The Targeting Era is Over

Creative is the new targeting. Here's what the people winning at it are actually doing.

April 28, 2026

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Something shifted in paid social last year and a lot of teams are still figuring out what to do about it. This week we get into the new playbook, dig into why Canadian media is losing ground fast, and spend some time with a Calgary agency doing something the rest of the industry should pay attention to.

Coming up

The 2026 Paid Social Playbook, According to the People Actually Running It

Paid social just got a structural overhaul, and most teams haven't caught up yet.

Meta's Andromeda update last April retired the targeting logic that media buyers spent a decade refining. Lookalike audiences, detailed interest stacks, rule-based segments. The algorithm has moved past all of it. It reads your creative directly now to decide who sees your ad. The platform is no longer something you configure. It's something you feed.

The short version of what's actually working right now: creative is your primary targeting lever. The specificity of your ad, who it speaks to, what problem it names, whether a stranger can tell within three seconds if it's meant for them, is doing the work that audience settings used to do.

Two structural problems keep coming up that most teams are quietly sitting on. Platforms now require roughly ten times more creative volume than most organizations actually produce. And the feedback loop between performance data and creative teams is broken almost everywhere, which means creative decisions keep getting made without the signal that would improve them.

Three practical moves come out of all of this: consolidate your campaign structure, invest in creative volume and variety, and get your performance data in front of your creative team earlier and more regularly. The data exists. The gap is organizational, not technical.

June Findlay pulled together the full platform breakdown across Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn, and what's actually worth your attention on each.

A $200M+ DTC brand has 44 people messaging Viktor every day.

Their ops team built inventory command centers and reorder dashboards through Viktor. Supply chain gets daily stockout alerts before they happen. Marketing tracks ROAS and runs content calendars. CS has CSAT scores and support tickets triaged and briefed every morning in Slack, before the first support call. No dashboard digging.

48 internal apps, built through conversation. No code. No developer queue. Command centers, inventory dashboards, sales trackers, reorder systems.

That's one company. Across the platform, teams have built 2,000+ apps the same way: message Viktor in Slack, describe what you need, get a working tool deployed. No code. No six-week dev queue.

Your team doesn't wait for a product roadmap. They message a colleague.

5,700+ teams. SOC 2 certified.

"It was almost instantly adopted by the bulk of my team." — Boris Wexler, CEO, Space Dinosaurs

Across the Industry

Industry news, research, leadership perspectives, and campaign spotlights driving Canadian marketing forward.

Romance. Optimism. Culture. Community. In an industry that rewards cynicism and punishes idealism, this Calgary and Vancouver shop is making the other bet. And so far, it's paying off.

A new report from Canada's leading media owners has the numbers, and they're uncomfortable reading for anyone who buys or plans media in this country. For every $100 a Canadian brand spends on advertising, $74 exits the Canadian economy immediately. The jobs data is where it really gets stark. Full breakdown on MNC

Your CEO's LinkedIn post is either opening doors or wasting everyone's time. Here's the difference. 

60% of decision-makers say strong thought leadership makes them willing to give a company their business. Most teams are still measuring likes and follower counts and wondering why it's not moving the needle. Phoebe Yong breaks down what actually drives pipeline.

Data Sciences is expanding its social sector practice, and bringing in some serious reinforcement. 

The performance marketing firm has been quietly growing its work with Canadian nonprofits and foundations for years. This week they announced they're joining forces with Phil, a Montreal-based agency with over 30 years of experience in the social sector. Good news for any organization trying to close the gap between fundraising strategy and modern marketing execution.

Watch & Learn

Upcoming live webinars, interviews and conversations in the SocialNext Marketing Alliance. Every Wednesday at 10 AM Mountain Time / 12 PM Eastern Time.

April 29: Your Customers Are Your Best Marketers: How to Leverage Their Stories
The most convincing thing you can say about your business probably isn't coming from your marketing team. Afton Brazzoni, founder of Scribe National, breaks down how to find the stories already happening inside your business and turn them into content that actually converts.

May 6: Why Cultural Intelligence Is Your Next Growth Lever 
Most marketing strategies are built on data that wasn't designed to reflect the full market. Joycelyn David, CEO of AV Communications and author of The Multicultural Mindset, makes the case for why cultural intelligence is a performance driver, not a diversity initiative, and what leaders can do about it today.

May 13: Design That Converts: Build a Website That Drives Action 
A website that looks good and one that actually converts are not always the same thing. Christine Lieu-Guzauskas, founder of CL Designs, walks through the three sections every high-performing website needs and the quick fixes most teams overlook. Thirty minutes, actionable takeaways you can use the same day.

Coast-to-Coast Job Opportunities

The marketing job market in Canada is more difficult than ever. To help those on the hunt, here's a snapshot of what's open right now across the country.

Lander Career Co., a growing performance-driven digital agency is looking for a hands-on paid social specialist to own campaign execution across Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and beyond. Mid-career role with a clear path to Team Lead as the practice scales.

  • Run campaigns end-to-end across the platforms that actually matter right now

  • Work directly with client services, creative, and partnerships teams

  • CA$60,000 to $70,000 annually, hybrid in Toronto

And a few more opportunities across the country:

Follow us on LinkedIn for job openings across every province and territory in Canada every Friday.

That's a wrap for this week. Go feed the algorithm something good.

Marketing News Canada

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