Is Spotify’s skip-ahead an adblocker for podcasts?

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are in the heat dome:

↘️ META: $9.12 | ↗️ TIKTOK: $1.80 | ↗️ SNAPCHAT: $9.52

In this week’s edition: 

•  ♾️ Use this new Meta optimization to viralmaxx your ads

•  Ad-ception? Google is testing clickable rich-text links…in search ad descriptions 🔎

• 👻 Snapchat takes on AI Slop

But first…

🔇 Is Spotify’s “skip-ahead” an adblocker for podcasts?

Spotify is reportedly testing a new "Skip Ahead” feature that enables Premium subscribers to bypass embedded podcast ad breaks more easily and return directly to the episode content, even when the ad is placed mid-roll. According to PodNews, here’s how the feature works: “a ‘skip ahead’ button appears on-screen as soon as an ad-break starts. Just one tap moves a listener ahead to the beginning of the next section, after the ads have finished.” PodNews claims to have seen the button on shows produced by Spotify competitors including Acast, Audacy, and the New York Times—but also on at least one of Spotify’s own premium shows. 

How big a shift would this be? Spotify’s default experience already allows listeners to skip ahead in 15-second intervals, but does not pro-actively prompt them to do so when an ad shows up. The new test would seem to be a shot over the bow at some of podcasting’s most valuable ad units, including embedded host-read ads. So why would Spotify risk alienating podcast creators? The leading theory is that it aligns with the Spotify Premium value proposition of an ad-free listening experience—but it would risk introducing big challenges for advertisers relying on these placements, since it would reduce ad exposure and complicate overall performance measurement. Stay tuned.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

♾️ Meta is rolling out an update on the Post Engagement performance goal to "Maximize Interactions," which now optimizes for likes and reactions, comments, shares, and saves. This focuses your campaigns on high-intent actions that drive virality and earned reach. (Don’t worry, Meta—we’ve only been calculating this metric ourselves for years as “High Value Engagements.”) The Interactions optimization applies to new campaigns going forward. If you currently use Post Engagement to optimize for actions besides the 4 above, they recommend adjusting your new campaigns to optimize towards the following:

• For link clicks → use Landing Page Views under Traffic objective

• For Instagram profile visits → use Instagram Profile Visits under Traffic objective

• For 3-second video plays → use ThruPlay or 2-Second Continuous Video Views under Awareness objective

🩼 Is Instagram turning into an old-folks home? Not quite yet. But according to a July report from Comscore, adults ages 18 to 24 make up just 12.7% of US unique visitors to Instagram, barely ahead of the 65+ crowd at 12.2%. Let’s break down the demographics:

• The youngs are getting outnumbered, even though a greater percentage of the demo is on the platform. Instagram is the choice 22% of 12- to 34-year-olds use most often, compared with just 16% of 35- to 54-year-olds, and 9% of those 55 and older, according to Edison Research and SiriusXM Media.

• They’re also on their phones more. According to EMARKETER, Gen Z social media users ages 18 to 24 spend roughly 1.6 times more time on Instagram than total users do.

💬 Messenger stories are being phased out; advertisers with existing placements should expect to stop spending there by August 27th.

🎯 Meta just expanded the Leads objective with a brand-new performance goal: "Maximize number of qualified leads." Instead of just optimizing for raw volume, Meta can now also leverage your CRM and website event data to learn what a “high quality" lead looks like for your specific business. Meta’s internal testing showed a 9.5% lower cost per quality lead compared to the standard "Maximize number of leads" goal.

🛜 Speaking of lead gen, Meta just introduced Microsoft Excel Direct Integration for Lead Retrieval. Advertisers can now connect their lead gen forms directly to Microsoft Excel, no third-party tools needed. Leads are sent to the workbook they already use, making it easier to store, manage, and follow up in one place.

💻 Meta is expanding their “interactive experiences” to include additional ad sources, such as website highlights, website screenshots, app store details, products, and website forms. You'll also see a feature called “Reveal details over time,” which uses website highlights to encourage users to continue engaging with your ad. Here’s what we know: 

• You can enable or disable each feature.

• This is expected to roll out “over the coming weeks.”

• Live previews are available so you can see how each feature will appear in your ads before publishing.

💅 Pro tip: Ever noticed that some of your Meta custom audiences don’t appear to be updating automatically even when dynamic integrations are in place (example: Salesforce’s native Meta connector)? Meta reps confirmed to us that automatic syncs pushed through these connectors may not always display the “last upload date” timestamp that's visible in the Audiences UI, even though the underlying audience membership is actually being refreshed. This is because when an audience is shared from one Business Manager to another, the receiving account typically has limited visibility into the upload/sync history of the source audience. Act accordingly.

🔎 Google appears to be testing a new Search ads format that adds clickable, keyword-rich hyperlinks within ad descriptions. It seems that Google is dynamically selecting which text to hyperlink based on a user’s search intent, although Google has not confirmed how the feature works or whether it will expand beyond the current test.

📺 Google has launched a Beta for Premium CTV packages, which support 15s or 30s videos. Here’s what it looks like:

💅Pro Tip: If you run an ad account with restrictions under “Other Restricted Businesses: Government Documents and Services,” pay attention: Google is updating their policies for this restriction, effective October 5, 2026. This policy update strictly regulates who can advertise the acquisition of administrative government documents (such as passports, visas, or driver's licenses) and services.

🚨Buyer Beware: users have seen AI-generated descriptions appearing beneath product ads. This follows close on the heels of sightings in early July of AI-generated descriptions beneath sponsored search ads). With no announced rollout from Google, it’s unclear (when and where and) what control advertisers have over this placement. Might be time to QA and clean up your product feeds just in case.

⏰ TikTok has integrated an AI model from its parent company ByteDance to help generate better quality video clips, designed specifically for the TikTok audience. Advertisers can generate 30-second clips versus the previous 15-second clips:

• The good news: Advertisers will also be able to upload up to 50 multi-modal references (image, video, and audio), significantly expanding the capacity to guide AI video generation (the previous limit was 9 references).

• Buyer beware: We’re all on the lookout for consumer backlash, given the audience’s desire for less AI-generated content in their feeds. 

🧪 We just got an inside look at TikTok’s new Multi-Link feature. Here’s the state of play:  

• Supports up to 3 tappable card icons that can link out to different landing pages, in addition to the typical CTA button.

• Last we heard, this was available for the Traffic objective only.

• This will appear as an option in existing published campaigns. You’ll need to create a new campaign to see it.

• These won’t interfere with the caption copy’s usual character limits and the usual safe zones should be observed.

• This option will appear at ad creation as a “Use additional destination links” toggle.

👻 Snapchat claims to have updated its recommendation systems this week to better reward authentic, human-made content. According to Snapchat, as of this month and going forward, wholly AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation on Spotlight. 

📌 Pinterest wants you to fire up your holiday marketing campaigns…now. The platform notes that festive planning on the platform begins as early as September. Their research suggests an always-on, full-funnel approach helps advertisers reach high-intent shoppers earlier in their decision-making process, with brands that stay active throughout the season seeing stronger incremental returns than those relying on a late Q4 push. Best practices:

• Test AI-powered Performance+ campaigns, which have delivered a 28% improvement in ROAS during testing for SMB advertisers. 

• Use back-to-school and Halloween campaigns to test creative before the holiday rush, launch festive campaigns between September and November, and continue advertising after Christmas, since 55% of weekly Pinterest users continue shopping between Christmas and New Year's Day.

📦 Amazon is launching a closed-beta test aimed at making inventory more accessible to local advertisers. Next week, it will debut a dedicated ad slot in Prime Video VOD that’s reserved exclusively for local advertisers in the top 20 U.S. DMAs, including Boston, NYC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. This incremental supply means that local advertisers won’t compete against national brands for these 30-second spots. (If you’re interested, give us a shout.)

🐦 X is rolling out Lead Gen ads. Launch date is still TBD, but screenshots are leaking. Soon, advertisers will be able to guide users directly to pre-filled forms containing name, email, and custom fields, making the process of capturing leads seamless and low-friction for the end user.

🎸Myspace is coming back?! Co-owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook have announced plans to relaunch the OG in a recent documentary. Left behind during the rise of Facebook, the owners remain committed to a revival. "We’re just waiting for the right time to do it,” Tim said, “And if that one doesn’t work, we’ll do it again." The owners have not announced a potential relaunch date.

🏈 Thinking about a Super Bowl ad for next year? Don’t bother: Disney announced this week that the inventory for 2027’s Big Game is officially sold out. The announcement comes a month earlier than NBCUniversal’s sellout announcement last year.

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.