Good morning.
The floor is lava. Can you make it to the kitchen without touching it?
Good luck…
Promising Q3 earnings, new Threads ad formats, and Instagram’s algo goes custom
The Zuck stops here…
And apparently, so does everyone else: Meta’s Q3 2025 earnings report tells a compelling story for advertisers.
Revenue hit $51.24B—up 26% year-over-year—fueled by a 14% surge in ad impressions. More eyeballs on ads? Sounds great.
Of course, that was also accompanied by a 10% jump in average price per ad, which you probably noticed. Ugh.
But at least audiences are growing, too: Daily active people across Meta’s family of apps increased 8% year-over-year, hitting 3.54B.
So your target market is expanding, and they’re increasingly engaged across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Hooray.
Speaking of target markets, Meta is expanding Threads ad formats to include 4:5 image and video rendering, video ads in all aspect ratios, static carousels, and Placement Asset Customization.
… Which means your Facebook and Instagram campaigns can now automatically extend to Threads’ 400M monthly active users without extra lifting. Nice.
The new API updates also mean third-party ad providers can deliver Threads placements, so your existing ad tools will work across Meta’s ecosystem as the holidays approach.
Users take the wheel: Finally, Instagram is testing a feature that lets people manually add or remove topics to tune their Reels feed, and it plans to expand to Explore and potentially Threads.
If users can opt into topics they care about, your content may have a better shot at reaching genuinely interested audiences vs. fighting the algorithm’s best guess.
Better targeting means better engagement, and possibly better conversion rates. Hey, we can hope, right?
YouTube and TikTok roll out new AI tools for both shoppers and creators
Netflix and bill?
This is how we chill: YouTube just rolled out QR codes for shoppable videos on TV screens so that viewers scan products with their phones and buy instantly.
YouTube captured 35B hours of shopping content views last year. That’s a lot of time to turn casual browsing into actual purchases.
Sounds like good news if you’re promoting products on YouTube.
And if your products look grainy? No worries: YouTube’s new AI upscaling automatically bumps low-res videos up to HD, and 4K support is coming soon.
Nothing kills the viewer experience faster than distorted faces and janky visuals, so if your older content looks rough on big screens, this could give it new life without you lifting a finger.
News anchors, but with ring lights and OOTDs: YouTube now leads as the top platform for creator-driven news across 24 countries, beating TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Influencer partnerships aren’t just lifestyle fluff anymore; they’re where audiences actually get informed. Adjust your PR strategy accordingly.
Chop, chop: TikTok’s new Smart Split tool uses AI to cut up long videos into short clips automatically, complete with captions and vertical reframing.
If you’re repurposing long-form content like podcasts, webinars, or YouTube videos for TikTok, this just became exponentially easier.
Oh, and the new AI Outline tool helps you generate ideas based on an initial topic. Sounds helpful if you’re producing a high volume of video content and need inspiration.
The 90% solution: TikTok is now offering North American creators up to 90% of subscription revenue, up from 70%, making it one of the most creator-friendly revenue splits in social media.
If you’re building subscription-based communities or exclusive content programs, TikTok might be more attractive than keeping content behind a Patreon paywall.
Something to think about.
Instead of bracing for ROAS questions, feel confident the next time you share your Meta Ads results
Few things are more nerve-wracking than hearing “So… how’s the campaign going?” when you know the numbers look bad.
CPCs rising. CTR falling. Leads trickling in slower than expected…
Now you’re running out of budget—and you’re running out of answers, too.
Take a deep breath.
Our Meta Ads Essentials course helps you take back control long before you ever get to this nightmare scenario.
We collaborated with Gil David to bring this training to you. He scaled multiple e-commerce and coaching businesses to 7 and 8 figures with Meta Ads.
And he’ll show you how to:
- Choose the right campaign objective from the start so Meta doesn’t optimize for the wrong thing.
- Track what actually matters with the Meta pixel—not just surface metrics.
- Troubleshoot underperforming ads so you know exactly what to fix.
And that’s just the start. The course is packed with examples, breakdowns, and insights from successful campaigns.
Get access for 7 days for just $7. Then decide if you want to renew.
Track these KPIs to turn AI searches into a content strategy
We marketers have spent years chasing impressions, backlinks, and clicks. But that’s all changing.
As Tim Burke points out, LLMs are often the first place people go for answers. These tools don’t return links; they synthesize a response.
And that response has replaced the click. Which means you need to measure it.
Because if your brand isn’t in that response, you’ll become invisible.
Here are the new KPIs you need to start tracking:
Brand mentions. If you’re absent from queries like “best project management platforms,” you’re out of the running before the race even starts.
Break it down by query type. Are you appearing in broad “what is” questions or just competitor comparisons?
If you’re missing from early-stage queries, it’s time to invest in thought leadership. If you’re missing from buying-decision queries, you need to clarify your differentiators.
Adjectives. LLMs add qualifiers like “trusted,” “expensive,” or “hard to use,” all based on the data they’ve absorbed from the web.
If you’re consistently called “complex,” create content that simplifies onboarding. If you’re called “innovative,” double down on that narrative in your campaigns.
Competitor mentions. If you’re in 30% of relevant responses but your top rival is in 70%, you’re losing the perception battle.
And when an LLM cites a competitor’s whitepaper instead of your own content, it’s a clear signal that it sees them as the authority.
See which queries favor your competitors and analyze the sentiment attached to them. This shows you exactly where to attack, where to defend, and where to invest.
These KPIs form a guide for your strategy. Mentions show gaps, sentiment reveals perception, competitive share shows where you’re losing, and sources highlight authority.
Want to earn the AI’s citation? Make your content comprehensive, structured, and credible using reports and FAQ pages.
When your resources are the citations, you can control the conversation.
The tools and strategies aren’t perfect yet, but that might be to your advantage. Start figuring it out now and you’ll be a leading designer of this new landscape.
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How long can you “ghost” your customers on social media?
Ghosting might be okay when your Tinder match owns six reptiles and says “let’s vibe.”
But ghosting your customers on socials? As a business? That’s a no no.
And it’s something we’ve covered in our earlier Data Stories:
Almost a third of all customers expect you to respond to them within an hour, and around a quarter expect a response within six hours.
On top of that, 17% expect you to reach out after 12 hours.
In other words, 72% of all social media consumers think a response after 12 hours is not acceptable. Yikes.
What this means for marketers: DMs are frontline engagement spaces now.
When customers slide into your DMs, they expect near-instant responses. If marketing is sending them there, customer service better be ready to catch them.
What you can do: Set the expectation and meet it.
If your team can’t respond instantly, use auto-replies to set clear expectations, route to live agents quickly, and integrate service with social teams. This might be the way.
MARKETING WEAPON: What if you had a tool that could ethically persuade customers to buy or take action every time? Our newsletter delivers a new science-backed psychological tactic each week you can add to your marketing arsenal. Get an advantage this week.*
REDDIT: … And G2 are partnering up to give eligible businesses a personalized Reddit Pro account. You can port your G2 profile data and upload review screenshots directly into the platform’s Ads Manager. Allegedly 70% of B2B buyers now use AI search, which cites both platforms. Good to know.
AI SEARCH: A new US study suggests AI is actually increasing shopping steps because 95% of people don’t trust it. They’re clicking through to verify that what they’re seeing is legitimate rather than taking it at face value. You might want to find out what those chatbots are telling your customers…
E-COMMERCE: Don’t ignore Gen X. New ICSC research shows this group makes up just 19% of the US population… but drives 31% of all spending, and boasts the highest revenue per shopper. Whoa. Are you selling to them?
GOOGLE: Merchant Center is letting certain advertisers define audiences for promotions. Yep, the fortunate few can restrict who sees deals in shopping listings—like offering 20% off only to new customers, or running deals only for a new region. Let’s hope Google gives everyone access soon.
*This is a sponsored post.
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