How is it that January has ALREADY come and gone? And with it, there’s been a flurry of AI-powered tweaks and ad platform pivots, and some of them will directly shape how your clients find and trust you online. From Instagram giving users more control over the Reels algorithm to Google sunsetting call-only ads, these are not background updates, they are decisions that can quietly reshape your pipeline.

In this month’s wrap-up, we will break down what actually matters for you and where to double down for sustainable growth in 2026. Ready to future-proof your marketing without rebuilding everything from scratch? Well, let’s dive on in!

📍What’s new with Meta?

🔥 AI-powered lead gen gets a serious upgrade

Meta is pushing harder into AI-driven lead generation, and this matters if you rely on Facebook and Instagram ads to fill your enquiry list. Their latest update expands Advantage+ leads campaigns globally, lets you optimise one campaign for both instant forms and website forms, and adds stricter verification options like SMS confirmation and corporate email fields. The goal is simple. Fewer junk leads, more qualified conversations, and less manual tinkering inside Ads Manager.

Key features:

• Advantage+ leads go global: Meta’s AI can now automatically optimise targeting, placements and budgets to find people most likely to convert, which has already driven lower cost per lead and cost per qualified lead in early results. For professional services, this is ideal if your team is small, your time is limited and you want the algorithm to do more heavy lifting!
• One campaign for instant forms and website leads: Instead of splitting your budget between “fast” instant forms and more considered website forms, Meta can serve whichever experience fits the user. Think of it as meeting both your “just want to chat” prospects and your “send me all the details” clients in one smart campaign.
• Stronger verification to filter “time-wasters”: Options like SMS verification and corporate email requirements add friction for bots and casual tyre-kickers but keep the path smooth for genuine prospects. If your sales team is tired of chasing fake numbers, this is a welcome shift

Strategically, this is very aligned with how we like to run Meta campaigns for service brands. We care more about fewer, better quality leads than inflated metrics that keep your calendar busy but your revenue flat. If you treat Meta as a volume faucet, this is your nudge to pivot into quality and nurture!

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Meta in January 2026:

• “Interactions” replace “Post Engagement” as the default goal in some engagement campaigns:
  When you choose the Engagement objective with “on your ad” as the conversion location, the default performance goal is now Interactions, which focuses on reactions, comments, shares and saves, not low-intent views or clicks. Expect lower volumes but more meaningful actions.
• Meta Business AI assistants for websites and ads: Meta’s new Business AI lets you create an AI assistant that answers product questions and supports customers on your site and inside Meta ads. Helpful if you field a lot of repetitive enquiries, but only worth exploring once your core messaging and FAQ’s are rock-solid.
• AI Support Hub on Facebook and Instagram: A new centralised support hub promises faster, AI-assisted help for account and security issues. This update is not too glamorous, but it matters when you remember how many businesses have lost revenue to locked or hacked accounts.
• Reels recommendations refined: Meta has shared how it is improving Reels recommendations to surface more engaging, relevant content. For you, this reinforces the importance of consistent, watchable short-form over occasional one-off posts.

Want to build a smarter ads funnel? Our team is helping service‑based clients refine their conversion tracking and creative for Meta’s Ads AI new model, while maintaining real human input and oversight. Book a call to make the most of Paid Ads.

📍What’s new with Instagram?

🔥 Manual Reels algorithm controls arrive for English users

Instagram is rolling out its “Your Algorithm” controls to all English-speaking users, including Australia. Inside the Reels feed, people can tap a slider icon and manually choose topics they want to see more of, or remove ones they are tired of. It is not a magic switch, but it does give users the sense of shaping their own feed rather than being entirely at the mercy of the algorithm.

From a professional services perspective, this nudges your content toward clearer positioning. If users are able to actively signal, for example, “I want more legal explainers” or “I want less generic business content”, the brands that win attention will be those with distinct, genuinely helpful niches, not bland, catch-all advice.

Key features:

• The controls: Will live in the Reels feed via the slider icon, where users can add or remove interest topics.
• Content previews: People can preview example videos that match each category, which helps them understand what they are opting into.
• Meta acknowledges: Most users may not bother to tweak settings, but for those who do, relevance will matter even more.

In practice, that means your Reels should lean into clear, human-centred topics. “5 things to check in your commercial lease this year” will travel MUCH further than “Business tips 2026”. You want to be the account users actively choose to see, not just tolerate in the scroll!

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Instagram in January 2026:

• Reels powered by improved Meta recommendations: Behind the scenes, Instagram continues to lean on AI to drive Reels engagement, which makes your short-form strategy more important than ever if you want reach beyond your current followers.

👀 Tests Spotted on Instagram in January 2026:

• “Friends” replacing “Following”: Instagram is testing a shift from “Following” to “Friends” in the profile header. This is a small language change but nudges the platform toward a more relational feel, which may subtly shape user expectations around authenticity and connection. For professional brands, this supports human-led content and faces-to-name storytelling.

Want to start stopping the scroll, and engaging meaningfully with your audience? Our team is here to help you create and share content, respecting both your time and your audience. Let’s talk.

📍What’s new with Google?

🔥 Call-only ads are being deprecated in February

If you rely on call-only Google Ads to drive phone enquiries, this is the one to pay attention to. Google has confirmed that call ads are being deprecated and replaced by call assets attached to responsive search ads.

Dates to know:

• From February 2026, you will not be able to create new call-only ads.
• From February 2027, existing call-only ads will stop receiving impressions altogether.

Instead, Google wants you to run responsive search ads with call assets, letting its AI match the right ad copy to the right search while still surfacing your phone number prominently for call-driven leads.

What this means for service businesses:

• If phone calls are a key conversion for your business, you need a migration plan, not a last-minute scramble in early 2027!
• Responsive search ads give you more flexibility to test positioning, but they also demand better input. Weak headlines in an AI-powered format will not magically convert.
• This is also a chance to sanity-check whether every call should be your primary goal, or whether some users would be better served by a form, booking page or lead magnet first.

This transition guide walks you through adding business information, setting up call assets, and then editing or replacing your responsive search ads. Think of it as swapping a single-purpose tap for a more sophisticated system that can handle both calls and clicks!

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Google in January 2026:

• Campaign total budgets in Search, Performance Max and Shopping: You can now set a total budget for the lifetime of a campaign, which Google then paces automatically. This is handy for fixed-budget promotions or tests, but keep an eye on performance so you are not underfunding later-stage opportunities.
• AI-powered comparisons in Google Trends: Google Trends now suggests comparison terms, powered by Gemini, and lets you compare more queries at once with richer rising-query data. Great for content planning, keyword discovery and understanding how your niche stacks up against adjacent topics.
• Veo 3.1: vertical AI video and upscaling: Google’s Veo can now create videos from still images, generate native vertical 9:16 clips and upscale to 4K, which is useful if you want basic product or explainer clips without filming days. Just remember AI cannot fix a weak message.
• Gmail enters the Gemini era: Gmail is rolling out AI Overviews, Help Me Write, Suggested Replies and Proofread features to help you manage and compose emails faster. Helpful for busy teams drowning in enquiries, as long as you still apply your brand voice before hitting send.

Want to upgrade your Google campaigns? We can design and test demand‑gen assets that resonate with your ideal clients. Get in touch for a bespoke strategy.

📍What’s new with Pinterest?

🔥 Pinterest has a new Media Planner for smarter Ad campaign planning

Pinterest has launched a Media Planner inside its Ads Manager, giving you one place to plan and model upper-funnel campaigns without exporting data into spreadsheets. It is not just a pretty dashboard, it is a practical planning tool for brands that use Pinterest to plant seeds early in the buyer journey.

Key features:

• Explore audiences: Discover and size high-value audiences based on demographics, interests and keyword affinities. Ideal if you work in visually-driven services like interiors, wellness, events or design and want to see where your niche sits in the platform ecosystem.
• Estimate opportunities: Preview impressions, reach, frequency, clicks and CPC across different budget levels and countries. That makes it easier to justify budgets internally and avoid guesswork.
• Model scenarios: Compare multiple flights, budgets and audience setups so you can stress-test “what if we…” questions before your campaign is live. Very helpful for conservative spenders who want to understand risk before investing!

For most professional service brands, Pinterest is not your first channel. However, for lifestyle-adjacent services or brands with strong visual IP, Media Planner gives you more control and clarity, which is exactly what we want when we recommend expanding beyond Meta and Google.

📔 Other noteworthy updates from Pinterest in January 2026:

• Trending colours for 2026: Pinterest’s “Pinterest Palette” report highlights five colours predicted to dominate in 2026, from cool blue to persimmon. You do not need to rebrand, but borrowing these tones in campaign creative could give your content a subtle edge in attention and engagement.

📍What’s new with TikTok?

🔥 TikTok has shared their 2026 trend predictions to guide your content

TikTok’s “TikTok Next” report sets out three key behavioural trends it believes will drive engagement in 2026. At first glance it reads a bit like brand poetry, but underneath there is useful direction for how service businesses should show up.

The three trends are:

1. Reali-TEA: Real, unpolished experiences beat curated perfection.
2. Curiosity Detours: Niche rabbit holes and side interests are where loyal communities form.
3. Emotional ROI: People want clarity on how your product or service improves their life, not just a list of features.

For your service brand, this could look like:

1. Ditching overly scripted content: In favour of real client stories, behind-the-scenes decision making and “here is how we actually think about this problem” education.
2. Leaning into niche subtopics: For example “family law for business owners” or “marketing for specialist clinics”, instead of trying to appeal to everyone.
3. Framing your services in terms of emotional outcomes: Like peace of mind, confidence and time freedom, not just documents, sessions or hours billed.

📔 Other noteworthy updates from TikTok in January 2026:

• Regional 2026 event calendars: TikTok’s new regional marketing calendars highlight key cultural dates and suggest ad tools to match, which can help you time campaigns and creative around moments that already have audience attention.
• More control in Smart+ Ad campaigns: New options like auto-select creatives, full previews, duplication and draft mode give advertisers more levers to pull inside AI-run Smart+ campaigns. Good news if you love the efficiency of automation but still want oversight.

📍What’s new with LinkedIn?

🔥 AI-assisted brand ads and premium placements

LinkedIn has rolled out several tools designed to help B2B and professional service brands build stronger awareness without drowning in manual campaign setup. The headline features are Reserved Ads for priority feed placement, AI-generated ad copy variants and dynamic personalisation based on member profile data.

Key features:

• Reserved Ads: Secure the first ad slot in the feed on specific days. This is powerful for launches, events or major thought leadership pieces where you want reliable reach among a defined professional audience. Access is limited to managed accounts for now.
• Ad personalisation: Ad copy can now pull in fields like first name, job title or industry, which means you can speak more directly to decision-makers without writing a separate ad for every segment. Used thoughtfully, this can feel like a warm “I see you”, not creepy automation.
• AI Ad Variants and Flexible Ad Creation: AI can generate multiple copy variations from your base inputs, and an upcoming Flexible Ad Creation feature will mix and match up to four images, four videos and four text blocks, then allocate spend to the best performers. This is ideal for lean teams who want to test without writing dozens of ads by hand.

For service businesses, LinkedIn is often where high-value decisions happen. These tools let you behave more like a big brand without needing an in-house media team, as long as your strategy is clear. If you go in with vague messaging, AI will simply scale the vagueness.

📔 Other noteworthy updates from LinkedIn in January 2026:

• Streamlined B2B influencer marketing: The improved Partnerships tab for Thought Leader Ads makes it easier to discover credible voices mentioning your brand and sponsor their content as ads. This is perfect if your partners, clients or team members already post strong content and you want more people to see it.
• LinkedIn articles gaining AI citations: New data shows LinkedIn, especially Pulse articles, is becoming a major citation source for AI tools. Publishing high-quality, expert content here is increasingly a way to influence how AI answers industry questions in your niche.

👀 Tests Spotted on LinkedIn in January 2026:

• Flexible Ad Creation is coming in early 2026, but it is positioned as a planned rollout rather than a limited test.

📔 Other noteworthy updates or tests:

• YouTube’s changing ad rules around dramatic content: Monetisation guidelines now allow full revenue on non-graphic, dramatised content that explores sensitive topics. This is important if you work in mental health or legal contexts and educate through video on the platform.
• YouTube Promote adds interest targeting and image-to-video AI: Promote lets you boost videos to specific interest groups, while the new “Ingredients” feature uses Veo to turn still images into short videos. Useful if you want basic Shorts from static assets.
• YouTube simplifies mobile video management: A more streamlined mobile interface and upload flow should speed up publishing, but do not let convenience replace thoughtful titles, descriptions and tags.
• YouTube Shorts carousels spotted: Horizontal carousels appearing in Shorts feeds have been sighted but not officially announced, suggesting YouTube is still experimenting with short-form discovery layouts.

January’s updates are a clear signal that AI-assisted marketing is no longer a nice-to-have layer sitting on top of your strategy. It is being woven into the foundations of Meta’s lead gen, Google’s ad formats, Pinterest’s planning tools and LinkedIn’s brand campaigns. The good news is that you do not need to chase every new feature. You just need to understand which of these January 2026 digital marketing updates protect your pipeline, which ones open new opportunities, and which can sit quietly on your “later” list.

Want to keep in the loop with us? Feel free to sign up for weekly updates (plus so much more hot marketing goss!) here, follow us on IG @ohmydigital to keep up with our gals, AND don’t forget, if you do miss out, you can always go back to our previous blog posts here.

Until next month!

XOXO

Oh My Digital Team