• Search engines are becoming recommendation engines.

• Users are increasingly seeing maps, product carousels, image grids, reviews, and AI-generated recommendations before they ever reach a website.

• Ranking #1 is no longer the same thing as being discovered.

• AI systems are deciding which brands get surfaced, compared, and recommended.

• The brands that are easiest for AI to understand will have a significant advantage over the brands that are simply good at SEO.

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  ---

  For years, discoverability was relatively simple.

  Someone searched for a problem.

  Google returned with a list of websites.

  The goal was to get your brand as close to the top of that list as possible.

  That’s the game most marketing teams have spent the last decade learning.

  The problem is that search is starting to work differently.

  When someone searches today, they’re increasingly getting answers instead of options.

  What actually changed?

  Let’s use a simple example.

  Imagine someone searches:

  “Best ‘product’ in your category.”

  A few years ago they would have seen:

  • Blog posts

  • Product websites

  • Review platforms

  • Comparison articles

  Now they’re increasingly seeing:

  • AI-generated recommendations

  • Product comparison tables

  • Review summaries

  • Product screenshots

  • Interactive maps

  • Shopping modules

  • Image collections

  The search engine is doing the research for the user.

  Instead of helping people find information, it’s helping them make decisions.

  That’s a much bigger shift than most brands realise.

  Search Is Becoming a Discovery Engine

  Historically, users explored.

  They clicked multiple websites.

  Compared vendors.

  Read reviews.

  Watched videos.

  Made decisions.

  AI compresses all of that into a single interface.

  The result is that discoverability is no longer just about getting traffic.

  It’s about being included in the answer.

  If AI recommends five software tools and your company isn’t one of them, it doesn’t really matter where you rank.

  You were never considered.

  Why AI Needs Categories

  One thing becoming very clear is that AI systems prefer clarity.

  The easier it is to understand your company, the easier it becomes to recommend it.

  Many tech companies still describe themselves like this:

  “We’re an AI-powered platform helping businesses unlock operational excellence.”

  Humans can usually figure out what that means.

  AI struggles more.

  The brands that tend to get surfaced have much clearer positioning:

  • CRM for startups

  • Payroll software for SMEs

  • Analytics platform for ecommerce brands

  • Marketing automation for SaaS companies

  The clearer the category, the easier the recommendation.

  Visual Assets Are Becoming Discovery Assets

  Search results are becoming much more visual.

  We’re seeing:

  • Product screenshots

  • Image galleries

  • Interactive maps

  • Business listings

  • Shopping recommendations

  appear directly inside search experiences.

  This means your screenshots, product imagery, videos, and visual assets are no longer just marketing materials.

  They are discoverability assets.

  The brands investing in high-quality visual libraries are giving AI more material to surface.

  Reviews Matter More Than Ever

  Reviews used to be conversion assets.

  Now they’re becoming discovery assets too.

  AI systems rely heavily on:

  • Reviews

  • Community discussions

  • User feedback

  • Third-party mentions

  • Comparison sites

  to understand whether a product deserves recommendation.

  A company with hundreds of genuine customer discussions may become easier for AI to recommend than a company with a polished website but very little external validation.

  The internet’s opinion of your brand is becoming part of your distribution strategy.

  Content Still Matters. Just For Different Reasons.

  A lot of marketers are asking whether SEO is dead.

  Not really.

  But content is being used differently.

  Previously, content existed to attract clicks.

  Increasingly, content exists to educate AI systems.

  The brands publishing:

  • Original research

  • Industry insights

  • Customer stories

  • Proprietary data

  are creating the information AI systems use to understand markets.

  Content is becoming training material for discoverability.

  What Brands Should Be Doing Right Now

  If search is becoming an AI recommendation engine, then brands need to optimise for recommendation, not just ranking.

  That means:

  ✅ Clear category positioning.

  ✅ Consistent messaging across every channel.

  ✅ Strong review generation.

  ✅ High-quality visual assets.

  ✅ Structured product information.

  ✅ Original content that demonstrates expertise.

  The brands that win won’t necessarily be the brands with the biggest budgets.

  They’ll be the brands AI can understand with the highest level of confidence.

  The Bigger Shift

  For years, marketers asked:

  “How do we rank higher?”

  The better question today is:

  “How do we become one of the brands AI recommends?”

  Because increasingly, users aren’t searching for websites.

  They’re asking for answers.

  And the companies that appear inside those answers will own the next era of discoverability.

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• Frequency tells you how often the same people are seeing your ads, not how many new people you are actually reaching. It is a useful number but it hides more than it shows.

• Incremental reach is the metric that tells you whether your audience is being renewed month over month. When it is healthy, performance stays stable.

• You can track incremental reach by pulling a combined report across two months and comparing the unique reach figures.

• When incremental reach starts to fall, the fix is opening up new audience pools through fresh creative concepts, creator partnerships, broader targeting, top of funnel campaigns, or a new offer.

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  ---

  Your CPAs will go up at some point… That is just the reality of running paid media long enough.

  The problem is not that it happens. The problem is that most brands do not see it coming until it has already affected their numbers. And when they go looking for answers, they end up in the wrong places, questioning the creative, the offer, the season, when the real signal was there all along, just not where they were looking.

  There is a metric that tells you where performance is heading before your dashboard does. That is what we are going to cover.

  Why Frequency Is Misleading You

  Most media buyers rely on frequency to know when their audience has had enough. The logic seems sound…show someone your ad too many times and they’ll start ignoring it.

  The problem? Frequency is just an average, and averages don't tell the full story. Behind that single number sits a wildly uneven distribution. A chunk of your audience has never seen the ad once. Another chunk has seen it a dozen times. Yet both groups get folded into the same metric, giving you a clean number that hides a messy reality.

  You could be looking at a frequency of 3 and feel confident, when in truth, your highest-value users are completely burned out while a large portion of your audience hasn’t been touched at all.

  The real question frequency never answers is: how many new people did you actually reach today? Because that’s the engine behind performance. Not how many times the same person saw your ad, but how consistently you’re putting it in front of someone who hasn’t seen it yet.

  Frequency is a useful signal. But if it’s the only one you’re watching, you’re managing the symptom while missing the disease.

The Metric That Tells You What’s Coming

Incremental reach measures something most brands aren’t watching. The percentage of new people your ads are reaching each month. Not how often the same person sees your ad, but how consistently you’re expanding beyond the people already familiar with your brand.

That distinction matters more than most people realise.

When incremental reach is healthy, the system works as it should. Meta is continuously finding new people, your audience pool stays fresh, and your ROAS and CPA hold steady.

But when that number starts to drop, something changes.

Meta doesn’t pause your spend when there aren’t enough new people to target. It keeps going. What changes is who the budget gets directed toward. Gradually the algorithm starts showing your ads to people who already know your brand, warm audiences, past visitors, familiar profiles. People who were likely to convert anyway.

Your dashboard won’t show any of this. Conversions keep coming in. ROAS looks fine. Everything seems under control, because in the short term, it is. But new customer acquisition, the thing actually driving your growth, has started to slow down.

A few weeks later the pipeline empties, CPAs go up, and performance drops. You start looking at your creatives, your offer, your landing page. But the issue started long before any of that showed up.

That’s what makes incremental reach useful, it shows you what’s happening before it appears in your numbers. Most brands are always reacting to problems after the fact. This metric gives you enough time to get ahead of it.

How to Calculate Incremental Reach

The formula is straightforward. You take the total unique people reached across two months combined, subtract the first month, and what remains is the number of new people your ads reached in the second month.

It looks like this in practice:

• March reach: 80,000 people

• March and April combined: 128,000 unique people

• April incremental reach: 128,000 minus 80,000 = 48,000 new people

• 48,000 out of 80,000 = 60% incremental reach

In this case, 60% of the people who saw your ads in April had never seen them before. The remaining 40% were already reached in March.

One thing to get right when pulling the data

You have to run a single report covering both months together, not two separate reports. If you pull March and April independently, each report counts its own unique viewers without accounting for overlap. The same person could appear in both, and your calculation will be off. When you pull one report spanning the full period, Meta handles the deduplication for you and gives you one accurate unique number.

Also worth knowing: this metric is not available directly in Meta Ads Manager. You will need to export the data manually and do the calculation yourself in a spreadsheet.

What the numbers are telling you

• Above 50%: your ads are consistently reaching new people, keep going

• Between 30% and 50%: audience renewal is slowing down, worth monitoring

• Below 30% with rising frequency: your audience is becoming saturated and CPAs will likely start climbing

What to Do When Incremental Reach Starts Dropping

The good news is that incremental reach responds well when you address it early. When the right changes are made, the metric tends to recover within a few weeks, new audience flow picks back up, and CPAs stabilise before any real damage shows up in your numbers.

There are five things that tend to work when audience pools stop renewing:

• Refresh your creative concepts.

• Work with creators.

• Open up your targeting.

• Run top of funnel campaigns.

• Test a new offer.

The logic behind all of this is simple. When your reach is growing, keep pushing. When it starts to plateau, make a move before it shows up in your performance numbers.

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• Retention > Acquisition: 90% of users churn within 30 days. Your problem isn’t acquisition; it is a leaky bucket. Stop working in silos and build cross-functional growth squads.

• Data > Instinct: Gut feelings might get your first 1,000 users, but only rigorous, integrated data will scale you to your next million.

• Ditch Vanity Metrics: Your CFO does not care about “opens” or “clicks”, there is something more the business cares about.

• Beat the AI Gatekeepers: Send fewer, highly relevant messages to maintain your “Attention Credit Score” with the OS.

• Prioritise AEO: In an AI-first web, brands need credibility, community consensus, and visibility beyond traditional search results.

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  ---

Let’s get into it, shall we?

If you weren’t in the room for AGSA South Africa, you missed one of the most important growth conversations happening on the continent right now.

Hosted by the team at Welcome Tomorrow and YOUKNOW, AGSA brought together growth leaders, operators, product teams, and founders to unpack what it actually takes to scale apps in 2026.

So instead of giving you a long event recap, we’re getting straight to the insights worth taking back to your team.

Stop Blaming Your Marketing Team

90% of app downloaders churn within 30 days. You can pour millions into acquisition, but if you are losing 90,000 out of every 100,000 installs by Day 30, you don’t have an acquisition problem. You have a leaky bucket.

Growth today doesn’t break within individual teams; it breaks at the intersections. Max’s solution is the Convergence Mindset. Instead of an isolated marketing team handing things off to product, the most mature growth organisations build cross-functional squads organised by funnel stage (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Monetisation).

From Instinct to Impact: Building a Data-Driven Growth Engine

Brian and Zama addressed moving away from “gut-feeling” marketing and building a relentless, predictive growth engine. Instinct might get your first 1,000 users, but only rigorous, integrated data will help you scale to your next million.

Stop Pitching “Opens and Clicks” to Your CFO

Emrah challenged the room to rethink two massive pillars:

1. Find Your Activation Moment: Every product has one specific in-app action that separates users who stay from users who leave. Find it, remove the friction, and push every single user there.

2. Shift to Behavioural Targeting: Demographics describe people at rest. Behaviour describes people in motion. Targeting users based on what they actually did (or didn’t do) is the ultimate strategic upgrade.

Winning the Attention Credit Score in an AI-Filtered World

We are no longer just competing against other brands for user attention; we are competing against AI operating systems to maintain our “Attention Credit Score.” Apple and Google are using AI to prioritise, summarise, and suppress notifications. To survive, ensure your messages are state-changing or time-sensitive, and treat Push and In-App Messaging as a single, unified system.

The SEO Crash is Here

We are shifting from information retrieval (isolated facts and keywords) to knowledge validation (trust and consensus). To win in AEO, you must build Entity Trust, which equals PR + Social Contribution + Consensus.

And where does AI look for human consensus right now? Reddit!

Executing Sustainable App Growth in SA

AGSA closed with an all-female powerhouse panel—Anna Nascimento (ABSA), Robyn Willmore (PepsiCo), and Ina Joubert (FlySafair), sharing exactly how they turn fleeting attention into concrete intention across banking, FMCG, and aviation:

• Utility > Marketing: Absa hit 5.4 million active users by embedding app onboarding directly into the point of sale for new products. Adoption must be a natural behaviour, not a forced push.

• Build for Intent, Not Data: PepsiCo doesn’t force-fit tech. They start with what consumers expect from the brand (fun, value) and build digital platforms specifically to answer those needs.

• Stop the Bulk Push: Interrupting a transacting user with a banner isn’t marketing; it’s friction. Engagement must be highly personalised and respectful of the user’s moment.

Don’t Miss the Next Event

AGSA was a masterclass in modern growth, and this recap only scratches the surface of the conversations happening in the room and during the Q&A sessions.

If you are a founder, a growth marketer, or an agency leader trying to figure out how to win in an increasingly complex mobile and AI ecosystem, you cannot afford to miss the next one.

AGSA is proudly hosted by the team at Welcome Tomorrow and YOUKNOW. We are already mapping out the next gathering of growth minds… it might be in Nigeria, Kenya, or maybe your country is next.

See you at the next one. ✌🏾

Oh before we leave, let’s look through some moments at AGSA 📸

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• Showmax shut down in April 2026, not because the audience disappeared, but because the business model couldn’t hold.

• Streaming economics were built for markets with predictable payments and consistent subscribers. Much of Africa isn’t that market.

• Showmax’s real competition was never Netflix. It was everything already free and already embedded in daily life.

• Canal+ has been quietly winning that game for years by becoming infrastructure, not just a product

• The question this raises isn’t what Showmax did wrong. It’s whether the standalone streaming model was ever the right fit for these markets at all.

For a while, it genuinely felt like Showmax had figured something out. Not just localised a global product, not just translated menus and added a few regional titles to a catalogue built for elsewhere, but actually looked at the audience and built toward it.

Showmax arrived in African markets with the kind of intentionality that tends to generate profiles and goodwill and, for a time, real momentum. And then, in April 2026, it shut down.

The audience didn’t disappear. The demand didn’t suddenly dry up. If anything, the appetite for streaming content across the continent is larger, more sophisticated, and more contested than it has ever been.

So the instinct to treat this as a product failure, a story of a streaming platform that couldn’t hold, misses the point entirely. This isn’t a product story. It’s a story about the assumptions we build into products, and what happens when those assumptions meet reality.

The arithmetic of ambition

Streaming economics follow a particular logic, and it is a logic born in specific conditions. You spend heavily before you earn anything. Content costs money before a single subscriber signs up. Infrastructure runs whether you have ten thousand users or ten million. The bet is that subscription revenue, predictable, recurring, compounding, will eventually absorb all of it and then some.

That bet works. It has worked, spectacularly, in markets where the payment infrastructure is reliable, where churn is manageable, where the revenue per user can sustain the cost of serving them. It is a model engineered for a particular kind of economic environment, and it has never been honestly stress-tested anywhere else.

In much of Africa, that stress test arrives quietly and then all at once. It isn’t that people don’t want the product. They want it badly. It’s that the rhythm of how people earn, spend, and access, the granularity of economic life, doesn’t map onto the model’s expectations.

Monthly subscriptions assume monthly predictability. They assume a consumer who can commit in advance, who has a card, who won’t churn simply because a payment fails at the wrong moment. When those assumptions bend under pressure, the gap doesn’t announce itself. It appears slowly, in the margin, in pricing pressure, in retention numbers that never quite settle, in growth curves that flatten before they should.

At some point, that gap stops being something you can optimise away. It becomes load-bearing.

What "structural" actually means

There is a comfortable story that gets told about emerging markets — that they are simply earlier on the same curve, that behaviour will converge, that the differences are transitional rather than fundamental. It is a story that makes modelling easier and investment cases cleaner. It is also, in important ways, wrong.

Some of what looks like a gap in behaviour is actually a different set of preferences, shaped by decades of navigating environments where formal systems are unreliable and flexibility is a survival skill. People share access not because they can’t afford individual subscriptions, but because sharing is a rational response to uncertainty. People pay for content in fragments (data bundles, scratch cards, single-day passes) because that granularity fits how income actually arrives.

These aren’t habits waiting to be upgraded. They are solutions to real problems, worked out over time by people who didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the infrastructure to catch up.A model that requires those habits to change, rather than accommodating them, isn’t being patient. It’s asking the wrong question.

The move that matters

What happens after Showmax is, in many ways, more instructive than the shutdown itself. The platform isn’t simply being wound down, it is being folded back into MultiChoice’s DStv ecosystem, absorbed into infrastructure that already knows how to reach people, that already speaks the language of how payment and access and habit actually work on the ground.

That is easy to read as a consolation prize. It shouldn’t be. The pivot reveals something important: that the question was never whether people would watch, but whether the channel through which they watched could sustain itself. And when the standalone model couldn’t hold that weight, the sensible move wasn’t to double down, it was to find a structure that already had roots.

Distribution isn't the last mile. In these markets, it is the whole road.

Canal+ has been demonstrating this quietly for years. Its expansion across the continent, particularly in Francophone markets, has not been built on a streaming-first bet.

It has been built around distribution, around becoming part of how content reaches people, often before they’ve even decided what they want to watch. That kind of presence isn’t flashy, and it doesn’t usually make headlines, but over time it becomes incredibly powerful in ways that a better recommendation algorithm simply can’t match.

Once you’re embedded in how people already access content, the competition shifts. It’s no longer about who has the best features or the smartest interface. It’s about who makes things easier to access, easier to pay for, and easier to use.

The real competition

It is also worth being honest about what Showmax was actually up against, and it wasn’t Netflix. The real competition was everything that was already free, already accessible, already woven into daily life. Free-to-air television. YouTube, which doesn’t ask you to remember a password or worry about a payment failing. Pirated content, passed over Bluetooth and WhatsApp and hard drives that have been shared so many times their provenance is genuinely unknowable. None of this is invisible, and all of it counts.

The bar, in that context, is not being better than another paid platform. The bar is being worth paying for at all, consistently, month after month, when the free alternative is not a worse version of the same thing but a completely different relationship with content entirely. That is not a gap you close with a UI refresh or a price cut. It is a structural condition, and it requires a structural answer.

What remains

There is something that doesn’t quite sit right in all of this, because Showmax was clearly trying. The local content investment was not performative. The editorial choices reflected a genuine attempt to serve the people the platform was built for, not just extract from them. That matters, and it deserves to be said plainly before the post-mortem crowd arrives to strip it for parts.

But trying and lasting are different things, and the structure underneath Showmax, the assumptions baked into how it was supposed to sustain itself, was never fully reconciled with the environment it was operating in. Not because the environment was hostile, but because it was specific. It had its own logic, its own tempo, its own way of deciding what something is worth. And that logic required a different kind of architecture, not a more determined version of the same one.

Dear reader, I’m curious what you think.
Did Showmax need more time, or was this always where it was heading?
And what does that say about how we build for this market? 🤔

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• Interest-based targeting is no longer doing the heavy lifting, your creative is.

• Meta rolled a new metric called Creative Similarity that will penalise ad sets that look too alike.

• Changing your hook text or background colour doesn’t count as a new creative.

• To register as distinct, you need to change at least two structural elements.

• The advertisers who build real creative variety into their workflow will pay less and reach more.

• 3 events. 3 cities (Nairobi, Joburg, Cape Town). We’re also hiring.

Since the Andromeda update (that you can read more about here), Meta’s algorithm has been doing more of the audience-finding work itself. Which sounds great in theory. The catch is that it now relies almost entirely on your creative to figure out who to show your ads to and if your ads all look the same, it doesn’t have much to work with.

What actually changed?

Let’s get into how it used to work.

You’d build an audience, interests, behaviours, demographics and your creative just had to be good enough to convert the people you’d already targeted. The audience was doing most of the heavy lifting.

That’s not really how it works anymore. Meta’s system now reads your creative and uses it to find the right people. The ad itself is the targeting signal.

Which means two things. First, your creative quality matters more than it ever has. Second — and this is the part most people miss — your creative variety matters just as much.

Defining "Creative Diversity"

To synthesise what we mean by diversity, it covers three main areas:

1. Marketing Angles: Selling the same product but via different approaches (e.g., one ad focuses on a specific problem, while another focuses on the desired benefit/state).

2. Ad Formats: Using a mix of video, carousels, or static images.

3. Ad Concepts: Using different styles such as UGC (User Generated Content), FGC (Founder Generated Content), street interviews, raw image carousels, or highly designed/Photoshopped static images.

Why does Meta want this?

Because Meta’s AI is now powerful enough to “read” the entirety of your ads. It knows how to show specific ads to the people most likely to consume them.

For example, within an audience interested in photography, some people prefer 30-second videos, while others prefer static images or studio-quality production. Advertisers with a varied “ad park” generally pay less and see better profits.

Creative Similarity is coming and it will cost you

Meta has rolled out a metric called Creative Similarity. The idea is straightforward: if your ads look too much alike, you get penalised. Higher costs per result, restricted reach, or both.

Here’s how it works:

• It compares every ad within an ad set.

• It averages the scores to calculate the similarity of the entire set.

• It is based on static ads active over the last 28 days.

• It excludes Advantage+ Catalog ads (since those are auto-generated from your Shopify/e-commerce feed).

If your score is too high, you face two problems: limited distribution or higher costs than your competitors.

What actually counts as a “new” creative?

Meta’s system now reads the full anatomy of your ad. To help you identify if your ads are too similar, here are the criteria provided by a high-level Meta account manager.

Elements of a Creative:

• The Opening Shot: The first 3 seconds of a video.

• Framing, Decor, and Lighting.

• Gestures, Energy, and Pace of Cuts.

• Narrative Structure: What you say and in what order.

• Product Presence.

• Voice and Intonation.

And just to be clear, these don’t count:

❌ Changing only the hook text.

❌ Only changing the music.

❌ Trimming or adding a few seconds.

❌ Reordering scenes. (the AI recognises the visual material and sees it as a "reassembly")

Why this is more expensive than it looks

The obvious hit is your reported numbers looking worse than they should, which pushes you to pull budget from campaigns that are actually working.

The sneakier problem is what it does to the algorithm. Meta uses your creative performance to figure out who to show your ads to next. Give it a narrow, repetitive creative pool and it’s essentially guessing. It snowballs from there.

Weak creative variety leads to worse distribution, worse distribution pushes CPAs up, higher CPAs make the channel look inefficient. Meanwhile the actual problem was just that your ad set needed more variety.

Got a winning ad? Here’s how to stretch it properly

You don’t need to scrap what’s working. You just need to branch it out.

✅ Reshoot the opening. Same concept, different entry point. New framing, new energy, different positioning. That’s the biggest lever you have.

✅ Branch the narrative. If your main angle is “save time,” what’s the sub-angle? “What this is actually costing you every week.” “Why your competitors are pulling ahead.” Same product, genuinely different conversation.

✅ Go longer… but actually longer. Trimming a few seconds off doesn’t register. Moving from a 10-second version to a 30 or 60-second one does. It also reaches different people, the ones who skim and the ones who actually watch.

Realistically, most ad accounts have this problem without knowing it. And it’s usually fixable faster than you’d think.

🗓️ Upcoming Events

1. App Growth Summit Africa 🇿🇦

Perfect for product, marketing, and tech teams building and scaling apps across Africa.

Register for AGSA 4 🇿🇦

2. Growth Lab Cape Town: Creative Strategy Masterclass 🇿🇦

Best suited for marketers and growth teams looking to turn creative into a real performance driver.

Register For CT Growth Lab

3. Growth Lab Nairobi : The Gap Between Data & Growth 🇰🇪

A good fit for marketers navigating messy attribution and unclear metrics, and looking for clarity on what to trust and act on.

Register For NBO Growth Lab

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Know someone great? Send them our way.

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• 20–40% of your conversion events probably never reach your ad platforms

• Ad blockers, Safari, and stricter browsers are the culprits and it’s getting worse

• Server-side tracking recovers most of that lost data by routing signals through your server instead of the browser

• Better data means better optimisation, lower CPAs, stronger ROAS, fewer mysteries in your reporting

• Most setups have this problem without knowing it and it’s usually fixable faster than you’d think

You know that feeling when the numbers just don’t quite add up?

The ROAS is okay but not great, the conversions feel lower than they should be, and you can’t put your finger on why. There’s usually a reason.

A meaningful chunk of what’s actually happening on your site, real purchases, real sign-ups, real people taking real actions, is never making it back to the ad platforms.

It’s disappearing quietly, no alarm bells, and because platforms only optimise on what they can see, you’re essentially running your campaigns with one eye closed.

It comes down to how tracking actually works and where it’s quietly breaking.

Okay, but how does that even happen?

Let’s talk about how tracking actually works for a second, because it’s easier to understand the problem once you see the mechanics.

Every time someone lands on your site and does something worth knowing about, buys something, fills in a form, clicks a button, your analytics and ad platforms need to be told about it.

The way this has traditionally worked is that the browser handles it. The browser fires a little signal and sends it off to Google, Meta, TikTok, wherever.

That’s called client-side tracking. It’s been the default forever. And honestly? It was fine for a long time. But the web has changed, and client-side tracking hasn’t kept up.

Server-side tracking shifts where that handoff happens. Instead of the browser sending the signal directly to ad platforms, it sends it to your server first, and your server forwards it on. Simple in theory. The difference in practice is significant.

So what's actually going missing right now?

Three things are eating your tracking data, and they've all got worse in the last few years.

1. Ad blockers - Somewhere between 30 and 40% of people browsing the web have some kind of ad blocker running. These don't just block ads ,they block the tracking scripts behind them. Your pixel fires, the signal goes out, and it just... dies. Never arrives.

   Server-side tracking recovers a good chunk of this, because your server endpoint looks like a first-party request that most blockers don't flag. Very aggressive blockers can still catch it, but the majority won't.

2. Safari and iOS - Apple has been steadily clamping down on third-party cookies, and right now Safari limits their lifespan to anywhere between one and seven days.

   That might not sound like a big deal until you remember that for a lot of brands, iPhone users alone are 40–50% of their audience. Someone sees your ad on Monday, thinks about it, comes back and buys on Friday. Gone. That attribution is broken.

3. Browsers generally getting stricter - Firefox, Brave, and increasingly Chrome are all tightening up in their own ways. The direction of travel is really clear: browsers are not getting more permissive. This problem only gets bigger if you don't address it.

Why this is more expensive than it looks

The obvious hit is that your reported numbers look worse than they should, which can make you pull budget from campaigns that are actually working fine.

The sneakier problem is what it does to the algorithms. Meta, Google, TikTok, they all use your conversion data to figure out who to show your ads to. Feed them half the picture and they’re essentially guessing. It snowballs.

Weak data leads to worse optimisation, worse optimisation pushes CPAs up, higher CPAs make the channel look inefficient, you reduce spend. Meanwhile the actual performance was probably fine all along.

What actually changes when you fix it

• A significant chunk of events being swallowed by ad blockers start getting through, most blockers won’t recognise your server endpoint as a tracking request.

• Attribution holds together much better. First-party cookies from your own domain can last up to 400 days, so that Monday-to-Friday customer journey? Tracked.

• Your Safari and iOS users come back into the picture.

• You control exactly what data gets shared with platforms , though worth being clear, this doesn’t override user consent. If someone declines cookies, that still stands.

• Pages load a bit faster too, since the tracking scripts aren’t running in the browser anymore.

Realistically, most setups recover somewhere between 15 and 40% more events. Not every lost signal comes back, but most of the low-hanging fruit does.

We’ve seen +37% ROAS improvement after cleaning up Meta signal quality, a 40% drop in “direct” traffic that turned out to be misattributed paid revenue, and up to 50% more tracked events on complex multi-platform setups.

Results vary depending on how leaky the original setup was but there’s almost always something meaningful to recover.

"But we already have tracking set up"

We hear this a lot. You probably do, GTM is there, the Meta pixel is firing, GA4 is collecting data. On the surface it all looks fine.

But there’s a difference between having tracking and having tracking that actually works. If your GA4 and your CRM tell different stories about conversions, that’s a gap.

If you’ve got a lot of unexplained “direct” traffic, some of that is almost certainly paid campaigns that lost their attribution. If your Safari users convert at a noticeably lower rate than Chrome users, that’s ITP doing its thing.

None of this shows up with a flashing warning. Most brands have been running with this problem for years without knowing.

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AGSA 4 is Coming to Jozi 🇿🇦

We're bringing the band back together. Welcome Tomorrow and YOUKNOW are heading to Johannesburg for the 4th Edition of App Growth Summit Africa, and this time we're getting into the real mechanics of retention. Will we see you there? ☺️

Register for AGSA 4 🇿🇦

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• Algorithms don’t hold grudges: Myths like shadowbanning, “listening” microphones, and link penalties are excuses for poor creatives. Engagement is driven by user behavior, not secret punishments.

• Volume and tools aren’t the enemy: Posting multiple times a day or using third-party schedulers and editors (like CapCut) won’t hurt your reach, provided you remove watermarks.

• Quality over rituals: Forget “perfect” posting times and hashtag stacks and focus on three quality posts a week and let the platform’s AI handle the categorisation.

• Trust the source: When theories conflict with reality, follow Adam Mosseri’s regular Q&As for direct confirmation on how to make the most of Instagram.

• We’re still in the top 3%: Our 2026 Google Premier Partner renewal gives our clients a direct lane to exclusive betas, priority support, and advanced market data.

For years, performance dips on social media have been explained away with a single, convenient culprit: the algorithm.

These narratives persist not because they are accurate, but because platform mechanics are complex, opaque, and constantly evolving. In the absence of clarity, the industry filled the gap with assumptions, recycled “best practices,” and anecdotal evidence.

If we want to get back to what works, we have to clear the air. Here are the most persistent myths we need to retire immediately 👇🏾

1. Shadowbanning is not a real thing

This is the perfect villain because it’s invisible. As far as the code is concerned, there is no “naughty list” button that a moderator flips to throttle your brand. Mosseri has been clear: there is no secret punishment system quietly killing accounts.

Posts can be down ranked if they violate recommendation guidelines, think clickbait or recycled content but that is a specific response to a specific post, not a blanket ban on your existence. The myth survives because it gives failure a name that isn’t ours.

2. Instagram’s microphone is not listening to you

The sheer scale of the legal violations required for Meta to eavesdrop on billions of phones is unfathomable. This theory has always been a bit wild, but it shows how little we realise about the data we actually give away.

If you get an ad for a product you just talked about, I guarantee it’s because you triggered a signal through your search history, location, or social interactions. They don’t need the mic, they already have your digital footprint.

3. Posting too much will not hurt your reach

There’s a school of thought that says posting too much "dilutes" your reach. The data suggests the opposite. Look at accounts like Instant Bollywood, they post upwards of 100 times a day (that isn't hyperbole) and generate billions of views.

There is no algorithmic punishment for volume. If you have five pieces of great content, post all five. The algorithm treats every post as a new roll of the dice, it doesn't remember that you already posted an hour ago.

4. Scheduling content will not hurt your reach

This might be the oldest unfounded myth in the book. Every platform has stated that you’re free to use their native tools or any third-party scheduling app. In fact, you should be scheduling your content. It’s the only way to get ahead, batch your work effectively, and spend more time on the creative side of the job. The “organic only” posting rule is a relic from a time when we didn’t understand how APIs worked.

5. Brand partnership tags do not limit reach

Wanna know why brand content doesn’t usually perform as well as organic content? Most brands don’t let creators be their wildly creative selves. They stifle the personality that built the audience in the first place. There is zero evidence of social networks limiting reach for sponsored posts. Some of the highest performing videos on the web are sponsored, they just happen to be good videos. If the content is engaging, the tag doesn't matter.

6. You do not have to post social content every day

Consistency matters, but not in the way we think. You need a rhythm, but it doesn't have to be a daily. Mosseri mentioned that 3x a week is enough to keep you consistently in the algorithm and ready to be recommended. I'd suggest hitting that minimum. Three times a week shouldn't be a struggle but don't feel forced to post sub-par content just to keep a streak alive.

7. Hashtags do not increase the reach of your content

Hashtags are for categorisation and context, not growth. They’re a steering wheel, not a gas pedal. With modern AI and machine learning, platforms are reading your captions and the content of your videos for keywords anyway.

You can learn more about SEO for Instagram in our post here.

They get the same effect from your prose as they do from that pile of thirty hashtags at the bottom. I’ll tack one or two on if I can’t weave a keyword in naturally, but that’s about the extent of their usefulness now.

8. Editing in third-party apps does not hurt performance

You can use any editing tool you want. Inshot, CapCut, whatever works for your workflow. It won’t hurt you. There are only two small things to watch.

1. Don’t leave watermarks from other social networks (like a TikTok logo on a Reel).

2. Keep an eye on the endplates from apps like CapCut. Instagram has admitted to giving a “light additional boost” to content edited in their own native tools (Edits) but it’s rarely enough of a difference to justify ditching a tool you’re already fast with.

9.External links do not hurt your reach

There is no evidence of a programmed “link penalty” designed to trap users. The reason these posts often underperform is human behaviour. People go to social media to consume social media, not to be redirected to a browser. When they see a link, they scroll past. The algorithm sees that lack of engagement and stops showing the post to others. The pressure is coming from your audience’s habits, not a hidden line of code.

10.There is no magical best time to post

I groan every time I see a whitepaper claiming to have studied 10,000 brands to find the “perfect” hour. Post content when your specific audience is awake and active, and it’ll do fine. You can post at 3:00 AM and still get big numbers if the content is strong enough to resurface when people wake up. Say it with me:

good content finds a way, and if it doesn’t, it probably wasn’t that good to begin with.

🙋🏾‍♀️ When in doubt, ask Mosseri

If you don't want to take my word for it, take his. Adam Mosseri has spent the last few years consistently answering the exact questions our industry keeps guessing at. He runs frequent Q&A sessions on his Stories and he’s been remarkably direct about what impacts reach and what doesn't. You don't have to agree with every direction Meta takes, but when the head of the platform consistently provides the same explanations, it’s a perspective worth taking seriously.

We’re a Google Premier Partner 🤝🏾

It’s official: we’ve renewed our Google Premier Partner status for 2026 🎉

In the world of digital marketing, "Partner" badges are often thrown around like participation trophies, but the Premier tier is different. Google reserves this status for only the top 3% of agencies in each country.

It isn't a badge you can buy, it’s one you have to earn through consistent performance, high-level certifications, and, most importantly, measurable growth for our clients

What does this mean for our clients?

1. We get early access to Google’s newest AI-driven tools, bidding strategies, and ad formats months before they hit the general market.

2. When a technical glitch happens or an account flag pops up, we don’t wait in a general support queue. We have dedicated agency representatives and priority technical support to resolve issues in hours, not days.

3. We receive exclusive industry reports and consumer trend data directly from Google. This allows us to move beyond guesswork and build strategies based on what’s actually happening in the market right now.

Join Our Community 👥

Come hang with us. Check out the blog, follow along on socials, and stay in the loop as we share the wins, lessons, and experiments shaping growth marketing today. 🤝🏾
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• The install isn’t the win; most users drop off at first open, registration, or first transaction, leaving only a small retained cohort by Day 90.

• Africa’s mobile opportunity is huge, but rising CAC and early churn mean acquisition without retention is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

• Retention is being hurt by siloed teams, where Marketing chases installs, Product ships features, and Tech builds in isolation from business goals.

• The “super experience” gap is real, with most companies overestimating their UX while failing to identify stickiness, core actions, and true “aha” moments.

• Attribution is shifting toward reattribution, retargeting, and re-engagement, especially as churn happens quickly and many users can be won back.

Ready? Let's get into it 😊

AGSA 3.0 just happened in Nairobi, and instead of giving you the usual “you had to be there” recap, I’m going to tell you plainly what actually came up in the room and why the conversations felt more honest than most marketing events i’ve been to.

It was a day of very real admissions. Across panels, chats, and side conversations, one theme kept resurfacing: getting the user is no longer the hardest part. Keeping them is.

The Reality Check We Needed

Maxime Calot, our CEO, stood on stage and dropped the reality check we all needed. The macro numbers in Africa are a dream: 540M smartphone users, heading to 900 million by 2030. Kenya’s ad market is hitting Ksh 33.9 billion this year. And with conversion rates for apps being up to 3x higher than mobile web, the prize is worth the effort.

But here is the invisible effort we aren’t talking about: Out of 5 million exposed users, we lose 90% at the first open. Then we lose 75% at registration. Then 60% at the first transaction.

By Day 90? We have 10,000 users left.

We trust the repetition of buying ads. We don’t trust the hard work of fixing the product.

The Silo Tax

The solution Maxime proposed isn’t a new shiny tool, but a structural shift. User retention sits at the crossroads of three key teams: Tech, Product, and Marketing. Yet, most of us are siloed vertically and horizontally.

• Marketing is usually off chasing awareness and acquisition, focused on clicks and installs.

• Product is trying to deliver “delightful” experiences but often lacks the marketing insights to know what actually brought the user in.

• Tech is often the gatekeeper, building features but disconnected from the actual business goals.

When these teams don’t blend, you get “ad-supported” strategies where everyone is busy but nobody is talking. The brand team hits their awareness targets, the growth team hits their install targets, and the CVM team is left trying to win back users who were never properly “activated” in the first place.

The “Aha” moment isn’t a lucky break

Emrah Çetin from Amplitude brought the receipts on why your “Super Experience” is probably a myth. He talked about the Delivery Gap.

80% of companies believe they deliver “super experiences” when only 8% of customers actually agree.

That gap is where your budget goes to die.

Emrah’s message was clear: if you don’t get at least 7% of your original cohort of users to return by Day 7, you’ve already lost the long-term retention game.

You have to build for Stickiness, which Amplitude defines as the days a user performs a critical event within a week or month.

It’s not enough to hope they stay. You have to find the “Aha” moment.

→ Step 1: Understand your product usage interval.

→ Step 2: Identify your stickiest features via an engagement matrix.

→ Step 3: Use gamification and incentives—like time-limited discounts—to motivate return.

The "Three Golden Rs" of Attribution

Then Mert Altunkaş from Adjust stepped up to tackle the attribution elephant. With the Kenyan digital ecosystem becoming a maze, we’ve been chasing the ghost of “perfect” tracking.

Mert’s take? Stop. Instead, focus on the Three Golden Rs:

Reattribution, Retargeting, and Re-engagement.

Most users churn. It’s a fact. On average, it takes just 6 days before a user loses interest in an app. But here is the opportunity: 40% of users who uninstall will actually redownload it if you give them a reason.

→ Are you tracking uninstalls?

→ Are you using deep links to create a seamless ad-to-app journey?

→ Are you protecting your spend? Real-time fraud prevention should reject fraudulent installs before you pay for them.

If you aren’t, you’re losing users to friction you didn’t even know existed. Mert reminded us that attribution isn’t about claiming credit but about empowering UA efforts to make data-driven decisions that actually impact ROI.

The Panel: Ending The Blame Game

We closed with a panel featuring Edna Maritim and Jason Masai, which finally addressed the elephant in the room: the “Blame Game.” You know how it goes, Marketing says the leads are “high quality,” and Product says the users just aren’t engaging.

The consensus was that if Marketing is only optimising for CAC and Product is only optimising for feature releases, nobody is actually optimising for LTV.

Scaling acquisition before retention is stable isn’t just aggressive; it’s burning money. One of the best takeaways was a warning against “nervous” metrics, things like huge volume or suspiciously low CPI. If these look too good to be true while your retention is flatlining, you aren’t growing; you’re just inflating a balloon that’s already popped.

The panel’s challenge to the room was simple:

If you removed your attribution tools tomorrow, would your team still know what’s working? If the answer is “no,” your teams aren’t integrated, they’re just dependent on the same dashboard.

You came, you saw, you networked 🙌🏾

Now here’s the photographic evidence 😁

📸 AGSA PHOTOS

Recently on the blog 👩🏽‍💻

• How To Define and Reach Your Mobile App’s Target Audience

• The Only UGC Guide Performance Marketers Need

• Debunking Mobile Measurement Myths

Join Our Community 👥

Come hang with us. Check out the blog, follow along on socials, and stay in the loop as we share the wins, lessons, and experiments shaping growth marketing today. 🤝🏾
PS: The really good stuff? You’ll find that on our TikTok. 👀😂

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• The Illusion: Last-click attribution often mistakes existing brand momentum for new growth.

• The Goal: Use incrementality to separate “organic” customers from those who only bought because of your ads.

• A/B Testing: Simple and direct, but can be susceptible to seasonal noise.

• Geo-lifting: Ideal when user-tracking is limited, though requires deep regional data.

• Budget Holdouts: The ultimate reality check, showing exactly what happens when you turn off the taps.

• Causal Inference: The gold standard for accuracy, provided you have the data science muscle to back it up.

• The Takeaway: Instead of leaning on fragile user-level data, we can now use aggregated insights to get a high-fidelity view of what’s actually working and, more importantly, what isn't.

Last-click attribution has always been a bit of a comfortable delusion. We tracked the final touchpoint and called it a day, but as privacy walls go up, we’ve had to confront a stubborn truth: knowing a user clicked an ad doesn’t mean the ad was the reason they bought.

Incrementality testing is the “what if” of marketing. If we turned off this channel in Nairobi for a month, what would actually happen to the bottom line? It’s about separating the organic customers from those who only arrived because of your intervention.

Depending on your appetite for risk and the state of your tech stack, there are four main ways to get to the truth.

1. A/B Testing

The classic approach: split your users into a control group (no ads) and a treatment group (ads), then compare.

• The upside: It’s simple, intuitive, and does a great job of isolating a campaign’s direct impact.

• The catch: It can struggle with external noise like seasonality. If you’re a smaller app, getting a statistically significant division of users can be a tall order.

2. Geo-lifting

Here, you’re dividing by map rather than by user, turning the lights on in Nairobi while keeping them off in Accra.

• The upside: It’s a lifesaver when user-level tracking isn’t an option. It’s also relatively quick to roll out for large-scale campaigns.

• The catch: It’s a heavy lift. You need deep data on regional demographics and market size before you start. There’s also the “spillover” risk, marketing in one region often bleeds into the next, muddling your results.

3. Budget Holdouts

Essentially, you keep a slice of your budget in your pocket for specific regions or groups to see how they perform without the extra push.

• The upside: It gives you a very clear picture of what happens when you turn the taps on or off. It’s the ultimate reality check for your spend.

• The catch: It requires significant resources to manage properly, and if you have five other campaigns running simultaneously, the results can get messy quickly.

4. Causal Inference

This is the high-brow version. You use statistical models and “synthetic control groups” to map out what would have happened in a parallel universe where you didn’t run the ads.

• The upside: It’s incredibly reliable and accounts for external factors.

• The catch: It’s complex. Unless you have an advanced data science team on speed dial, it’s a difficult and often costly mountain to climb.

Picking your path

Success here is less about the “best” method and more about the best fit for your current reality.

If you’re running complex cross-channel campaigns and need granular accuracy, the investment in causal inference is usually worth the wait. For those needing a faster, broader read on large-scale regional spend, geo-lifting offers speed, though you’ll sacrifice some precision.

If budget is the primary constraint, holdouts are a grounded, affordable starting point, while A/B testing remains the go-to for simple, single-channel DIY experiments, provided you can live with a bit of statistical noise. It’s about balancing the precision you need against the resources you actually have.

Our Takeaway

Whether you’re fine-tuning your user acquisition strategy or maximising your marketing budget, the ability to accurately measure the incremental impact of your efforts is crucial.

Incremental analysis doesn’t just improve short-term performance; it also provides long-term benefits. Marketers can use it to avoid cannibalising organic traffic and ensure that their paid efforts are generating truly beneficial results.

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If the universe is this loud about it, you might as well sign up for our App Growth Summit happening in Nairobi 😁

Register for AGSA

Join Our Community 👥

Come hang with us. Check out the blog, follow along on socials, and stay in the loop as we share the wins, lessons, and experiments shaping growth marketing today. 🤝🏾
PS: The really good stuff? You’ll find that on our TikTok. 👀😂

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We hope you’re starting 2026 rested, inspired, and excited for what’s ahead.

We appreciate you reading along with us, here’s a quick TL;DR before we dive in. 🏊🏾‍♀️

TL;DR:

• 2025 was the handover: We lost manual control as Google and Meta moved fully to AI-driven targeting and “Zero-Click” search.

• The “Human” cliché: Everyone is preaching “authenticity” now, making the advice as generic as the AI ads it’s trying to fix.

• Strategic Friction: In a world of deep fakes, being “frictionless” feels suspicious. Use “Trust Checkpoints” to prove you’re real.

• Agentic Marketing: You’re no longer just selling to humans, you’re selling to the AI agents doing their research. If you aren’t a verifiable authority, you don’t exist.

If 2025 felt like a bit of a blur, it’s probably because the ground was moving under us every few weeks. We didn’t just get new tools, we saw the entire way people find things and buy things, shift.

Here’s the monthly breakdown of what that looked like:

Q1: The Algorithmic Handover

• January: Google integrated Gemini into the core of Performance Max, automating not just the bids, but the generation of the actual ad headlines and imagery.

• February: Meta’s Andromeda retrieval engine began its global rollout, fundamentally changing how ads enter the auction.

• March: The March Core Update fundamentally devalued “SEO-first” content. Sites that existed to satisfy a crawler, rather than a human, saw traffic evaporate.

Q2: The Death of the Destination

• April: AI Overviews (AIO) became the default search state. “Zero-Click” search volume spiked to 60%. The goal of search shifted from driving traffic to securing a citation.

• May: Meta officially retired most Interest Stacks. Creative became the only targeting lever left, if your ad didn’t find its own audience through its “hook,” the algorithm simply stopped spending.

• June: African Gen Z was highlighted as a major force shaping influence and digital consumer behaviour, driving brands to rethink regional strategies.

Q3: The Pivot to “Vibe” and Trust

• July: Meta launched Threads Ads, introducing a “Vibe-First” ad format that penalised traditional high-pressure CTAs in favour of conversational engagement.

• August: TikTok upgraded to Engaged Session ads, measuring success by how long a user stayed with the content, not just the initial click.

• September: Kenya and Nigeria issued their first major data enforcement fines, making “First-Party Data” a survival strategy rather than a legal footnote.

Q4: The Rise of the Agents

• October: OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, a direct search browser competitor. Marketing departments scrambled to learn “Generative Engine Optimisation” (GEO).

• November: Gemini 3 launched, offering “Nano” models for mobile that allow for real-time, on-device ad personalisation.

• December: We finally admitted that “Last-Click” measurement is broken. Brands shifted toward looking at the big picture, causal modelling and real business growth.

2026: What you actually need to do now

“ Be human” is the latest marketing cliché. We spent two years using AI to strip out friction, creating a faceless, generic blur and now we’re trying to fix it with advice that sounds just as robotic.

To actually stand out in 2026, don’t just “act human”, focus on this

1. Give people something to lean into (Strategic Friction)

We spent years trying to make everything “frictionless.” But in a world full of AI scams and deep fakes, a little bit of friction is actually a good thing.

• The move here: Use “Trust Checkpoints.” In our markets, people want to know there’s a real person at the other end. Instead of a faceless “Buy Now” button, try inviting a conversation on WhatsApp. It sounds slower, but it builds a moat that a bot can’t cross. In 2026, being “too easy” can actually feel a bit suspicious.

2. Build for the “Agent” Customer (Agentic Architecture)

Pretty soon, a lot of your “visitors” won’t be people, they’ll be AI assistants. They’ll be checking your prices and reading your reviews before the human ever sees your brand.

• The move here: You need to make sure your brand is “Agent-Friendly.” I’m not talking about more keywords but about being the cited source when an AI answers a customer’s question. If an AI can’t easily verify that you’re an authority, it won’t recommend you. We’re moving into a Bot-to-Bot economy where clarity is your best ad.

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App Growth Summit Africa is coming to Nairobi!

The third edition of App Growth Summit Africa is coming to Nairobi 🇰🇪 Same energy, but this time, we’re diving even deeper.

We’ll be bringing together some of the brightest minds in Africa’s app ecosystem, founders, marketers, and product leaders, to explore what it really takes to drive growth, retention, and long-term impact in Africa.

🗓️ Friday, 13th February

Register for AGSA 🇰🇪

Recently on the blog 👩🏽‍💻

• How To Define and Reach Your Mobile App’s Target Audience

• The Only UGC Guide Performance Marketers Need

• Debunking Mobile Measurement Myths

Join Our Community 👥

Come hang with us. Check out the blog, follow along on socials, and stay in the loop as we share the wins, lessons, and experiments shaping growth marketing today. 🤝🏾
PS: The really good stuff? You’ll find that on our TikTok. 👀😂

Follow Us On LinkedIn

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Tell us where you are and where you want to be and we’ll help get you there.

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• Don’t Kill Too Soon: ROAS isn’t the full story. A creative can “fail” at conversion but still fuel your funnel.

• Engagement Signals: Check hook rate (>30%), hold rate (>10%), and CTR (>1%) to see if people care enough to stay and click.

• Purchase Intent: Look at cost per add-to-cart (vs. average) and add-to-cart rate (5–10%), early actions often predict later conversions.

• Interaction Quality: Organic comments, shares, and product questions matter more than generic reactions. They reveal genuine interest and trust-building.

• The Takeaway: Analyse creatives holistically. A low-ROAS ad can be your top-funnel hero, feeding scale, awareness, and future revenue.

  ---

If you’ve interacted with us at any of our events, you already know, we’ve been shouting from the rooftops about one thing: creative testing is everything.

It’s the engine behind efficient spend, scalable growth, and predictable performance. Still, even with that message broadcast widely, a common question keeps coming back:

Should you kill a creative just because it has low ROAS?

Short answer: not immediately.

ROAS is a vital signal, but it only tells you what happened at the last step of the funnel. It doesn’t explain whether the creative is building awareness, generating intent, or enriching retargeting pools, all of which matter enormously in African markets where purchase journeys frequently need more touchpoints and more trust-building than in other regions.

The trap is simple: if you judge everything by short-term ROAS, you risk cutting the very ads that feed the rest of the funnel. And once you remove that oxygen, your mid- and bottom-funnel assets often lose the scale and efficiency they relied on.

Case study: over $70,000 in revenue saved

On an account we managed that spent just over $275,000 per month on Meta across several African markets, we had a strict breakeven ROAS target of 1.7. The rule was blunt: creatives below that threshold were paused. During one optimisation cycle, a creative came in at 1.3 ROAS which meant it should have been cut immediately.

But before killing it, we dug deeper. Hook and hold rates were excellent; CTR was unusually high; cost per add-to-cart was well below the account average. The only weak metric was conversion rate. Reviewing the creative explained why. It was a UGC-style street interview, the kind of creative built to spark curiosity and start conversations, not drive an instant purchase.

We decided to give it more room. A few weeks later, the creative had spent $117,000 and closed at a final ROAS of 1.9. In short, a creative that almost got axed ended up unlocking over $70,000 in additional revenue.

Why did this creative perform so well?

Although its initial ROAS wasn’t great, the ad was serving a top-funnel role that complemented the account’s MOFU and BOFU creatives. It created indirect but powerful effects: it widened brand discovery by reaching entirely new audiences; it drove social engagement, comments, reactions and organic shares that acted as social proof; and it fed retargeting pools with users who showed interest even if they didn’t convert immediately.

Over time those effects lowered acquisition costs and allowed the creative to become a dependable long-term asset capable of supporting scale at an acceptable ROAS.

How to analyse engagement metrics:

These metrics tell you whether the creative is actually doing its job at the top of the funnel, stopping the scroll, holding attention, and generating forward movement.

• Hook rate (aim for >30%)

• Hold rate (aim for >10%)

• CTR on outbound link (aim for >1%)

If users are watching, engaging, and clicking, the creative is strong even if ROAS hasn’t caught up yet. That usually means you’re dealing with an audience mismatch, a funnel sequencing issue, or simply a creative that belongs higher up the funnel.

To assess purchase intent:

These metrics show whether the creative is nudging people toward consideration and early-stage action.

• Cost per item added to cart (compare against your account average)

• Add-to-cart rate (aim for 5–10%)

If add-to-cart signals are healthy but conversions are weak, your problem isn’t the creative. It’s friction. Pricing. Trust. Checkout flow. Delivery concerns. Killing the creative won’t solve any of these but fixing your funnel or landing page will.

To observe interaction depth:

This is where you see how people are truly responding to your message especially in markets where comments act as trust signals.

• Organic comments and shares

• Quality of interactions (e.g., real product questions vs. generic emojis)

When people ask about sizing, colours, delivery, availability, or material quality, it’s not just engagement, it’s intent. These are the kinds of signals analytics dashboards don’t always quantify but heavily influence whether a creative should stay or go.

So the next time a creative comes in with low ROAS, don’t rush to cut it. Zoom out. Look at what it’s doing across the entire journey. Some creatives scale. Some educate. Some build trust. Some prime the audience. Growth comes from understanding which role each creative plays, not from expecting one asset to do everything.

Low ROAS doesn’t always mean failure. Sometimes it just means the creative is doing a different job, one your performance strategy still depends on.

Conclusion

The basic rule on Meta, cut creatives that don’t show results, is sensible because it protects performance. But in practice, especially across Africa’s diverse markets, you must think beyond a single metric.

A creative that “fails” on ROAS today can be one of your most valuable investments tomorrow when it’s feeding awareness, trust, and retargeting pools that make conversions cheaper and scale possible.

Performance analysis needs nuance: don’t let a single figure become the prosecutor. Read the signals. Understand the role each creative plays. And when in doubt, dig a little deeper, that’s where scale lives.

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• The install isn’t the win. In 2025, South African brands are spending R5.91 billion on app ads, yet 90% of users churn within 30 days.

• Retention is broken by silos. Tech, Product, and Marketing still operate like separate planets and that structure is the root cause.

• Creative testing is the new growth engine. Marketing and Product must share real-time creative insights to identify what actually drives retention.

• Day 7 Stickiness = the new north star. If 7% of new users return and complete a core action on Day 7, you’re on track for top-tier retention.

• CAC is up 60% since 2020. If you’re not building user habits, you’re burning money.

• Loyalty is pragmatic, not emotional. Predictive analytics + empathy = the new retention model.

AGSA 2.0 happened in Cape Town on the 14th of November, and instead of giving you a dramatic “you had to be there” recap, I’m just going to tell you plainly what happened and why the conversations were more honest than most industry events are.
It was a day about the real problem almost every brand in the room admitted they’re struggling with: keeping users.

Here’s the rundown 😁

1. The Numbers Everyone Needed to Hear

Maxime kicked things off with a truth bomb.

We are pouring billions… seriously, R5.91 billion projected in South African app advertising alone in 2025 into a system designed to fail.

We’ve treated the install like the winning goal, but the data shows it’s usually just the moment the money starts haemorrhaging, because 90% of app downloaders churn within 30 days 🤯.

And yes, that number is exactly as wild as it looks.

The problem, he argued, is fundamentally structural: Retention is trapped between the silos. We have Tech, Product, and Marketing teams, each operating with different goals and incompatible work habits.

You simply cannot fix the leak until these functions are horizontally integrated, working toward a shared outcome. The mandate is to stop celebrating the initial “high five” (the install) and start engineering the handshake (activation) and the relationship (retention).

2. The Creative Feedback Loop

Izak dove into the crucial tactical element that connects the Marketing team to the Product team: Creative Testing.

Izak’s insight was essential: The true test of integration isn’t just shared meetings, but a shared Creative Feedback Loop. You must systematically collect data from creative tests and user reviews to continuously develop new concepts and identify which messaging truly drives retention, not just clicks.

This ensures your creative spend is directly linked to sustained product usage, making the creative team an engine for product health, not just ad clicks.

3. AppsFlyer: Remarketing Isn’t Optional Anymore

Callum Carmichael from AppsFlyer had the irrefutable data, showing exactly where the smart money is moving, and it confirms the pivot we’ve been talking about. Forget the costly scramble for new downloads. The big, powerful trend? Remarketing.

The financial data confirms it: overall remarketing spend in South Africa jumped an insane 48% in the first half of 2025, showing this as a massive, structural budget reversal. This urgency was led by the Finance sector, which posted a shocking 97% increase in their Android remarketing budget, proving that this isn’t just a trend.

Callum’s biggest warning was critical. Stop wasting budget by running generic “download the app!” ads to users who already have it. Instead, we need to treat remarketing as strategic, empathetic communication. Messages tailored to a user’s exact journey stage, turning a desperation plea into an intelligent, valuable engagement that drives higher ROI.

4. Amplitude: The 7% Mandate

Emrah Çetin from Amplitude dropped the ultimate mic-drop moment, giving us the one metric that links product success to marketing spend.

He proved that acquisition performance has zero correlation with retention. You can be the king of clicks and the king of churn simultaneously. The true gold standard, he revealed, is the 7% Mandate: If at least 7% of your new users return and complete a critical core action on Day Seven, your product is highly likely to be in the top tier for three-month retention.

That single metric shifts the whole focus! It means the goal isn’t the click, it’s to engineer the product experience so that a habit is formed by the first week. The job of the modern marketer isn’t tactical execution but strategic direction, identifying the “stickiest features” and ensuring the user experiences that value within the first seven days.

5. YOUKNOW: Your Highway to the Habit Zone

To truly understand why that 7% stickiness mandate is now non-negotiable, we have to grasp the raw economics and psychology behind it. Don Packett delivered the essential context for this new retention obsession.

He didn’t mince words on the financial crisis: Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) have exploded, increasing by a massive 60% between 2020 and 2025. Think about that.It costs you over half again what it did just five years ago to get one user in the door. When the entry fee is that high, you simply cannot afford to lose them.

Don’s crucial insight came from psychology, defining a habit as that acquired behaviour pattern that becomes almost involuntary. This is the “Highway to the Habit Zone”. The companies that are actually winning, the ones posting growth despite the massive CAC, leverage these habit formation principles, grounded in Product-Led Growth (PLG), to create products users literally “can’t live without”.

The message is clear: Retention isn’t a feature; it’s a forced psychological loop. You’re no longer marketing a product, you’re marketing a routine that seamlessly integrates into the user’s daily life.

6. The Panel: Loyalty Is Not Sentimental, It’s Pragmatic

AGSA closed with a powerful panel discussion titled “Why businesses shift from acquisition to loyalty.” The group, featuring Kelvin Jonck (YOUKNOW Technologies), Sarah Utermark (MMA), Nakita Bam (Yoco), and Leigh Stefanski (Now Boarding), took the conversation beyond metrics and into human behaviour.

They explored how retention is becoming the new acquisition and debated what “loyalty” truly means in 2025. The key takeaway was the critical balance between predictive analytics and empathy: you must use data to build lasting connections, focusing on the crucial, human “nice thing factor.”

For example, your analytics might predict a user will abandon their shopping cart, but instead of sending a generic “10% off” coupon, the “nice thing factor” means sending a personalised, human(not a bot) email checking if they faced a technical issue. It’s about leveraging data to know what to say, but using empathy to know how to say it, making the customer feel seen, not just sold to.

The New Strategic Mandate: What This Means for Brands

• The Core Value Driver (Your New KPI): Forget the install. The metric that governs the entire value chain is Day 7 Stickiness. Your mandate is to track and achieve the 7% mandate.

• The Strategic Leverage: Your sole point of differentiation is the quality of your strategic input. This requires forcing the Tech, Product, and Marketing teams into a unified structure to define and reinforce the single core behaviour that triggers user retention.

You came, you saw, you networked 🙌🏾

Now here’s the photographic evidence 😁

LIGHTS, CAMERA, AGSA! 📸

Recently on the blog 👩🏽‍💻

• Debunking Mobile Measurement Myths

• The Role of Authoritative Content in GEO

• How to Boost App Retention & Reduce User Churn

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• Stop chasing rank; focus on being the trusted answer cited by AI Overviews. If AI doesn’t trust your content, you’re excluded.

• The Best Keywords: prioritise Long-Tail and Semantic keywords to build the topical authority LLMs need to verify your expertise.

• Win the Conversion: Target Commercial Intent queries. Getting cited by AI at the research stage is the fastest path to conversion.

• The Foundation: MSV and KD to find the “sweet spot” and ensure your SEO foundation is robust enough to support your AEO success.

Most marketers and content pros have heard it a thousand times: keyword targeting is the non-negotiable basis of your entire SEO strategy. But honestly, what does “doing keyword research well“ even look like in practice?

We’ve developed a keyword framework to stop chasing dead-end terms and start generating intentional focus. The best part? It works for virtually any industry. So, no more dilly-dallying. It’s time to jump right in 😁.

Wait, Why Are We Still Talking About Keywords?

Okay, let’s have a quick word for anyone not fully immersed in the SEO trenches. Keywords are the queries users type into Google. They are the metric Google uses to determine if, and more importantly, where your content will rank. Get the keywords wrong, and your content might as well be excluded entirely.

AI hasn’t replaced SEO, it’s just raised the bar. Search systems now care less about exact keywords and more about whether your content shows real topical depth. That means building keyword clusters that prove to LLMs you actually know your stuff. If they don’t trust your authority, your content won’t even make the cut.

The Keyword Framework: The Four Parts You Need to Master

It’s time to start building out your own framework! We’re going to take four selection principles and combine them to create a simple visual that will help you select the most optimal keywords for sustainable growth.

1. The Type SEO Keyword (Structure)

When I say “type,” I’m talking about the structure and competitive level of the query, not the user’s intent (we’ll get to that!).

• Short-Tail (1-3 words): High volume, extremely competitive. Unless you’re Nike, forget ranking for “running shoes.” It’s just too competitive.

• Long-Tail (3-5 words): Lower volume, but they are more specific and often much higher intent. These are your primary targets, like “best running shoes for marathon training.”

• Branded: Keywords containing your brand name. Your easiest wins, they build that necessary foundation of trust.

• Semantic: Conceptually related to your target keyword. For our running shoe brand, a semantic term could be “arch support footwear.” These build crucial topical depth.

AI Search Tip: LLMs love long-tail, semantic keywords because they focus on context. Don’t chase thousands of 10-word queries; focus on creating topic ecosystems that make the AI “understand” your niche completely.

2. The Search Intent of the SEO Keyword (The ‘Why’)

This is the second, and arguably most important, component: figuring out why the user is typing that query.

• Informational: The user seeks an answer or knowledge (e.g., “how does compound interest work?”).

  • AEO Value: Positions you as an authority. You get brand recognition, which supports every other marketing effort!

• Commercial: The user is comparing options or seeking recommendations (e.g., “best budget savings accounts”).

  • AEO Value: This is crucial. It captures customers right when they’re about to buy. If an LLM cites you here, they are far more likely to convert. Get cracking on your AEO strategy now!

• Transactional: The user is ready to purchase (e.g., “open savings account online”).

• Navigational: The user is trying to find a specific page (e.g., “Welcome Tomorrow careers”). (Don’t build your strategy around this.)

3. The Monthly Search Volume (MSV) (The ‘How Much’)

Now that you have the content and the intent, MSV tells you the potential traffic.

• Avoid Too High: Oversaturated topics will bury your content. Find that sweet spot that’s manageable but substantial. Think “budget friendly flight deals Lagos to London in December,” not just “cheap flights.”

• Avoid Too Low: You risk getting too niche and using language no one is actually typing.

4. The Keyword Difficulty (KD) (The ‘How Hard’)

This final piece is all about competitive intensity. Like MSV, finding the “right” KD is about finding the sweet spot: not too high, not too low.

• The Bleeding Edge Exception: This is the fun part! Like fashion trend forecasters, you can predict what’s coming next. Writing content for a keyword with low MSV and low KD now grants you “first to market” authority that the AI systems will massively reward later.

• The Foundational Rule: SEO is the engine of AEO. SERP rankings do matter. Succeeding in LLMs is exponentially easier if you’ve already established authority and found success in traditional search engines.

Mapping Your Strategy

It’s time to wrap this up with a neat bow! Here is the final look at the framework.

Due to constant changes in algorithms and industry differences, creating an all-inclusive how-to isn’t really possible (trust me, I wish it was!). This framework should serve as your solid guide for how to choose SEO keywords intentionally.

If you’d like more insight, Welcome Tomorrow’s SEO experts are here to help😉

Q & A with an expert ⚡️

Q: How do you ensure content written around chosen keywords still delivers value to the user besides just checking off SEO boxes?

Don’t abandon your SEO fundamentals; just evolve them. In terms of content creation, all the core principles you know still apply (we’re talking solid H1s, a clear content hierarchy, and page titles/metas that follow best practices), but now, it’s all about layering on trust and originality.

Think of E-E-A-T getting an upgrade to H-E-E-A-T by adding an H for Helpfulness, which, with the rise of AI, means being truly unique: state your point clearly and early on, add original data, and come to a conclusion that helps answer the reader’s question plus any logical follow-ups they may have.

Ultimately, everything you write is done with one goal: making it possible and easy for LLMs to scrape and synthesise, search engines to crawl and index, and readers to take in and understand, because AI search is an evolution, not a complete abandonment of the methods we already know.

Recently on the blog 👩🏽‍💻

• ChatGPT Atlas: The Browser is the New AI Operating System

• The Role of Authoritative Content in GEO

• How to Boost App Retention & Reduce User Churn

Join Our Community 👥

Come hang with us. Check out the blog, follow along on socials, and stay in the loop as we share the wins, lessons, and experiments shaping growth marketing today. 🤝🏾
PS: The really good stuff? You’ll find that on our TikTok. 👀😂

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• Why ads in Google’s AI Mode will completely change how customers search and shop

• The difference between keyword targeting and conversation targeting and why it matters

• How your brand profile now is your targeting strategy

• Why your Google Ads account is becoming an AI training system for your business

• The million-dollar question: will users actually click ads inside AI conversations?

• Exact steps to prepare your business before competitors adapt

We all thought ChatGPT might kill Google.
And to be fair, it almost did.

In just three years, ChatGPT hit 700 million active users, forcing Google to face something it hadn’t in 25 years: competition that could actually change how people search.

So Google did what only Google can do, it didn’t fight the change.It became the change.

And what’s rolling out now is the biggest update to Google’s business model in its entire history.
Ads are moving inside Google’s new AI mode, and it’s about to change everything about how people search, shop, and discover brands online.

Let’s break down what that actually means and what marketers need to start doing right now.

🧨 Google Just Killed Its Own Cash Cow

For two decades, Google’s empire was built on one simple idea:
you type → you click → they get paid.

That click-based model brought in over $200 billion last year. But now Google is breaking that model on purpose.

Why? Because user behaviour has changed.

AI tools like ChatGPT taught people to expect answers, not links.
We don’t want to scroll through ten websites, we want context, recommendations, and conversation.

Google saw that and made a risky but brilliant move:
own the new behaviour before it owns them.

In Google’s new AI mode, you won’t just get a list of links, you’ll have an ongoing chat.
You’ll ask questions, clarify, and go deeper… all within Google’s interface.

And since users will spend more time inside Google (instead of clicking away), there are way more opportunities for the company to show ads, gather intent data, and keep you in its ecosystem longer.

It’s a big bet but it’s one that will reshape how online marketing works.

💬 The Death of Keywords (and the Birth of Conversations)

For years, Google Ads revolved around keywords, those little phrases like “best running shoes” or “pizza near me.”

But that’s not how humans talk anymore.

In AI mode, a search might sound like this:

“I’m training for my first marathon and I overpronate. What’s the best running shoe for under $300?”

That’s not a keyword search, that’s a conversation.

And it tells Google so much more:

• You’re a beginner runner.

• You have a foot issue.

• You have a budget.

• You’re training for a specific goal.

Now imagine the AI knowing that you’ve been watching YouTube videos on “marathon training” and recently bought a smartwatch.

That’s next-level context.

So instead of bidding on specific words, advertisers will compete for conversation relevance meaning your ad shows up if the AI determines that what you sell fits naturally into the user’s intent.

It’s no longer about who ranks for “running shoes.”
It’s about who fits the story being told in that search conversation.

🧠 Your Brand Is Now Your Targeting Strategy

This is where things get really interesting.

Google’s AI is now “reading” your brand everywhere it exists online: your website, reviews, social media, product descriptions, even how customers talk about you.

And all of it contributes to what’s called your brand profile.

If your online presence is strong, consistent, and trustworthy, Google’s AI will recognise you as a relevant, high-quality brand.
But if your website looks dated, your reviews are inconsistent, or your product data is messy…
You’re literally training the system to work against you.

Google calls this feed hygiene. In plain language:

garbage in, garbage out.

It means your content, product descriptions, and brand assets now directly influence how your ads perform.

Let’s say someone asks AI,

“What’s the best laptop for video editing under $1,500?”

If your product feed only lists specs like “Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM,” that’s not enough.
Google wants to see conversational details like “ideal for creators, handles 4K editing with ease.”

Basically, your content is now your targeting.
And your brand story is part of the algorithm.

⚙️ Your Google Ads Account = An AI Training System

Your Google Ads account isn’t just running campaigns anymore.
It’s training an AI model to understand your best customers.

Every conversion you track, every customer signal you import, it’s all teaching Google what “success” looks like for your business.

If you only track leads, you’ll get more leads but not necessarily good ones.
If you track repeat buyers or high-value customers, the AI starts learning who to prioritise.

Think of it like training a dog.
If you reward it for sitting, it sits.
If you reward it for rolling over, it rolls.
Google works the same way, it doubles down on whatever you signal as valuable.

So instead of micromanaging keywords and bids every day, your job now is to:

• Feed Google high-quality data

• Define what a “valuable customer” actually means

• Let smart bidding systems (like Performance Max) optimise for that

And here’s the cool part:
this intelligence compounds over time.
The longer you feed it good data, the smarter and more profitable it becomes.

💸 The Million-Dollar Question

Everyone’s asking:
“If people stay inside AI conversations, will they still click ads?”

Maybe not as much.
But the ones who do? They’ll be way more ready to buy.

When someone spends five minutes talking to AI about their goals, challenges, and budget, by the time they see your ad, they’re deep in consideration mode.

That’s higher-intent traffic ,and it’s golden.

We don’t know exactly how Google will price this new world (per click? per impression? per in-chat conversion?),
but we do know this:
the brands that start adapting now will have a massive head start once the system fully rolls out by Q4 2025.

Because the more data you train the AI with today, the smarter it’ll be tomorrow and that advantage compounds.

🚀 So, What Should You Be Doing Now?

Here’s your action plan for this new era of search:

1. Audit your brand hygiene.
   Make sure your website, product feeds, and social content are consistent, up to date, and conversational.

2. Adopt Google’s new campaign types early.
   Start using Performance Max and Search Max, they’re the first to integrate with AI mode.

3. Feed better data.
   Go beyond keywords. Include intent-rich details in your product and ad copy.

4. Train for long-term value.
   Track the customers who matter most, not just who clicks first.

5. Think conversations, not campaigns.
   How would your brand show up in a chat between a user and Google AI? That’s your new brief.

Welcome Tomorrow x DMA Growth Lab 2025

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our last Growth Lab of the year!

Photo Recap 📷

📅 Come hang with us at AGSA! 🇿🇦

Back with our friends at YOUKNOW for another deep dive, this time, we’re bringing app marketers and product people together in Cape Town for a full day of real, no-BS conversations on how to acquire, activate, and retain users. 📲”

Register Here ✌🏾

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We invite you to join our community by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Stay connected and be part of the conversation as we continue to navigate the dynamic world of growth marketing. 🤝🏾

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We have 3 events lined up before the end of the year.
🇳🇬 Lagos: Our first-ever Growth Lab in Nigeria (this Thursday!)
🇰🇪 Nairobi: Growth Lab x Digital Media Awards (next week Wednesday!)
🇿🇦 Cape Town: App Growth Summit Africa with YOUKNOW Technologies (November 14th!)

78 days.
That’s all that’s left of 2025. 😳

Wild, right? We don’t know how we got here either but if there’s one thing we do know, it’s that we’re wrapping up strong 💪🏾

Our events this year have sparked some incredible conversations and connections and we’re not done yet. From Lagos to Nairobi to Cape Town, we’ve got a few more stops before we close out the year, and we’d love to have you with us.

Here’s everything you need to know 👇🏾

🇳🇬 Lagos - Growth Lab (This Thursday!)

We’re kicking things off in Lagos with our first-ever Growth Lab in Nigeria! 🇳🇬

Brian and Ochuko will be leading the session, breaking down the Growth Framework we use, the same approach that’s helped our clients build sustainable, scalable growth across different markets.

If you’re in Lagos, this is your chance to catch the conversation live and see how we think about growth at Welcome Tomorrow.

🗓️ Thursday, 16th October

🇳🇬 RSVP FOR LAGOS GROWTH LAB HERE

🇰🇪 Nairobi — Growth Lab in partnership with the Digital Media Awards (Next Wednesday!)

Next stop: Nairobi.

For the first time, we’re partnering with the Digital Media Awards for a special edition of our Growth Lab.

This session will be led by Nick, our Data Analyst, and Wambui, our Paid Media Manager who’ll be unpacking how brands can bridge the gap between data and performance.

We’ll talk about how to connect analytics and CRM data to your media stack, build smarter audience journeys, and measure ROI in ways that actually reflect business growth.

🗓️ Thursday, 22nd October

🇰🇪 RSVP FOR NAIROBI GROWTH LAB HERE

🇿🇦 Cape Town - App Growth Summit Africa (November)

We’re closing out the year in Cape Town with the second edition of App Growth Summit Africa 🇿🇦

After a packed first run in Johannesburg, we’re teaming up with our friends at YOUKNOW again to bring AGSA to the Mother City. Same energy, but this time, we’re diving even deeper.

We’ll be bringing together some of the brightest minds in Africa’s app ecosystem, founders, marketers, and product leaders, to explore what it really takes to drive growth, retention, and long-term impact in Africa.

🗓️ Thursday, 14th November

🇿🇦 RSVP FOR AGSA HERE

Join Our Community 👥

We invite you to join our community by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Stay connected and be part of the conversation as we continue to navigate the dynamic world of growth marketing. 🤝🏾

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TL;DR:

• Google now indexes Instagram content, giving posts, Reels, and carousels a longer shelf life beyond the app.

• Instagram is becoming a search engine, catching up to TikTok with AI suggestions and better search indexing.

• Track traffic sources (Reels, Explore, Feed, Stories, Search, Profile) to see what’s actually driving discovery.

• Boost your discoverability by using smart search prompts in comments, captions with 3–5 relevant keywords, alt text on images, subtitles on Reels, niche hashtags, location tags, and a keyword-rich bio.

What Is Instagram SEO?

As of July 10, 2025, Google began indexing Instagram content. Posts, Reels, and carousels can now live beyond the app and surface on Google SERPs.

Translation? Your IG content just got a longer shelf life (hello, evergreen reach) 👋🏾

For marketers, it’s time to put that internal sync on your SEO team’s calendar and get ready to start treating your Instagram content as part of your SEO strategy.

Instagram is steadily evolving into a full-fledged search engine, now even teaming up with the big players in traditional search. TikTok might have set the pace for in-app discovery, but Instagram is carving out its own path to catch up.

Other Instagram Updates You Need To Know

Social search isn’t new. TikTok has been a go-to search engine for a while now. Gen Z especially is already skipping Google and typing queries like “best coffee in Nairobi” or “weekend outfit ideas” straight into TikTok and Instagram.

Search today is visual, conversational, and community-driven. TikTok set the pace with keyword highlights and pinned comments, and Instagram is finally catching up, rolling out updates that help its content get indexed and appear in Google results.

Here’s what’s new with Instagram search:

1. Traffic Search Data

Instagram now lets professional accounts see exactly where their traffic is coming from, offering fresh insights into how people are finding your content. The platform breaks this data into six key categories:

• Reels tab: % of traffic from the Reels tab

• Explore: % of traffic from the Instagram Explore page

• Feed: % of traffic from users’ individual feeds

• Profile: % of traffic from users visiting your Instagram profile

• Stories: % of traffic from your Instagram Stories

• Search: % of traffic from Instagram search results

Instagram’s traffic source data shows you exactly how people are discovering your content, whether it’s search, Explore, or elsewhere. These insights make it easy to spot what drives reach and what misses the mark, so you can double down on high-performing posts and fine-tune your content strategy.

2.AI Search Suggestions

Just like TikTok, Instagram has rolled out AI-powered search suggestions in the comments section. Now, when someone checks out a post, they’ll see smart search prompts right above the comments, driven by Meta AI and tailored to the content.

Tap a suggestion and you’ll land in a curated search feed packed with Reels, posts, and a quick summary of the related topic.

This doesn’t just link your post to trending searches, it gives your content extra chances to resurface in relevant results. It’s Instagram’s way of turning comments into a discovery loop, where the conversation isn’t the finish line but the starting point for a whole new content journey.

What These Changes Mean for Brands

Instagram showing up on Google is a quiet but important shift in how people can discover your brand. Before this update, showing up in search without a website or SEO work was nearly impossible. Now, your Instagram posts themselves can appear in Google results and work like mini landing pages.

Here’s why it matters:

• You can get found without a website. Your Instagram feed can surface in Google searches on its own.

• Reach people beyond Instagram. Even those who don’t use the app can come across your posts and potentially follow or visit your profile.

• Free, steady traffic. Indexed posts can send clicks to your profile or bio link without paid ads.

• Longer content lifespan. Posts that rank keep attracting views and engagement long after they’re published.

How to Optimise for Instagram SEO

Now that you’re up to speed, it’s time to work these updates into how you plan, create, and share content for your brand.

1. Instagram Keyword Research

What words or phrases is your audience actually typing into search and how can you work those into your content? Before chasing quick wins, step back and map the customer journey so your content meets them at every stage.

2. Write Captions That Get Found

Can you overdo SEO on Instagram? Absolutely. The latest update isn’t an excuse to cram every trending keyword into your captions. Quality still comes first.

Keyword stuffing doesn’t boost ranking, it just makes captions awkward to read. Instagram’s algorithm prefers clear, natural language. Aim for 3–5 well-chosen keywords that genuinely match your content and what your audience is searching for. A smooth, well-written caption with keywords woven in will always outperform one packed with fluff.

3. Alt Text on Instagram for SEO

Alt text: hidden captions added to images just became a key SEO tool. Think of it as an extra layer of keywords that can help your posts surface in search.

Use it on carousels and single images alike:

• Image-first carousels: Write clear, descriptive alt text with relevant keywords.

• Text-first carousels: Repurpose key phrases from the slides, trimming to what matters most.

Carousels with music can even appear as Reels, giving your content extra reach.

4.SEO-ify Your Subtitles

About 20% of people watch Reels without sound, so subtitles aren’t optional, they’re a visibility boost. They also let you slip in keywords naturally, as long as they fit the flow of your script.

Add captions in your editing software or use Instagram’s auto-captions, then double-check grammar. It’s a small step that can massively widen your reach.

5. Do Hashtags Improve SEO?

People say hashtags don’t matter anymore but I beg to differ. Think of them as a keyword safety net, giving your content an extra boost in search.
The trick is to stay specific. Instead of broad tags like #finance or #banking, go niche with #personalloansnigeria, #fintechsolutions, or #savingshacks to reach people actually searching for financial tips or services.

6. Location Tags = Traffic

Location tags are an easy way to attract local traffic. With Google now indexing Instagram, posts with a location can show up in search results, perfect for businesses targeting a specific area.

7. Sneak Keywords Into Your Instagram Bio

You probably haven’t touched your Instagram bio since you first set up your account, but it’s one of the most important spots for visibility, it’s literally the first thing people see. Ask yourself: Does my bio clearly show who I am and what I do?

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Joy’s Hot Take 🔥

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimised by Instagram’s algorithm? 🙋🏾‍♀️ You’ve spent hours on a post that you’re proud of, and then… crickets. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way anymore. By building your posts with search in mind, optimised captions, alt text, subtitles, and strategic keywords, you can make sure your content gets discovered long after it’s posted, even by people who’ve never visited your profile before.

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• Window-Shopper (Sept–Early Nov): Shoppers browse and compare. Focus on capturing leads, warming audiences, testing creatives, and tracking reliable metrics before CPMs rise.

• FOMO Frenzy (Black Friday / Cyber Week): High-intent buyers and rising CPMs. Front-load spend, retarget pre-season leads, simplify offers, and reward loyal customers.

• Gift Grab (December): Buying becomes more deliberate and gift-driven. Highlight deadlines, promote bundles, and include self-gifting options.

• Q5 Bounceback (Post-Holiday / Jan): CPMs drop but purchase intent continues. Run post-holiday offers, upsell and cross-sell, leverage New Year trends, and engage warm audiences.

Plan for each phase and optimise budgets in real time to make Q4 count.

Q4 marks a decisive shift in Africa’s retail calendar, with spending patterns and ad markets heating up long before the year’s final holidays. In South Africa, Black Friday has grown into a full-scale shopping season, with major retailers launching deals weeks in advance.

Nigeria’s year-end bonuses and “Detty December” culture fuel a December surge that often stretches well into January. In Kenya, a mix of Black Friday promotions, platform-led mega sales like Jumia’s, and festive family spending keeps shoppers active far past Christmas.

Unlike Europe’s neat rhythm of Black Friday spikes and Christmas peaks, Africa’s holiday economy is longer, messier, and defined by local pay cycles, cultural celebrations, and unique consumer habits.

And within this extended season lies the real challenge and opportunity for brands. Q4 isn’t a single campaign cycle; it’s a series of distinct growth phases.

Each stage comes with its own audience signals, auction dynamics, and conversion behaviours. Miss the sequence and you’ll face inflated CPMs, unstable CACs, and underperforming funnels just when the stakes are highest.

Let’s dive right in, shall we? 😊

Stage 1: Window Shopper Phase (September – Early November)

We’re at the calm before the storm. CPMs are still reasonable, audiences are browsing, and most shoppers are in exploration mode, they’re adding items to wishlists, comparing products, or simply noting ideas for upcoming bonuses and holiday gifts. Conversion rates are naturally low. And that’s fine.

On the advertiser side, this is where the smart money is made. If you start pushing for sales now, you’ll likely waste budget, most people aren’t ready to buy. Instead, this period is about laying the foundation. You want to capture leads, build retargeting audiences, and test what works before auctions heat up in November.

How to make it count

1. Capture leads early.
   Most shoppers aren’t buying yet, they’re browsing, saving items to wishlists, or jotting down gift ideas. That’s your chance to capture their contact info at a lower cost. Run campaigns for newsletter sign-ups, VIP access, or contests. For example, a lead captured in September via a quiz or a wishlist is likely to cost $1–$2. By November, that same lead could cost $5–$6. If you nurture it now, you save money and build an audience that’s ready to convert later.

2. Warm audiences gradually.
   An audience exposed to your brand for weeks converts far more efficiently than a cold audience on the day of peak sales. Use awareness and engagement objectives, Meta ThruPlay, TikTok Traffic, Google Discovery, to get your message in front of them. For example, if someone sees your product in September multiple times, when December comes, they’re familiar and much more likely to click “Buy Now.” Cold traffic in December may cost 2–3x more and convert less efficiently.

3. Test creatives and offers.
   September and October are your sandbox. This is when you can experiment without paying premium CPMs. Try different messaging, visuals, landing pages, and mini-offers. For instance, test whether a “bundle deal” or a “single-product discount” performs better. Collect real data now, so that by Black Friday you know exactly which creative, copy, and promotion delivers the best results, no guessing under high auction pressure.

4. Lock in your numbers.
   By November, CPMs will spike, and you need real-time clarity to make confident budget decisions. Calculate your actual margins, determine the maximum cost you can pay per lead, and project customer LTV. For example, a lead captured during this pre-season might convert at a higher LTV than one acquired during peak holiday sales. If their projected LTV jumps from $50 to $80, your acceptable CPA should adjust accordingly. This groundwork ensures that when auctions heat up, you can scale without guesswork.

Stage 2: The FOMO Frenzy (Black Friday / Cyber Week)

The heart of the quarter. Consumers are ready to spend, but they’re hunting for the best deals. In South Africa, Black Friday stretches over weeks; in Nigeria, “Detty December” bonuses drive early December spikes; in Kenya, mega-platform sales and festive spending extend high-intent shopping well into December. CPMs are high, competition is fierce, and attention is limited.

How to make it count

1. Front-load your spend.
   Purchase intent peaks in the first hours of Black Friday and Cyber Week. Algorithms favour advertisers who spend early and aggressively. For example, if you allocate $1,000 evenly across the week versus $500 front-loaded on Day 1, the early investment helps algorithms identify high-converting audiences faster, leading to more efficient scaling.

2. Activate your pre-season leads.
   All the leads and warm audiences you captured in September–October are now ready. Retargeting them is far cheaper than chasing cold traffic. For instance, a lead collected in October via a newsletter or VIP sign-up may now convert at a 3–4x higher rate than a new cold lead acquired on Black Friday.

3. Keep offers simple and irresistible.
   During high-intent periods, clarity beats cleverness. Flat discounts, bundle deals, or BOGO promos outperform complex offers. For example, “Buy 2, get 1 free” performs better than “20% off + loyalty points + free shipping” because shoppers make snap decisions under pressure.

4. Reward loyal customers.
   Your best customers are a goldmine. Give them early access or exclusive deals to drive higher spend and stronger loyalty. For instance, VIP emails offering 24-hour early access can generate 30–50% of your Black Friday revenue with a fraction of the ad spend targeting new audiences.

5. Tailor messaging for different intents.
   Some shoppers are buying for themselves, others for gifts. Segment your creatives accordingly. For example, ads targeting parents can highlight “gifts for kids,” while young professionals see “treat yourself” messaging. Personalised angles drive higher engagement and conversion.

6. Stand out visually.
   The creative environment is crowded. High-contrast visuals, FOMO cues, and bold messaging help your ads cut through. For example, countdown timers, motion graphics, or vibrant banners can increase CTR by 20–30% versus standard promos.

Stage 3: The Gift Grab (December)

After the FOMO Frenzy, shopping focuses on gifts. Basket sizes increase, but buying decisions are more deliberate. Consumers are planning around deadlines, budgets, and the perfect gift. CPMs remain high, but strategic targeting and timely messaging can drive maximum ROI.

How to make it count

1. Position products as the perfect gift.
   Create segmented messaging for gift categories: “For Mom,” “For Teens,” “Under $50.” For example, a “Gifts for Dad” bundle could convert 2x better than a generic promo because it directly solves a shopper’s problem.

2. Emphasize delivery deadlines.
   Urgency drives conversion. Ads with clear shipping cut-offs like “Order by Dec 19 to arrive before Christmas” prompt faster action. For example, campaigns highlighting guaranteed delivery saw a 25% higher CTR in our past campaigns.

3. Promote bundles and premium packs.
   Shoppers often buy multiple items during gift season. For instance, a “Holiday Essentials Pack” can increase average order value by 30% compared to single-item promotions.

4. Localise, Localise, Localise!
   Nigerian shoppers respond to Detty December, South Africans to early delivery promises, and Kenyans to extended festive sales. Tailor campaigns to these behaviors. For example, ads in Lagos emphasizing bonus-linked spending outperform generic festive messaging.

5. Include self-gifting angles.
   Don’t ignore buyers treating themselves. A “Treat yourself this festive season” promo can capture 10–20% of revenue from people making personal purchases alongside gifts.

Stage 4: The Q5 Bounceback (Post-Holiday / Mid-Jan)

What we internally call Q5 runs from after Christmas until mid-January. CPMs drop, but purchase intent remains. Gift-card redemptions, bonus cash, and New Year resolutions create an under-the-radar demand spike. Many brands miss this window by assuming the quarter is over, while savvy marketers quietly cash in on leftover demand.

How to make it count

1. Run post-holiday offers.
   Messaging like “Didn’t get what you wanted?” or “Treat yourself now” captures leftover demand. For example, shoppers who didn’t find gifts in December may respond to targeted promotions at 2–3x lower CPA than peak season cold traffic.

2. Upsell and cross-sell.
   Target recent buyers with complementary items. For instance, a customer who purchased a fitness tracker in December might be interested in accessories or subscription plans, increasing their LTV by 20–30%.

3. Leverage New Year trends.
   Resolution-driven purchases favour categories like fitness, learning, personal finance, and wellness. For example, ads promoting a “New Year, New You” bundle for gym gear or skill apps often see high CTR and conversion in January.

4. Keep warm audiences engaged.
   Retarget all pre-season leads and customers acquired during Black Friday and December. These audiences remain hot and cost-effective, converting at a fraction of the cost of new cold leads.

The Takeaway

Q4, spanning Black Friday, Cyber Week, and the holiday build-up is make-or-break for any brand. The moves you make during this period can set you up for a record-breaking quarter… or leave you staring at your analytics in January, wondering what just happened 👀

…but hey, that won’t be you if you’re working with us 😏

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• Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation turned money into wallpaper. Banknotes worth billions and trillions couldn’t even buy bread.

• The Zimbabwean newspaper saw an opportunity in this collapse. With no budget for posters or billboards, they printed their headlines directly onto the currency itself. Each note became a protest, a piece of guerilla media that spread hand to hand.

• The gamble paid off. Website visits skyrocketed from 100,000 to 2 million in a week. Sales jumped 276%. The campaign won global acclaim, including the Cannes Lions Grand Prix. All on a near-zero budget.

• The lesson for you: Marketing’s greatest ROI doesn’t come from how much you spend, but from how creatively you turn cultural truth into currency.

“A trillion dollars can’t buy the truth.”

In 2009, at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, this line appeared stamped across a worthless banknote. It wasn’t graffiti. It wasn’t protest art. It was advertising.

And not just any advertising, it was one of the most radical, subversive, and effective marketing campaigns the continent, and the world, had ever seen.

The backdrop: collapse as context

Hyperinflation had gutted Zimbabwe’s economy. Banknotes in billion- and trillion-dollar denominations were printed daily, but they were worth less than the paper they were made of. A loaf of bread could cost billions. Taxi drivers carried bags of notes for fares. Families used money as wallpaper.

Meanwhile, The Zimbabwean, an independent newspaper critical of the Mugabe administration, was under siege. Punitive taxes crippled its circulation. Advertising revenue evaporated. The brand was silenced in its home market, starved of oxygen.

Conventional marketing was out of the question. Budgets were gone. Billboards were unaffordable. Media space was blocked.

Yet from this suffocation came one of the most ingenious creative breakthroughs of the decade.

The idea: worthless money becomes priceless media

If the administration had made Zimbabwean currency worthless, why not weaponise that worthlessness?

The campaign team began overprinting The Zimbabwean’s headlines directly onto real banknotes. The notes became protest posters, handouts, and billboards all in one.

• “Thanks to Mugabe, this money is wallpaper.”

• “Fight the regime that made your money worthless.”

• “A trillion dollars can’t buy the truth.”

The brilliance lay in its media inversion strategy: the cheapest, most devalued item in the country was reframed as high-value advertising real estate.

This was creative disruption at its most audacious, hijacking a symbol of economic ruin and turning it into a cultural megaphone.

The mechanics: guerilla meets behavioural economics

The campaign wasn’t just clever copy. It was precision behavioural psychology.

Currency triggers deep cognitive associations of value. By printing propaganda-defying truths on the notes themselves, the campaign created cognitive dissonance: an object universally tied to worth now carried a message of worthlessness. That friction forced attention.

Strategically, it worked on three levels:

• It turned currency into owned media (controllable, scalable at low cost).

• It generated earned media globally as the story travelled across news cycles.

• It became experiential media, something people touched, shared, and remembered.

The notes travelled beyond Harare’s streets. They were mailed abroad, carried by activists, picked up by international journalists, and ultimately became viral artefacts before “virality” was even the industry buzzword it is today.

ROI Without the ‘I’

The results spoke for themselves:

• Website visits shot from 100,000 to over 2 million in one week.

• Sales rose 276%.

• The Zimbabwean became a global symbol of defiance.

• And Cannes Lions gave the campaign its Outdoor Grand Prix , ironic recognition for a brand that couldn’t afford a billboard back home.

The total spend? Ink.
The return? Cultural capital, audience growth, and brand authority on an international scale.

The enduring marketing lessons

Fifteen years later, The Trillion Dollar Campaign is still studied because it illustrates marketing’s most enduring truths:

1. Constraints fuel creativity
   With no budget and no access to media, the team engineered a solution by reframing abundance (worthless notes) as opportunity. This was resource-based strategy in action.

2. The medium can be the message
   Marshall McLuhan’s idea came alive here. By fusing channel and message, the campaign achieved resonance beyond what a poster or TV spot could deliver.

3. Earned media compounds faster than paid
   Every banknote carried exponential reach. Each one sparked conversations, drove press, and reinforced the brand’s authority. Attention was bought not with money, but with audacity.

What It Means for Growth

The genius of The Trillion Dollar Campaign wasn’t just the copy on the notes, it was the way it rewrote the rules of growth.

When budgets disappeared, scarcity became strategy. Worthless paper turned into the most abundant media in the country. That’s a reminder: what feels like a barrier can actually be your strongest lever.

By stamping truth onto currency, the medium and the message became inseparable. That’s where impact multiplies, when the channel itself tells the story.

And because it spoke to a cultural truth everyone already felt, “our money is worthless”, the message spread faster than any paid campaign could have. Earned media didn’t just add reach, it compounded belief.

Anything You Control Can Be Media

Ad spend is shooting up, $1.1T globally, $15.5B in Africa by 2025 but the returns aren’t keeping pace. CPMs climb, engagement drops. We’re paying more, and getting less.

That’s why The Zimbabwean’s campaign still feels so relevant. They didn’t buy media; they created it.

And that’s the part marketers often forget. Owned media isn’t just your site or socials. It’s receipts. It’s packaging. It’s the USSD menus people click through every day. It’s anything you already control but haven’t thought of as a channel.

If paid media is getting less efficient, the smart play is to look harder at what’s already in your hands. Because if Zimbabwean cash could spark a global campaign, what overlooked asset in your world could do the same?

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• Every keyword they bid on reveals the audiences they’re chasing and the positions they want to own in the market.

• Every ad they launch is a real-time experiment, showing you which hooks, offers, and CTAs they believe are strong enough to scale.

• Every landing page tweak signals how they think conversions happen what they change, keep, or emphasise tells you what’s working for them.

• Every shift in visibility hints at their budget moves, from new launches to moments when they quietly pull back.

• The advantage isn’t in copying, it’s in recognising these signals, learning faster than they do, and using their spend to sharpen your own strategy.

• Want to take the conversation offline? Join us for Growth After Hours in Nairobi & Cape Town on the 27th of August.

Every brand is fighting for visibility on Google & Meta and in most industries, your biggest competition is just one search result away.

The truth is, your competitors are giving away valuable information every day: the keywords they’re bidding on, the copy they believe will convert, the landing pages they’re testing, and the signals that hint at where their budgets are moving.

If you know where to look, you can learn a lot.

This guide breaks down 10 simple, ethical ways to study what your competitors are doing on Google & Meta and use those insights to run smarter campaigns of your own.

Let’s dive in, shall we? 😊

1. Competitor Keyword Discovery

Competitor keywords reveal how they position themselves and what they value most.

How to do it:

• Use Google Keyword Planner: enter a competitor’s URL to uncover related paid keywords (requires an active Google Ads account with billing enabled).

• Use SEMrush or Ahrefs to pull competitor keyword lists.

• Compare overlapping and unique terms to identify market gaps.

Tips: Filtering by “Top of Page Bid (high)” or by search volume (>500) helps isolate high-intent opportunities. Seeding Keyword Planner with a homepage or landing page often surfaces keywords competitors rely on.

2. Competitor Ad Copy Analysis

Ad copy reveals positioning, value propositions, and testing priorities.

How to do it:

• Use the Google Ads Transparency Center to view all active ads linked to a competitor’s domain.

• Track changes using tools like Visualping or by archiving screenshots.

Tips: Note recurring CTAs (“Sign Up Free,” “Request a Demo”) and link them back to on-site offers. Analysing changes over time highlights which messages they scale and which they abandon.

3. Audience Targeting Insights

Creative choices often indicate who a campaign is designed for.

How to do it:

• In Meta Ad Library, study the ad copy and visuals ,references like “for SMEs,” “for first-time home buyers,” or “for parents” are clear audience signals. The “See ad details” tab also shows where the ad runs (e.g., Instagram Stories, Facebook Feed).

• In the Google Ads Transparency Center, check the formats (Search, YouTube, Display) and countries where a competitor’s ads appear, this gives clues about their geographic and channel focus.

• Run manual searches in Google for relevant terms and note which competitors consistently show up. Their presence on certain queries tells you which audiences they’re prioritising.

Tips: Audience signals don’t always come from explicit targeting data, often it’s in the language, imagery, and offers they choose. Cross-check these cues with your own top-converting audiences to sharpen your segmentation.

4. Bid Strategy Evaluation

Auction data reveals how assertively competitors pursue visibility.

How to do it:

• Within your Google Ads account, run Auction Insights on branded and non-branded terms.

• Segment results by device, geography, or time of day for more context.

Tips: Metrics such as Overlap Rate and Outranking Share indicate whether competitors are prioritising visibility. Sudden shifts often point to campaign launches or reallocation of spend.

5. Ad Extensions Utilisation

Extensions showcase the features and benefits competitors believe will increase click-through.

How to do it:

• Search competitor brand names in Google to see active sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and pricing extensions.

• Use the Transparency Center for additional context across campaigns.

Tips: Keep a record of extensions over time to identify recurring themes. Structured Snippets often reveal the unique selling points competitors rely on.

6. Landing Page Analysis

The post-click experience is as critical as the ad itself.

How to do it:

• In Meta Ad Library, most ads allow you to click through directly to the live landing page, giving you a real-time view of the funnel.

• In the Google Ads Transparency Center, you’ll usually see the ad creative and destination domain. Sometimes you can click through, but often the final landing page isn’t provided so it’s less reliable for direct access.

• To understand how landing pages evolve over time, you’ll need tools that archive older versions or give traffic context. These aren’t perfect, but they provide enough history to spot seasonal campaigns or major shifts.

• Browsing in incognito or via a VPN can reveal geo-specific versions competitors may be testing.

Tips:
Look at how competitors structure their pages: the main hook, offer, and CTA placement. Over time, patterns like repeated use of urgency, discounts, or tiered pricing show you what they believe drives conversions.

7. Tracking & Analytics Review

Tracking tags provide insight into how competitors structure their funnel not their results.

How to do it:

• Use free Chrome extensions like Google Tag Assistant and Meta Pixel Helper to see which tracking tags are implemented.

Tips: By examining confirmation pages, you can infer which actions are considered conversions (e.g., lead, signup, purchase). You cannot see performance data, but you can identify which events matter most to them.

8. Seasonal Trends Monitoring

Seasonal behaviour reveals when competitors concentrate resources.

How to do it:

• Use Google Trends to track brand vs category demand over time.

• Check ad archives for launches that repeat at the same time each year.

• Watch search results on seasonal queries, consistent visibility is a stronger signal than a brief appearance.

• Look for on-site promos (banners, countdowns, codes) that often accompany real seasonal pushes.

Tips: Creative bursts alone don’t prove seasonality, they could just be tests. Focus on repeated timing and sustained presence across multiple signals. Analyse at least five years of data to identify recurring peaks, this makes it easier to predict when competitors are likely to escalate campaigns in the future.

9. Strategic Budget Signals

While you cannot access competitor budgets directly, certain signals reveal how spending is shifting.

How to do it:

• On Google Ads, monitor Auction Insights. Significant increases in impression share typically indicate higher budgets or new campaigns. Declines often reflect budget cuts or strategic reallocation.

• On Meta, the Ad Library shows when brands release large volumes of new creatives. This can indicate a new campaign push, but it is not proof of increased spend, budgets can remain constant while ads are simply divided across more variations.

Tips: Stronger evidence emerges when signals overlap. For example, a surge in creatives on Meta combined with higher impression share on Google strongly suggests increased investment.

10. Reporting & Insights Compilation

Insights only create value if they are tracked and applied.

How to do it:

• Build a structured Google Sheet or Looker dashboard to record ad changes, keyword activity, landing page updates, and Auction Insights results.

• Review and share findings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Tips: Organise changes by theme (offer shifts, new audience angles, creative directions). Maintain a swipe file of ad copy and creative concepts to inform your own testing.

🤝🏾 Final Take away

Your competitors are already giving you a window into their strategy , every keyword they chase, every ad they publish, every landing page they adjust.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Pay attention to what they’re doing, capture the signals, and use that information to make smarter choices for your own campaigns.

The goal isn’t to copy them. It’s to learn faster than they do, spot opportunities they miss, and stay one step ahead.

That’s how you turn competitor spend into your own advantage, not by reacting to every move, but by building a system that keeps you learning and improving, week after week.

📅 Come hang with us at Growth After Hours Next Week 🥂

You know our Growth Labs where we dig into one big topic?
This is the more relaxed version, a networking evening happening on 27th August in Nairobi and Cape Town.

No slides, no pressure, Just good people, good chats, and a chance to swap stories, ideas, and maybe even meet your next collaborator or client over a drink. 🍹

Looking forward to seeing you there 👋🏾

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NAIROBI RSVP

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TL;DR:

• Let the algorithm do its job. Meta works best when you give it space, don’t over-segment audiences, restrict placements, or pause campaigns too quickly. Trust the system to learn and optimise.

• Creative is the real growth lever. High-performing campaigns are powered by native, scroll-stopping creatives not high production value. Test often, but don’t rotate too fast.

• Don’t fall for misleading metrics. ROAS and CTR can be deceptive. Focus on what really matters: incrementality, CAC, and full-funnel impact.

• Performance requires simplification. Simplify your campaign structure, messaging, and strategy. Clarity, consistency, and clean data signals win every time.

After managing over $27 million in Meta ad spend across African markets, we’ve started noticing something: many brands ,even the experienced ones, end up relying on similar strategies, without always knowing what’s making them work.

And when things stop performing, it’s hard to know whether to wait it out or switch things up. We've been there too.

In fast-moving markets, this kind of uncertainty is common. Success often feels hard to replicate, and performance drops can seem random even when you're doing “everything right.”

That’s why we started documenting patterns we kept seeing across accounts.

What follows are 14 lessons we have learned.Some of them go against popular advice, but they’ve helped us move from guesswork to real, repeatable performance.

Let’s get into it 😊

1. Killing a campaign too quickly ruins performance

It’s one of the most common mistakes.

The campaign is humming along. CPA jumps for two days. Panic sets in and boom, the budget gets cut in half or paused completely.

But Meta campaigns aren’t static rows in a spreadsheet. They’re dynamic learning systems. Every campaign builds targeting signals, behavioural models, and delivery patterns over time. Interrupt that, and you reset everything.

Unless the trend is structurally negative, short-term volatility is not a red flag. Zoom out. Look at 14-day data. Trust the flywheel.

2. Your prettiest ad is probably underperforming

Brands often spend big on production, high-end lighting, drone shots, polished edits. The result? An ad that users scroll right past.

Why? Because on Meta, anything that looks overly produced can trigger “ad blindness.” People are trained to ignore the hard sell.

What performs better? Creatives that clearly speak to a pain point and offer a solution. Content that feels relevant, human, and valuable in-feed. It’s not about being raw, that works better on TikTok. On Meta, it’s about resonance.

This isn’t a call to be sloppy. It’s about designing for the environment. Meta is a content-first platform, your ads need to connect before they convert.

3. Broad targeting wins more often than narrow segmentation

The instinct is to get hyper-precise. Build detailed personas. Layer interests, demographics, behaviours.

But Meta’s algorithm doesn’t need that kind of hand-holding anymore. With billions of data points, it can find the buyers better than you can define them.

When you restrict audience size, you limit delivery, reduce learning, and create artificial ceilings.

What works better? Give the algorithm space. Start broad. Let your creative qualify your audience, not your targeting filters.

4. When something works, duplicate it, don’t rebuild it

Performance marketers love to tweak. You’ve got a winning ad? Let’s make it “even better,” right?

Except most of the time, the “improved” version underperforms.

The problem is: when you change the format, script, or angle too much, Meta sees it as a new creative. You’re back to square one. New learning phase. No momentum.

Instead, duplicate the top performer and change one thing. The first 3 seconds. The CTA. The hook. That’s how you create iteration without resetting success.

5. Retargeting looks great on paper. But a lot of it is wasted spend.

This one stings.

Retargeting often delivers sky-high ROAS. But in many cases, those users would’ve bought anyway, with or without the ad.

Meta’s attribution model is happy to claim the credit. But your actual incremental lift? Minimal.

Retargeting only works when it’s focused on high-intent actions:
→ Added to cart
→ Visited a specific PDP
→ Watched 75%+ of a product demo

And the lookback window should be tight, 3 to 7 days max. Beyond that, you’re just paying to take credit for organic conversions.

6. ROAS is useful but dangerously incomplete

Most advertisers optimise for ROAS. But here’s the issue:

ROAS = revenue tracked by Meta ÷ ad spend.

That means:

• It doesn’t tell you if Meta actually caused the sale.

• It doesn’t tell you if the customer is new.

• It doesn’t factor in whether those sales would’ve happened anyway.

The more established your brand, the more inflated your ROAS gets, because you’re paying to reacquire loyalists you already had.

The real metric to obsess over? Incrementality.
→ Are your campaigns driving net new growth?
→ Is your overall revenue rising in step with ad spend?

Use ROAS as a directional metric, not as a KPI in isolation.

7. If your ad doesn’t stand for something, it fades into the feed

Neutral messaging feels safe. Broadly appealing. Professional.

But on Meta, neutral = invisible.

The algorithm responds to engagement. Comments. Shares. Reactions. And you only get that when you say something specific, even if it excludes part of the audience.

This isn’t about being controversial for attention. It’s about clarity. Speak directly to a pain point. Take a position. People pay attention to conviction.

8. Don’t micromanage placements. Let Meta optimise them.

Every advertiser has placement biases. You assume Reels are where conversions happen. Or you always disable Marketplace because it “feels low-quality.”

But Meta’s system knows more than we ever could, when your audience is most likely to engage, and where.

We’ve seen top-performing placements come from unexpected channels even ones clients originally excluded.

Let Meta test all placements. If it doesn’t work, the algorithm will de-prioritise it. But if you block it upfront, you’ll never know.

9. High CTR doesn’t always mean strong performance

CTR feels like a win. It’s visible, immediate, and easy to chase.

But high CTR can be deceiving especially if CPM is high or your traffic doesn’t convert.

👉🏽 On web, a high CTR might lead to a bounce or low ROAS if the landing page doesn’t convert.
👉🏽 In app campaigns, it could mean a lot of low-quality installs, especially if your install-to-event rate is poor or users drop off before key in-app actions.

The real questions are:
→ What’s your CPC?
→ What’s your conversion rate (on-site or in-app)?
→ What’s the blended CAC?

CTR can be a useful directional metric when comparing creatives under controlled conditions. However, in isolation, it offers limited insight and its implications vary significantly depending on whether the objective is web traffic or app engagement.

10. Refreshing creatives too often can tank momentum

You’ve heard it before: “Rotate new ads often to avoid fatigue.”

But constant refreshes mean constant learning phases. If you swap creatives too quickly, the algorithm never gets a chance to optimise delivery. You keep re-setting your own progress.

Instead, build a strong base of proven performers and test incrementally alongside.

Winning ads deserve to live. Don’t pull them just to feel busy.

11. Over-segmentation hurts account performance

This is an old-school media buying habit that won’t die:
→ A campaign for every objective
→ An ad set for every interest
→ A budget for every micro-audience

But Meta learns best when it has consolidated signal density.

Simplify your structure:
→ Combine ad sets by funnel stage
→ Use CBO (Campaign Budget Optimisation)
→ Reduce budget fragmentation

Fewer campaigns. More data per campaign. Better results.

12. Your ad should say one thing. Just one.

The urge to pack every benefit, guarantee, testimonial, and feature into one ad is strong.

But that’s not how people read.

On Meta, attention is brutal. If the user doesn’t get your value prop in the first few seconds, you’re gone.

Instead, lead with one clear promise. What’s the single thing that makes someone stop and say: “I need this”?

Everything else can live on your website.

13. Not every “unprofitable” campaign is a failure

We’ve seen this over and over: a top-of-funnel campaign looks like it’s underperforming. No conversions. Low ROAS.

But it’s feeding your retargeting pool. Warming your audience. Seeding new messaging.

When evaluated alone, it looks weak. In the context of your funnel, it’s essential.

So before you shut it down, ask:
→ Is it generating qualified traffic?
→ Is it fuelling lower-funnel success?
→ Is it teaching us something new?

Not every campaign has to convert directly to be worth running.

14. Don’t use Target CPA too early

Target CPA sounds efficient. You cap your cost, and Meta delivers within your range. Easy.

But here’s the catch: it only works well if you already have conversion volume.

Without it, you strangle learning before it starts.

Instead, use “Maximise Conversions” in the early stage. Let the algorithm explore. Once you’ve built conversion density, you can shift to Target CPA for tighter control.

Final takeaway

Here’s the thread that ties all 14 truths together: great Meta performance comes from knowing when to intervene and when to get out of the way.

Too many brands sabotage their own results with:

• Over-targeting

• Over-editing

• Overreacting

But if you feed the algorithm high-signal creative, clean structure, and time to learn, it works.

At Welcome Tomorrow, this is exactly what we help brands do. Whether you're trying to unlock profitable scale or course-correct a stagnant ad account, we’d love to help.

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Wambui’s Hot Take 🔥

It’s easy to assume the algorithm will favour the ad with the lowest CPA or highest ROAS. But that’s not always what happens. Meta is optimising for predictability, not just performance.

An ad that performs decently and behaves consistently is often prioritised over one that spikes results but delivers inconsistently. Why? Because the algorithm can allocate budget more confidently when it can model an outcome.

So if your flashiest ad doesn’t scale, it might not be because it’s bad, it might just be too erratic for Meta to trust.

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