Apple bans ‘bad grammar’ in ads

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are taking their talents to the city of brotherly love:

↗️ META: $7.92 | ↘️ TIKTOK: $1.72 | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $8.68

In this week’s edition: 

• 🧠 Meta teases AI creative testing

•  AI disclosures are coming to Google 🔎

• 🍎 Apple bans ‘bad grammar’ in ads

But first…

⛔ Europe turns up the heat on kids and social media

This week, France banned children under 15 from using social media, becoming the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms. The bill also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools. French President Emmanuel Macron wants the law to take effect at the start of the new school year in September. However, a review to determine whether the bill complies with the French Constitution is likely to take place and could delay its implementation. In addition to questioning the bill’s constitutionality, opponents also argue that it would effectively end online anonymity and that it would be impossible to enforce.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, the U.K. government said it’s planning a default overnight ​curfew for people aged 16 and 17. This comes a month after it announced plans to introduce a sweeping ban on social media for people under 16.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta is teasing two new creative solutions: one to help inform creative strategy and the other to improve creative workflow. Both are not yet widely available but are planned to roll out in the coming months.

• Creative Strategy Solution combines an AI creative solution with creative reporting. The tool is reportedly able to identify and indicate what’s working, what’s fatiguing, and where there are opportunities. Meta intends the platform to use this information to help advertisers generate, scale, and test.

• Information on the improved creative approval workflow is scant, but Meta claims the new process aims to streamline feedback and alignment on creative modifications. While this is likely intended for review of AI assets, there is a potential that it will improve ad approval processes across Meta clients.

💸 Instagram users will have to pay in order to access future in-app AI tools. IG boss Adam Mosseri explained recently on Instagram Stories that Meta’s AI models are expensive to run, so if Instagram offers them for free they would have to cap how many times users can access them per day. “Eventually,” Mosseri wrote, “you’re going to be able to subscribe to be able to get access to more, we’re working on that right now.” 

🟢  Meta announced that you can now optimize lead campaigns for people who are going to fill out a form and start a conversation on WhatsApp. The addition is meant to increase lead quality for users who are more engaged, more qualified, and more likely to become customers. How to do it:

• Create a new campaign and select Leads as your campaign objective

• Under Conversion location, choose "Instant forms"

• Under Performance goal, select "Maximize number of qualified leads" and set Signal source to "Meta source"

• Connect your WhatsApp account or select one from the dropdown

• Complete the remaining sections as usual and publish your ad

🤖 Meanwhile, Meta is also rolling out lead capture using AI Agents for Instant forms. This can be found at both the ad level and the form creation level. The lead capture AI agent guides users through a conversational flow to collect instant form information.

• Meta decides whether to engage in an AI chat or show someone your instant form based on which experience is more likely to convert that lead.

• During the conversation, the agent can answer basic questions about your business using available details from your existing instant form and website. If the agent doesn’t have the answer, it will let the customer know and continue with the lead form questions.

• The interaction ends when the user submits the form or exits the chat.

📊 Advertisers can now optimize for a ROAS goal when optimizing to 'Maximize number of conversions' on Meta. Before this update, a ROAS goal was only available when maximizing the 'Value' of conversions.

💅 Pro Tip: Meta is releasing a new enhanced view of the custom audiences tab, which now groups audiences by label groups (see below).

• Audiences are folded into one of these categories: Customs, Engaged Audiences, Unlabeled Audiences, Lookalikes, and Saved Audiences.

• This is linked to recent change to value rules that allows advertisers to adjust bids based on custom audiences.

🔎 Google is adding AI disclosures to ads globally across Search, YouTube, and Discover. The new “How this ad was made” section will appear in My Ad Center.

📺 Google now allows advertisers to optimize reach and frequency across multiple YouTube campaigns. Long available in Google Ads, these features are now expanded to video campaign groups and will soon be brought to Display & Video 360 (DV360). The new capability:

• Simplifies workflow by setting a single reach or frequency goal across multiple campaigns, while maintaining individual campaign settings such as budget and creative.

• Optimizes performance and delivery across creatives to increase unique reach.

• Unifies reporting of core metrics across campaigns to better monitor an integrated strategy.

🧠 ChatGPT announced more updates to Ads, including:

• Overview tab (see screenshot below)

• Campaigns can now target users in Japan and South Korea.

👉  Late last month, ChatGPT began rolling out a refreshed static ad card format across web and mobile that is more compact and easier to read, with larger visual elements. Here’s a before-and-after comparison:

🖥️ ChatGPT is launching ChatGPT 5.6 and a new desktop app called ChatGPT Work—a response to Claude’s “CoWork” feature and desktop app—while shutting down its Atlas web browser. The new desktop app effectively serves as an 'Atlas Plus'—an AI workspace that automates document, file, and web-based tasks in the background using built-in AI tools, replacing the browser-specific integration found in Atlas.

🐦 X has completely rebuilt its Android app from scratch, which is designed to give Android users a better experience. This became a priority due to the increase in Android app downloads, and it will allow X to build new features faster. This app could also look to pull in new, or returning, global users as Android is the dominant smartphone platform.

🍎 Apple is moving forward in their plans to build Apple Maps advertising with a release of their advertising policy.

• This timing aligns with their previously announced Summer 2026 launch date for the US.

• The advertising policy shared a few key details regarding platform eligibility. This release ruled out use by many home service providers, crypto ATMs, bail bonds, and will assess medical services on a case-by-case basis.

• Oh, and per 1.6, bad grammar is prohibited 😆

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, Anoushka Madan, Mariya Samardzhieva, Sabina Saktaganova, Sims Wilson, Kiara Quigley, Lara Spijkerman, Kayleigh McDonald, Caitlin LaValle, and Carly Carioli.