Meta is building on its WhatsApp messaging ad options, expanding opportunities for brands to show up in WhatsApp statuses after an initial introduction in June. Meta’s expansion of WhatsApp status ads creates a timely chance for brands to connect with consumers when they’re highly engaged, attentive, and seeking actionable solutions.

Meta announced new ad options at its Brand Building Summit, focused on Reels and innovative ad formats for Threads, per a blog post. While Meta’s new ad offerings promise more sophisticated placements, they can’t fully offset uncertainty. Marketers could face a scenario where the platform they’re relying on today could operate under massively different constraints tomorrow.

In-store product discovery still reigns supreme among US Hispanic shoppers. But their path to purchase is highly digital, influenced heavily by price comparison and social media videos.​

The news: Facebook is promoting its Pokes feature in an effort to increase user engagement. Pokes—a mainstay feature of the early Facebook experience—are regaining popularity, prompting Facebook to make it a more central part of the user experience, per TechCrunch. Users can now track their “Pokes count” with friends, essentially a streak, on top of a dedicated Poke button added to Facebook profiles. Our take: Meta relies on Facebook for the lion’s share of its ad revenues. While Pokes may seem to be a low-stakes experiment, re-engaging younger users is a high-stakes battle, and even small features can tip the balance if they create sticky user habits.

The news: OpenAI will acquire product-testing startup Statsig for $1.1 billion as it expands its applications division. Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji, formerly vice president and head of entertainment at Facebook, will join OpenAI as CTO of applications. OpenAI said the deal, pending regulatory approval, will help it develop “even better, more responsive experiences for the people and businesses we serve,” per a press release. Our take: This deal positions OpenAI to launch entirely new categories of AI-powered experiences—personalized content feeds, collaborative AI tools, or productivity suites.

This is the first installment of our annual “Canada Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our “Canada Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

If social media is a digital shopping mall, genAI assistants are personal shoppers. As AI gains ground, it could disrupt established social shopping behaviors.

Instagram launched a feature that allows college students to display their class schedule on their profiles in a bid to make inroads with young consumers—days after TikTok released a similar tool. By cherry picking successful formats on other social platforms like messaging, music sharing, stories, short-form video, and more, Instagram has established itself as a crucial social tool and entertainment platform for young users. Its college schedule launch could help cement influence with yet another generation of students.

A Precise TV study revealed key habits for younger Gen Z consumers ages 13 to 17—emphasizing that short-form and digital video are leading the way. YouTube Shorts and TikTok ads were major drivers of purchase decisions: 51% of Gen Z boys and 43% of girls made a purchase after watching YouTube Shorts ads, while 44% of boys and 41% of girls purchased after watching a TikTok ad. Gen Z’s digital buying power will only grow, and targeting younger Gen Z consumers will position brands for long-term growth—provided the right strategies are implemented.

The news: Meta and Midjourney formed a partnership to bring more image-generation tools to Facebook and Instagram. Meta is licensing Midjourney’s “aesthetic technology” for users and brands, Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang posted on Threads. He implied that the agreement may go past licensing and involve collaboration with Meta’s research teams to integrate Midjourney into future models and products. Our take: Brands should experiment with Midjourney to streamline content creation for Meta campaigns. However, they should also monitor outputs carefully for quality and copyright issues, especially considering Midjourney has faced allegations of IP misuse. Fast creation is only an advantage if it doesn’t trigger legal or reputational backlash.

The news: Meta’s new auto-translation feature for Reels could simplify global content sharing. The AI-powered translation tool can automatically dub and lip-sync Reels on Instagram and Facebook into other languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It’s available to Facebook creators with at least 1,000 followers and to all public Instagram accounts. Our take: Creators and brands should lean into short-form multilingual content to maximize audience reach and watch for engagement spikes in views in unexpected regions to identify new markets and audiences worth targeting.

Consumers in Japan have been slow to embrace digital technology, but they are gradually warming to it. Recent data shows consumers are changing their online shopping and media consumption behavior.

MS NOW rebrand targets broader news reach: MSNBC aims to scale beyond its niche as TV audiences fragment globally.

The news: Instagram is testing a feature that lets users select their favorite movies, books, TV shows, games, and music to encourage intentional sharing and discovery. The offering, called Picks, then surfaces overlapping interests between friends to drive engagement. It’s still an internal prototype and isn’t being tested externally yet. Our take: Effectiveness will depend on user adoption, stickiness, and whether shared Picks sparks meaningful interaction or is perceived as just another data-harvesting ploy. If Picks launches, brands should be ready to experiment with interest-based messaging but prepare to navigate privacy sensitivities.

CPM prices are rising YoY on every major social network in the US. But AI-driven ad products are helping advertisers see better outcomes, making it easier for them to justify the higher costs that come with more efficient targeting.

This report compares our 2025 US ad spending and time spent with media forecasts. It identifies incongruities between how marketers are spending ad dollars and where consumers are spending their time.

Some high-engagement platforms are still undermonetized—creating opportunities for advertisers to connect with audiences in less-saturated environments.

The news: 88% of mobile app ad spend is concentrated on Google and Meta, per Moloco’s Performance Through Independence report, despite high user engagement with independent apps. Advertisers who diversified their ad mix beyond the two Big Tech giants saw return on ad spend (ROAS) improve by up to 214%. Our take: Independent mobile apps offer untapped ROI. Reducing reliance on Google and Meta by diversifying mobile app spend could boost reach, hedge against platform risks, and better align with user behavior, especially as privacy challenges threaten to reshape targeting and measurement.

As the creator economy continues to expand, consumer attention is further fragmenting across a growing number of creators and platforms. But revenues are increasingly consolidating into top names, squeezing the long tail of creators and other creator economy stakeholders.