Growth notes.
What we are seeing on our test accounts. Occasional data dumps. No "10 tips" listicles.
TikTok FYP teardown: what changed in October
Ran the same three videos on ten test accounts over 6 weeks. Completion rate is even more dominant than in 2025 — a 2-second hook window is now closer to 1.5.
Reels vs carousels in Q3 — the numbers surprised us
We assumed reels would keep winning on reach. Turns out carousels quietly outperformed on save rate, and save rate is now weighted heavily in feed distribution.
Is buying followers still safe in 2026? (Honest answer)
Yes and no. The old panels dumping 10K bots in 30 seconds are dead — Meta killed them. Drip-fed real-account services are still working fine.
YouTube Shorts RPM in 2026 — the actual numbers
Pulled RPM data across 14 test channels for 3 months. TL;DR: US Shorts pay 3-4x what they did in 2024, but only in mid-roll-eligible niches.
Timezones matter more than day of week (huge dataset)
Pulled 480,000 posts across 6 platforms. Confirmed: 'best time to post' depends far more on audience timezone than on Tuesday vs Wednesday.
IG shadow-ban checklist — 9 things to check in order
Every symptom, every diagnostic test, the 48-hour reset that fixes 80% of cases. Also: three things people swear by that don't actually work.
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