Social Media & Digital Marketing January 2026 Roundup

 

Statistics: Third Party Tools will now have access to new metrics for performance – including repost counts, profile visits from ads and skip rate on Reels – giving marketers better insight into how they’re performing on the platform. 

 

Hashtags Capped: Instagram are following in TikTok’s footsteps and capping hashtags at 5 per post. This means you’ll have to start using the most relevant and specific hashtags to ensure your posts reach the right audience, as Instagram is now more reliant on its AI-Powered algorithms to deliver content to the right people rather than hashtags, which previously held the power. 

Threads have introduced more topic-based communities, and has begun testing community flairs and ‘Champion Badges’ – a great way to connect audiences to businesses. They’ve also pulled ahead of X in terms of daily active users – and with criticism over X continuing to grow, Threads may continue its momentum into 2026. 

Facebook has started to restrict how many links unverified accounts can share every month – something that’s important to be aware of if your business often shares links on your page and relies on Facebook to bring traction to their websites. 

It’s been through a number of testing stages, but YouTube have now made A/B testing available to all creators with Advanced Features. This feature will let you test thumbnails and titles, that will be delivered to your audience to see which title and/or thumbnail performs the best from your alternative variations. 

That’s all for January! Have a fantastic February, and remember to keep up with any social media news that comes out over the next month. 

 

Finally, your social media tip is: Everyone wants cheap Facebook ads... 

 

🗣 “How can I get the lowest cost per click?” 

🗣 “Why are my ads so expensive?” 

 

But here’s the thing—chasing the cheapest ads is the fastest way to waste your money. 

 

I’d rather pay £2 per click for someone who’s actually going to buy than 20p per click for a random audience that never converts. 

Because the goal isn’t cheap clicks, it’s profitable clicks. 

 

I’ve worked on campaigns where people were thrilled with their low CPC (cost per click), but when we looked deeper, those cheap clicks weren’t turning into customers. 

 

Meanwhile, when we refined the audience, improved the creative, and dialled in the message, costs went up slightly—but conversions went through the roof. 

Cheaper isn’t better. Better is better. 

 

If your ads are only focused on “getting the lowest cost,” you’re looking at the wrong metric. The real question is: are you paying for results, or just paying for numbers that look good but mean nothing?