The Instagram “Taste Test”

Inside Meta’s forthcoming feature that will let you test your brand’s Instagram Reels with people outside your fan base.

Table of Contents

INSTAGRAM • Hide Reels From Your Brand’s Followers

TOOLS • Why Your Marketing Plugs Will Stop Working

LINKEDIN • Not Paying? Your Posts Will Shrink.

VIDEO ADS • “Enhancements” on By Default: Google

TIKTOK • Compulsive Streaks Being Added to App

THE BIZ • Marketing Budgets Keep Shrinking

TIKTOK • “We’re Not Making a U.S.-Only Version”

INSTAGRAM • Hide Reels From Your Brand’s Followers

Instagram is testing a feature called “trial reels” that lets brands and creators post Reels without them being visible to their followers.

Why would you want to do this?

Well, you could use it to test different types of content without the pressure of public scrutiny. When a Reel is posted using this feature, Instagram provides performance insights such as plays, likes, comments, and shares. Based on this data, you decide whether to make the Reel public or archive it.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s apparently evolved from a previous test called “Experiment mode,” first spotted by reverse software engineers last month.

It’s not a complete block from your followers though.

While, yes, these Reels will be hidden from your profile, non-followers who see them can still share them with others, including your followers.

The trial is available globally to a handful of creators with professional accounts, regardless of follower count. Instagram has not confirmed when or if this feature will be widely released.

TOOLS • Why Your Marketing Plugs Will Stop Working

Your favourite marketing tools might stop working next week if they’re Google Chrome plugins.

Google is ending support for its older extension system, Manifest V2, starting next week. This new version was announced five years ago and has faced multiple delays.

The company says Manifest V3 improves security, privacy, performance, and trustworthiness of extensions.

But critics, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) disagree. The EFF called Manifest V3 “deceitful and threatening,” arguing it limits extensions designed to monitor and modify web interactions, thus not enhancing security.

It’s a hot-button topic because most of this is seen as less about the overall technology’s security, and more a targeted attack on ad blockers.

Specifically, Manifest V3 has an impact on content filtering, which ad blockers and anti-tracking extensions use. Google, which earns most of its revenue from ads, hasn’t really explained why this new version restricts content filtering.

And while ad blocking might be Google’s actual target here, this is an update to the whole extension system. This means any Chrome plugin you use now could very well get degraded or stop working entirely — especially so for plugins which aren’t actively maintained.

LINKEDIN • Not Paying? Your Posts Will Shrink.

LinkedIn has followed through on its plan to change the size of link previews posted to the news feed — and that size will depend on whether you’re paying to put that post there.

Organic link previews will soon have that horizontal format you’re probably familiar with: The image thumbnail in the left third, and the meta text in the right two-thirds:

But when an admin puts a budget behind that organic post, the link preview will now be that large square format with the thumbnail taking up most of the post and the headline in the lower fifth:

If someone then shares that ad, those shared posts will revert back to the small link preview.

Not everyone is a fan.

VIDEO ADS • “Enhancements” on By Default: Google

More advertisers are now able to use Google’s new “enhancements” for video ad campaigns. There are two enhancements available:

Cropping horizontal videos to square and vertical formats

NEW: Shorter versions, made by the AI picking what it thinks are important moments in your source video and making a new, shorter video.

Google says this will help marketers make video ads that will perform better on mobile, without any extra editing work. Matching the ad format to the app layout could boost campaign performance.

A couple of warnings…

Google says it will also “intelligently [flip] your original video format” — so, watch out for this especially if you have text on screen or in the background that might get mirrored

Google says they have turned this on for all new video ad campaigns. You can toggle these off if you want; you’ll find that in Campaign Settings, under Additional Settings, then Video Enhancements.

TIKTOK • Compulsive Streaks Being Added to App

TikTok is taking a page from Snapchat with its new DM Streaks feature.

This will create a trackable streak when you’ve messaged each other for several days in a row. Then, if you’re getting to the end of the day and you haven’t sent that person a message, it will prompt you to come back and do that, or lose your streak.

It’s a little exploitative, yes, and it works — young people on Snapchat bend over backwards to make sure they don’t break a streak. It’s so popular, in fact, Snapchat has a support form dedicated to manually putting that Streak icon back beside your BFF if you lose it somehow.

What do you get for maintaining a long streak? A couple of unique emojis and bragging rights.

Other apps like Messenger and BeReal have tried versions of this.

One parenting blog advises parents:

THE BIZ • Marketing Budgets Keep Shrinking

TIKTOK • “We’re Not Making a U.S.-Only Version”

TikTok is disputing a Reuters report that claims the app is cloning its algorithm to offer a different version for US users, which might degrade over time.

The Reuters report, based on anonymous sources with direct knowledge, stated that this effort began late last year and involves separating millions of lines of code, requiring hundreds of engineers.

The project is seen as a way for ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, to comply with a US law passed in April. The law demands TikTok sell its US operations by January 19 or face a ban. However, TikTok insists that the “qualified divestiture” required by the law is impossible.

TikTok is suing to block the US law on First Amendment grounds. Arguments start in September, with a ruling expected by December 6.

Reuters says it stands by its reporting.

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