First quarter shows ad costs are climbing and Instagram is done with reposters

If fewer people showed up to your party, you’d probably be upset.

Meta just raises the ticket price: its Q1 report saw daily active users drop to 3.56B, down from 3.58B in Q4 2024. However, revenue hit $56.31B, a 33% YoY increase.

Geopolitical disruptions, plus Australia’s new teen social media restrictions, took a bite out of the user numbers. But the money had other plans:

• Ad impressions across Meta’s apps grew 19% YoY
• Average ad prices rose 12% YoY
• Total costs and expenses hit $33.44B, up 35% YoY

Meta is running more ads, charging more for them, and funnelling tens of billions into AI infrastructure at the same time. Reaching the same audience is about to cost more.

If your campaigns haven’t been stress-tested lately, these Q1 numbers are your nudge.

Speaking of campaigns, stop reposting your way to reach: Instagram is now pulling aggregator accounts from recommendations across photos and carousels, not just Reels.

Accounts that primarily repost others’ work will stop appearing in suggested content, and 75% of Instagram recommendations in the US already come from original posts.

If your content strategy leans on repurposed or aggregated material, your organic reach is at risk. If you’re producing original content, you’re about to have less competition in the feed.

Post more original content over 30 days, and recommendation eligibility resets.

Inventory, data, and audiences are getting stronger, Gemini braces for ad inventory

Google’s Q1 reads like a great fantasy football lineup. Every position is performing, no injuries, and the coach looks confident.

The search giant isn’t going anywhere: Alphabet posted $109.9B in revenue for Q1 2026, up 22% year-over-year, with net income nearly doubling from $34.54B to $62.58B. Not bad.

A few numbers to make note of:

• Search queries hit an all-time high, with revenue up 19% YoY.
• YouTube ad revenue climbed to $9.88B, up from $8.93B a year ago.
• Google Cloud hit $20.03B, up from $12.26B.
• Paid subscriptions across Google’s ecosystem reached 350M.

More queries, more subscribers, more cloud scale. Google’s inventory is growing, its audience data is getting richer, and higher-intent users are showing up in greater numbers.

Your ad dollars now have more places to work, and more reasons to perform.

The “no ads in Gemini” era lasted as long as a New Year’s resolution: Few months after that claim, Google’s chief business officer is now “open-minded” to putting them there.

Ads are already being tested in AI Overviews and AI Mode for Search. Gemini is next in line once those formats bed in.

Gemini already has users asking buying-intent questions. That’s a whole different placement than a search result, and getting to know it personally could put you ahead.

Google has been in conversation with marketing agencies about Gemini ad formats since December 2025. The finger is on the button, ready to launch.

What are the pillars of trustworthy AI content?

Most AI content frameworks tell you to move fast and iterate.

But Greg Jarboe tells you to slow down. He laid out a framework for building content systems that don’t collapse under their own efficiency.

1) Strategy first, automation second: Many people treat AI like a vending machine. Drop in a vague prompt, get something passable back, ship it.

That produces the unremarkable generic content we all know.

Build a strategy before touching AI, then use it to execute at scale. Vague briefs produce fluff while structured briefs with clear guidelines produce something usable.

The evaluation step is where most teams fail.

2) Visceral storytelling: When anyone can generate a competent draft in 30 seconds, storytelling becomes the only real differentiator.

Emotion captures attention first. Logic only kicks in after. You only remember content that clears both gates. You cannot argue your way into someone’s brain.

“Our coffee shop uses high-quality beans sourced globally” is forgettable. But you can feel the “fuel that traveled 4,000 miles to keep you going.”

3) Multimodal optimization and the repurposing fallacy: Copy-pasting the same asset across platforms isn’t a distribution strategy. It’s lazy, and audiences feel it immediately.

TikTok rewards personality. LinkedIn rewards peer validation. Instagram is identity curation. Each platform has its own emotional language.

So, adapt the story’s core to each native format, don’t just post the same stuff everywhere.

4) Measuring what actually matters: Likes are visibility. Watch time, scroll depth, and repeat exposure are intent.

A user who watches 90% of a video without liking it beats someone who double-taps and scrolls on in two seconds.

Reframe metrics for leadership. “High watch time” is a platform stat. “We retained attention on a complex policy message” is a business result.

The fifth pillar on ethics, authenticity, and trust is just as important, but sadly, we’re all out of room. Read on here.

What do your agency clients hate the most?

They say patience is a virtue, but in the agency world, it’s apparently nonexistent.

If you want to keep your clients happy, you need to be fast, furious… and accurate:

Clients want it done, and they want it done yesterday and for cheaper:

• Speed of delivery annoys clients the most (37%)
• Budged overruns are a bit behind with 36%
• Ineffective communication is at third with 33%

Interestingly, poor creativity is low on the list (18%). So clients like the work agencies do, including yours, but they hate how long it takes and how much extra it costs.

What annoys clients the most? Speed of delivery, cited by 37% as the biggest challenge.

The modern client is impatient and budget-conscious. They will forgive a slightly less “perfect” creative output if it arrives on time and on budget.

Operational efficiency beats perfectionism here.

Fix it now: Review your internal approval processes. If a deliverable sits in “internal review” for 3 days, you are creating your own churn. Cut the red tape.

Budget overruns and slow delivery kill more agency relationships than bad ideas.

Pro delivers data on operational efficiency, scope management, and how to stop annoying your best clients. Get it for $349/year for your entire team (up to 10 people).