Your October Digital Updates are here, and if September was about platforms wanting more of your money, October is about platforms taking away more of your decisions. Sounds like a toxic ex boyf. Yuck.

Meta is sneakily removing the ability to choose where your ads appear. Instagram killed a feature some brands built entire content series around. Google, bless it’s cotton socks, actually gave us more visibility this month. And LinkedIn is going to war on generic, soulless content (we’re thrilled, obviously).

The common thread? You’re being handed automation whether you asked for it or not. Which is fine, as long as you know what decisions you’re actually still responsible for.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

What’s new with Meta?

🔥 Meta is removing your ad placement controls

So you go to set up a campaign, and the option to pick where your ad shows up has vanished. HUH?

Nope. Not a glitch. That was an intentional decision on their end.

Meta’s updated documentation says that individual placement, platform and device controls are being removed at ad-set level for Sales, Leads, App promotion and Engagement objectives. Awareness and Traffic weren’t named in that change. Availability seems to vary by account and location.

Placement largely decides how your creative actually looks. That vertical video that makes sense in Stories can end up awkwardly cropped somewhere else. You do still get placement-specific creative and account-level exclusions, which are useful. They just don’t replace everything you had. Kinda annoying if you ask us.

Our thoughts?

Audit your live campaigns and look at how each asset renders in each spot. Keep watch for qualified enquiries, not cheaper impressions. Cheap reach in the wrong place is not a win.

And please don’t switch your campaign objective just to claw back a toggle. If the new objective optimises for the wrong outcome, you’ve traded results for the illusion of control.

📔 Other Updates + Tests:

• Facebook launched “Your algorithm” for Feed and Reels, letting people choose topics and give specific feedback on what they want to see. Not a new posting hack. Just another reason to publish recognisable expertise for a clear audience.
• An on-device Pixel measurement feature starts rolling out 12 November. If your attributed purchases suddenly jump, that doesn’t mean you sold more. Check consent, event quality and attribution before you celebrate.
• Reporting on revised Meta business terms suggests advertisers may carry more responsibility for AI-edited ad creative, with an effective date of 20 November. Check what Meta has auto-applied to your ads and keep record of what you’ve approved.

What’s new with Instagram?

🔥 Instagram has removed Linked Reels

Remember linking your Reels together so people could watch a series in order? Welp. That’s gone.

An in-app notice (which we saw first-hand in an OMD account) said that from 28 October, creators could no longer link Reels and existing links would be removed. Your Reels, views and insights stay put. But the linking functions disappear.

Suppperrrr annoying for multi-part content series. But honestly, it’s one of those things that we will miss the option to use, but won’t notice it’s absence.

If you’ve got a three-part explainer on preparing a will, picking a financial adviser or understanding a treatment pathway, each part now has to earn its own watch. Going forward, tell people which part they’re on, give every single one a proper takeaway, and say clearly in the caption or profile where the rest lives. Use consistent naming, matching covers and a pinned post to keep the journey obvious. A good series should still work for someone who stumbles in at part three.

What’s new with Google?

🔥 Google will finally show you what AI Max is actually doing

A win! An actual win!

Google’s Australian Ads Help documentation now covers a “Search terms and landing pages from AI Max” view. You can see which search terms triggered which headline and which landing page, with campaign and ad-group context alongside. You can also add a negative keyword or exclude a URL straight from the report.

This is super relevant to professional services. A relevant-looking impression is not necessarily a good-fit enquiry. Someone searching for a free legal template is very different to someone searching for representation. When AI expands your reach for you, the only way to know if it’s working is to look at the full chain of query, promise and destination.

Our thoughts? Ask these three questions every review. Was that search right for the service? Did the headline promise something you can actually deliver (and are allowed to say)? Did the click land somewhere that answered the question?

Then compare qualified leads and cost per suitable enquiry. Google also recommends letting new AI Max campaigns learn before you start excluding things, so resist the urge to prune on day three.

📔 Other Updates + Tests:

• Optional channel prioritisation lets you push more budget to higher-priority inventory first. The percentage caps on lower-priority channels are “best-effort”, not hard limits, so don’t treat it as a guardrail without checking actual performance.
• Links are becoming more prominent in some AI Search responses, with more testing around surfacing publishers and official sites. It’s more so a discovery opportunity, not proof your traffic improved. Keep your service pages accurate and measure real enquiries.

What’s new with Google?

🔥 Google will finally show you what AI Max is actually doing

A win! An actual win!

Google’s Australian Ads Help documentation now covers a “Search terms and landing pages from AI Max” view. You can see which search terms triggered which headline and which landing page, with campaign and ad-group context alongside. You can also add a negative keyword or exclude a URL straight from the report.

This is super relevant to professional services. A relevant-looking impression is not necessarily a good-fit enquiry. Someone searching for a free legal template is very different to someone searching for representation. When AI expands your reach for you, the only way to know if it’s working is to look at the full chain of query, promise and destination.

Our thoughts? Ask these three questions every review. Was that search right for the service? Did the headline promise something you can actually deliver (and are allowed to say)? Did the click land somewhere that answered the question?

Then compare qualified leads and cost per suitable enquiry. Google also recommends letting new AI Max campaigns learn before you start excluding things, so resist the urge to prune on day three.

Everything Else You Might Have Missed…

TikTok has been talking about a Shopping Assistant that answers product questions and a Buy Direct option for eligible in-feed purchases. Eligibility-based testing, no confirmed Australian rollout, and far more relevant to ecommerce than to a law firm.

YouTube announced dedicated Shorts series with seasons, episodes and sequential playback. If you’ve got a repeatable education topic, trial three instalments and measure whether people continue from one to the next, rather than just counting views.

ChatGPT ads are now available to Australian legal entities through OpenAI’s self-service Ads Manager. A channel to investigate, not a shortcut to better leads. If you’re tempted by a pilot, check placement context, reporting and brand safety before you commit a budget.

Australia’s “My Feed, My Way” consultation proposed letting users choose between recommendation-led and following-only feeds. It was still a consultation at the end of October with submissions closing 5 November. Watch it. Don’t rebuild your strategy for a rule that doesn’t exist yet.

Platforms are taking decisions off your plate whether or not you wanted them off your plate.

Some of that is fine. Honestly, some of it is better than what most people were doing manually. But there’s a difference between letting a platform optimise delivery and letting it decide what your business is willing to promise or compromise on.

So for your homework this month? Go and look at where your Meta ads can actually appear. Check your Instagram series still makes sense now that the links are gone. Open that AI Max report and follow a real search all the way through to the landing page.

Let the technology do more of the repetitive work without letting it decide what your business should stand for. If your content strategy could use a team who’s already across every update and knows what to prioritise – let’s talk. 💘

Feel free to sign up for our weekly updates here (plus so much more hot goss) so you never miss the best updates. AND don’t forget, if you do miss out you can always go back to last months blog posts here.

XOXO

Oh My Digital Team