10 Meta updates that will blow your mind

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are a wintry mix:

↗️ META: $7.74 | ↗️ TIKTOK: $4.38 | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $10.47

In this week’s edition: 

•  ♾️ These 10 Meta updates will blow your mind

• TikTok’s search numbers are insane 🔎

• 🧠 ChatGPT ads are coming to Criteo

But first…

Your attention, please: Social Media is still 👑

Yes, AI is the future. But not yet—at least on your phones. Looking at time spent on mobile apps year-over-year, social app usage increased by 108 billion hours in 2025, while GenAI use increased by only 30 billion hours. Still, the bots are coming on strong: time spent in AI assistant apps increased 425% worldwide year over year, and GenAI in-app purchase revenues spiked 254% to $4.33 billion.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta has been busy. Here’s 10 updates that you need to know right now: 

🛟 Starting this month, Facebook Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels will have the same safe zone. Keep important info and imagery out of the yellow zones. Additionally, on devices with screens taller than the 9:16 aspect ratio, Meta may 1) Zoom in on the creative to better fill the whole screen (which can crop areas outside the safe zone) or 2) Show the creative in its original 9:16 aspect ratio and use a black background to fill any extra space.

🚀 You can now boost 4x5 IG carousel posts (image and video) on IG placements. They are still getting cropped on FB Feed Placements, so those specs have not changed.

🧪 Creative testing is now 100% rolled out to all advertisers. When creating or editing an ad, click the “Set Up Test” button to design a creative test that balances delivery evenly between up to five creatives to ensure a fair comparison. After the test, you can continue running high performing creatives in the same evergreen campaign, without resetting learnings.

🧲 Meta is rolling out two key changes to attribution reporting this month:

• Meta is narrowing its definition of click-through attribution. Going forward, only link clicks — not likes, shares, saves or other interactions — will count toward click-through attribution. This is expected to reduce discrepancies between Meta Ads Manager and third-party tools like Google Analytics.

• Conversions previously attributed to non-link engagements will now fall under “engage-through attribution” (formerly known as engaged-view attribution). Among those engagements is the engaged view, which Meta is now shortening from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, as Meta notes that 46% of Reels purchase conversions happen within the first two seconds.

🎯 Meta is transitioning from Nielsen DMAs to Comscore Markets for geo-based targeting & reporting. On April 20, 2026, it will no longer be possible to create new campaigns with Nielsen DMA targeting. On June 22, 2026, Nielsen’s DMAs will be removed from all Meta targeting and reporting, and existing campaigns using the Nielsen DMAs will stop delivering. Need the naming conventions? We got you.  

⬆️ Quality lead optimization is now available for website lead gen campaigns. With this update you can drive high-quality leads to your website by using “Maximize number of conversion leads” as your performance goal. Use your CAPI-CRM, CAPI-Web, and/or Meta Pixel events to improve lead quality by optimizing for the lower-funnel actions users take on your website.

🎠 Enabling single image or video to carousel using your product catalog media allows Meta to convert a single media ad into a carousel ad. Meta will automatically choose to deliver either the original single media ad, a carousel ad combining your uploaded media with product catalog media, or a carousel ad using only product catalog media.

• This feature will be ON by default for advertisers who have Products enabled in the Creative setup modal, with the option to edit and opt out of selections at any time. 

🖼️ Meta has rolled out Image touch-ups to Advantage+ catalog ads. All new Advantage+ catalog carousel and single image ads are automatically opted into Image touch-ups. Existing ads are not impacted by these changes. To opt out, turn the Image touch-ups toggle “off” during ad creation.

🧵 There is more flexibility with how your ads appear on Threads, including 4:5 rendering for single image and video ads, carousel ads, Advantage+ catalog ads, and app ads campaigns. If you don’t have a Threads account, you can still run ads on Threads using your Instagram account or Facebook Page.

🛠️ Meta is testing tools like “Product Set Optimization” to let retail media networks optimize campaigns at the SKU level, addressing limitations in Meta’s algorithms that were built primarily for single-brand advertisers. New “Product insights” will then measure these ads' performance, finally linking specific purchases back to the exact brand or SKU featured.

⏰ TikTok is cranking up the search volume. A new Adobe study finds that nearly half of U.S consumers now use TikTok as a search engine, a figure that has increased by almost 20% over the past two years. However, Google, Reddit, ChatGPT, and YouTube remain more helpful.

💼 LinkedIn is beta-testing Premiere Video Ads (formally called First Impression Ads), which offer high-impact, vertical video designed to maximize brand awareness. Call us if you’re interested. 

🏋️ Brand Lift measurement on LinkedIn has moved from a single‑view, first‑touch model to industry‑standard multi‑touch attribution, delivering a more accurate view of impact across Feed, CTV, and LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN).

🐦 X has introduced two new in-stream ad aspect ratios (4:5 and 2:3), expanding beyond its existing formats (1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 1.91:1). Why we care? This update allows advertisers to reuse high-performing creative from other platforms.

In January, we reported that a paid partnership tag had been spotted in X’s backend code. This week, X official introduced a new paid partnership label that lets creators disclose sponsored content directly within posts, replacing the need for manual disclosures like #ad.

🧠 ChatGPT is partnering with Criteo, which will become the first adtech firm to sell ChatGPT ads. 

• According to Criteo, data from 500 U.S. retailers shows shoppers are 1.5x more likely to make a purchase when referred to a retailer’s website from a chatbot.

• Criteo confirms that OpenAI will be enabled as an inventory source across GO campaigns. That said, the integration is still in its early stages, so we do not yet have clear visibility into how much delivery or spend individual advertisers will see at launch.

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next week to fill your inbox with more tips, tricks, and treats from the addressable universe.

In the meantime, stay up to date with the latest performance marketing intelligence by following us on Linkedin, Instagram, and X.

This week’s edition of the Thread was created by Jess Dashner, Caitlin LaValle, Anoushka Madan, Sabina Saktaganova, Mariya Samardzhieva, Kiara Quigley, Lara Spijkerman, and Carly Carioli.