Meta’s Silent Update

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🚨 Meta’s Silent Update Just Changed Everything About Ad Reporting

No emails. No banners. No hype.

But Meta quietly dropped a new metric that could expose fake ROAS and flawed campaigns overnight: 

Incremental Attribution: It doesn’t tell you who clicked. It tells you who bought because of your ad—not just who happened to buy after seeing it.

Old vs New Thinking

Old: “Our ad drove 500 conversions this week!”

New: “Only 120 of those were truly because of the ad. The rest would’ve bought anyway.”

That gap? It’s what incremental attribution reveals.

What Incremental Attribution Measures

✅ People who bought because of your ad

❌ People who would’ve bought anyway (returning customers, brand-aware users)

❌ View-through conversions that never interacted

It’s a measure of true lift, not just activity.

Why This Matters for DTC Brands

Here’s what Incremental Attribution uncovers:

• Overhyped retargeting – You’re likely paying to re-convert customers who were coming back anyway.
• Bloated view-through results – 1-day views may be showing, but not driving anything.
• Agency padding – Some agencies are using inflated attribution to hide poor prospecting performance. That’s over.

What You Should Do This Week

1. Find It in Ads Manager: Ads Reporting → Customize Columns → Add “Incremental Results”
2. Compare vs 7dc1dv: If your “Incremental Conversions” are less than half your reported conversions, your real growth is way lower than you thought.
3. Shift Your Targeting: Go beyond your loyal base. Focus on net-new buyers to drive real growth. Exclude returning customers from performance campaigns, they already know you.
4. Adjust Your Success Metrics: ROAS isn’t the full picture. Start tracking Incremental CPA and Net-New Conversion Rate to measure true growth impact.

Bottom Line

This one metric tells you the only thing that matters in paid growth: “Did this ad actually create a new customer?” Now, thanks to Meta’s update—you can stop guessing. And start scaling based on truth.

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🧵 Threads Hits 350M Users, LinkedIn Claims Record Engagement Again

Threads is rapidly gaining ground with 350 million monthly users, while LinkedIn continues its streak of vague “record engagement” claims. Meta’s app is pushing hard to position itself as the alternative to X, and LinkedIn is leaning into AI tools and video content to stay sticky. 

The Breakdown:

1. Threads Hits 350M MAUs - Threads now boasts over 350 million monthly active users and has seen a 35% jump in time spent. Meta attributes the growth to improvements in its recommendation systems. It’s also making a strong push into live sports content via a UFC partnership.

2. X’s User Numbers Raise Doubts - X claims 600 million MAUs, but analysts question its accuracy due to past bot issues. Elon Musk previously said up to 33% of users were bots, yet post-purge, usage numbers rose. Threads may be closer to X than reported.

3. LinkedIn Reports 9% Session Growth - Microsoft again reported “record engagement” for LinkedIn, with 9% session growth this quarter. That’s down from 11% growth last year, suggesting slowing momentum. Revenue rose 7% YoY, but Microsoft doesn’t disclose MAUs directly.

4. Real LinkedIn Usage Likely ~300M MAUs - Based on EU data, only 28% of LinkedIn’s 1B members are active monthly, suggesting ~280–300M MAUs. Video watch time is up 36%, and comments rose 32% YoY. AI-powered coaching usage doubled, and Premium Page sign-ups jumped 75%.

Threads is gaining momentum with real growth metrics and Meta’s distribution muscle. LinkedIn is still valuable for B2B, but marketers should be cautious when interpreting its performance without clearer data. 

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🎲 Zuckerberg says AI bot profiles will soon enable users to talk, interact, and even build relationships within Meta apps, aiming to fill connection gaps as the average American has under three close friends.

🔤 Pinterest has officially launched “AI-modified” tags on all AI-generated or AI-edited images, using detection tools and metadata analysis, while also adding a “see fewer” option to reduce such content in-stream.

👾 41% of advertisers cut media spend due to poor performance, matching those citing brand safety concerns. Meanwhile, support for credible journalism dropped from 66% to 55% year-over-year amid shifting priorities.

🧵 TikTok now lets brands run Promote ads that drive DMs to WhatsApp, Messenger, LINE, or Zalo instead of TikTok inboxes, expanding lead gen options across preferred messaging platforms.

🧠 YouTube has updated its CTV app with quick links to top channels, recent searches, and a Shorts shelf, while mobile creators get new upload progress displays and stylized captions for Shorts.

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