive discoverability beyond your followers, turning Instagram into a true search channel. For creators and brands, this is a seismic shift: social content is now a searchable asset, not just a scrollable one. To win, marketers need to start optimizing captions for keywords, adding alt text, and treating every post like a mini landing page. Welcome to the era of social-first SEO – where your feed might just outrank your homepage.

Why this matters:

• It expands reach beyond the app, giving brands organic visibility on Google.
  
• It elevates the importance of keyword strategy in social content planning.
  
• It blurs the line between social media and traditional SEO, creating new opportunities for integrated content strategies.

Bottom line: social content is now SEO content.