Meta
- Multiple choice questions
- Optimize for conversions on site and in form at the same time
- Turn off autofill (no more old contact data?)
- SMS verification
- Form layout optimized to each user
- Promo codes
- Custom events based on post-form fill actions that signal a quality lead
- Change who performs the action
- “Changing who performs the action is rarely about targeting. Impact the people you attract with your ad copy, creative, and offer. Create form questions that apply to your ideal lead. You might even use conditional logic to kick out people who don’t qualify.”
- Question quality
- consider open-ended questions that aren’t easily answered with a yes/no or checkbox
- add conditional questions
- Optimize Landing Page > Confirmation Page > Outreach flow
- A bit on Conversion Leads optimization
- “When this is selected, Meta’s focus will be on finding people who perform other goal actions after submitting your form. To do this, you first need to define your funnel for Meta, which can be a long, frustrating process.”
- A bit on form types
- “More Volume” will be the most streamlined, making it as easy as possible to complete the form with the fewest steps.
- “Higher Intent” will require an additional confirmation step. While the difference may not be significant, it can impact quality.
- “Rich Creative” allows you to add more information to your form like social proof, incentives, and a product feed.
Reports of Instagram’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Meta’s various apps are the closest we have the US to everything apps. The feature sets are deep enough that people can use them in different ways.
in multiple interviews with 15- to 26-year-olds, Gen Z people, they said that they used Instagram to keep in touch with friends, scope out crushes, build businesses, and pour over cooking videos. But out of all of its features, they seemed least interested in the polished public photo feed that had once been Instagram’s marquee offering.
But Instagram (and TikTok) aren’t social networks, they’re social media
it feels more comfortable to post on TikTok than it does on Instagram. And I think that’s a common narrative and sentiment that we hear all the time. But I think the reality is that most people, young people in particular, don’t really feel comfortable posting anywhere at this point
Instagram is a mix of entertainment, inbox (DMs as the new email), and search. At least for younger users.
What does this mean for how brands use Instagram?
The traditional feed is certainly easiest for most. But how much are people engaging with this “legacy” feature.
On-platform search plus Google indexing posts for off-platform search means the Instagram feed is more like Pinterest than TikTok. A visual microblog.
Zuck’s dream of fully automated ad platform is starting to come true
Meta said that nearly two million advertisers are now using GenAI video generation tools. That’s about 20% of Meta’s entire advertiser base based on the latest available estimates.
I do think it was really telling that Zuckerberg was careful to say that these tools are the most valuable for small and medium-sized businesses and that agencies will continue to play an important role with big brands.
This will continue to bifurcate between those with big budgets and those without.
via Jasmine Enberg on Behind the Numbers
👓
Al glasses gained further traction in the first half of the year, with Ray-Ban Meta more than tripling in revenue year-over-year.
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Following the category-defining success of Ray-Ban Meta, the #1 selling Al glasses in the world which had sold millions of units since launch…
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the insatiable demand for Ray-Ban Meta
Meta is mentioned 32 times in this eyewear company’s earnings report.
Oakley and Prada versions are next.
Is Zuck’s hardware platform dream being realized? Smart glasses remain my bet for the next consumer computing shift.
via Luxottica earnings report (PDF)
Zuckerberg isn’t just saying the quiet part out loud, he’s saying it a lot.
we’re going to get to a point where you’re a business, you come to us, you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account, you don’t need any creative, you don’t need any targeting demographic, you don’t need any measurement, except to be able to read the results that we spit out. I think that’s going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising.
Probability is high that this approach becomes very successful. The value of the human hand will also increase.
via The Verge
In the garden, dig a $100 hole for a $10 plant.
Gardening is a great metaphor for marketing.
from Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly 📚
Listening to my morning Celtics podcast when host John Karalis uses the example of leaving a party as a metaphor:
You know when you’re getting ready to leave a party and you start looking at your watch and you’re like “ok, I’m going to start looking for the opening here”. And unless somebody comes along and hits you with a great story, unless somebody comes along and hooks you to stick around…you’re going…
That’s everyone on the internet scrolling and clicking.
They’re constantly leaving the piece of content in front of them until it hooks them.
You have to hit them with the great story.
It appears Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns will be dead early next year.
Start building your Advantage+ Sales Campaigns now and let them run alongside until you’re ready to pivot on your timeline.
Meta is growing its smart glasses lineup 🕶️
Another name brand partnership, this time geared towards a different consumer. Clearly there is revenue here.
Like the existing Meta Ray-Ban glasses, the Oakley model features a front-facing camera, along with open-ear speakers and microphones that are built into the frame. After they are paired with a phone, the glasses can be used to listen to music or podcasts, conduct phone calls, or chat with Meta AI. By utilizing the onboard camera and microphones, Meta AI can also answer questions about what someone is seeing and even translate languages.
Turns out Meta is like X and LinkedIn, it doesn’t want your links in the main post.
Users have reported seeing the following message when preparing to post a link in Facebook page posts:
Maybe that means that you should be including all of your post links in the first comment, and an image in the main post, which is what many high-performing publishers on Facebook are currently doing.
If you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t a surprise
Using the ad tools Meta is developing, a brand could present an image of the product it wants to promote along with a budgetary goal, and AI would create the entire ad, including imagery, video and text. The system would then decide which Instagram and Facebook users to target and offer suggestions on budget
Meta also plans to enable advertisers to personalize ads using AI, so that users see different versions of the same ad in real time, based on factors such as geolocation
Are artisanal, hand crafted ads the future zig?
via WSJ
Loomer on Lead Forms
Jon Loomer has been writing a lot about Meta Instant Forms lately, so here’s a round up of recent test features and ideas on improving lead quality.
Recent updates / tests:
How to improve quality (list of 16 ideas):
How will marketers react to uncertainty (thanks tariffs!)?
According to EMARKETERS Zach Goldner:
I think what marketers are going to do is what they always do during turbulent times.
Clamp down more on experimental spending
Reallocate more toward safer bets, like search > Lean more into the triopoly: Google, Meta, and Amazon
A Chinese pullback should lead to lower CPMs but be brave
Zig to the above zag
Now is the time for brand building and experimentation
You can set brand guidelines in Meta Ads Manager to help steer / personalize the AI to your brand for more on-brand generative options.
Another clear step towards less direct input from marketers and more genAI in the ads platform (and everywhere else) a.k.a. Zuck’s dream.
From Meta:
we are expanding ads in Threads to all eligible advertisers globally, as well as access to inventory filter. This new placement—Threads feed—will be on by default for new campaigns using either Advantage+ or Manual Placements. Advertisers have the option to opt out of Threads feed via Manual Placements.
Meta is adding a deluxe version of its smart glasses this year, likely trying to keep its lead.
plans to include hand-gesture controls and a screen for displaying photos and apps
The screen is limited—just a corner of one lens—but v2 is already in the works with both lenses getting in on the party.
App focus sounds like pics + maps + notifications. Handy first gen mix for a heads up display.
Who knows how tariffs impact the timeline (and already hefty price tag), but on-lens display is the next big step and true test for AR/smart glasses (and I’m bullish).
Sunday Paper: Is It Better To Have Many Short Impressions, Or A Few Long Ones – What Science Says About Advertising Length And Frequency
The optimal length for typical video ads is around 10 seconds, while atypical ads may require 20 to 70 seconds for better recognition and engagement.
TechCrunch shares that a social media tester found:
a “Write with Meta AI” prompt on Instagram that allows people to get AI-generated suggestions for comments to users’ posts.
(This is known as “pulling a LinkedIn”)
Content creation and engagement on social platforms has shrunk as they’ve turned more into entertainment and social sharing platforms.
But they need content and signal to feed algorithms and extend scroll sessions.
Minimize the effort to dopamine release.
How long until a platform delivers real-time content generation and social-style commentary via AI?
Display is dying
Returns on programmatic ad auctions are returning so little, Digiday could not find a source to speak on the record. One anonymous revenue lead at a North American publisher says they’ve seen double-digit CPM decreases across the board in 2025. An executive says online display ads bought through auction in the fall are down as much as 30% compared to 2023’s Q4
AI (and other algorithms) + the growth of retail media (thanks 1st party data) + longstanding wariness around programmatic = growth of more attractive (or hyped) alternatives for marketers
Meta changed the default inventory filter setting to allow ads to deliver alongside all content:
Beginning on February 24, 2025, we’re gradually changing the default setting of inventory filters for in-content ads and Audience Network to expanded
Now would be a good time to check your settings if you’re particular about what content your ads appear within / next to.
via Jon Loomer