In mid-October the same short notice landed in many ad accounts: Meta is adding a “product browsing” feature to ads already running on Facebook and Instagram. The change takes effect on 28 October and is switched on automatically unless the account owner opts out. In other words, when someone taps your ad, instead of going straight to your website they may first see a page that opens inside the app with product details and similar suggestions.

Meta bases the move on its own experiment. According to the company, in a test run with more than a hundred thousand advertisers in August, ads with the feature switched on saw conversions rise by around 3 percent on average. The number may look small, but on large budgets it makes a real difference. Still, it is an average; it does not mean every brand, every product and every campaign will see the same result.

The timing is worth noting too. The feature arrives just as the busiest shopping season of the year begins. For brands preparing their November campaigns, this means the customer journey could change in exactly the most critical weeks. Anyone managing an ad account should think twice before filing this notice under “I'll look at it later”.

The logic behind the change is easy to follow. Someone who taps an ad on their phone can look at the product without leaving the app instead of waiting for a slow website to load. For Meta, that means keeping people on the platform; for advertisers, it may mean fewer drop-offs, especially for brands with slow mobile sites. The catch is that not every business wants this stop along the way.

Take a brand whose own site offers details the in-app page won't show, such as discount codes, bundle prices or a booking form. If the customer decides without ever reaching the site, the campaign is never fully told. The picture changes on the analytics side as well: traffic to the site drops while part of the sales arrives by another route, and reports become harder to read. So what matters is not whether the feature is on or off, but whether it fits your path to purchase.

Then there is the brand experience. A product page built with care brings together the brand's photos, its story and the details that build trust. A standard product page opened inside the app is fast, but it looks the same for everyone. For brands that sell a product on its story rather than its price, that difference should not be underestimated.

Meta says advertisers can opt out with the button in the notice before 28 October, and afterwards switch the feature on or off for each ad in the Advantage+ creative and destination settings. So the decision is not irreversible; but because it is on by default, an advertiser who does nothing will go through the change without noticing.

So what should you do? The first step is to work out which of your campaigns really need your own website. For an e-commerce brand selling individual products from a catalogue, the in-app product page will most likely do the job. But for brands that sell services, collect bookings or quote requests, or have built a special experience on their site, sending the first tap straight to the website may be the better choice.

The second step is measurement. For campaigns where you leave the feature on, conversions need to be assessed not only by sales on your site but together with the in-app interactions Meta reports. The soundest approach is to run two similar campaigns side by side for a while, one with the feature on and one off, and compare the results with your own data. An average of 3 percent could be 10 percent in your account, or a loss.

The third step is to review your product catalogue. The in-app page pulls its information straight from the catalogue. Missing descriptions, low-resolution images or outdated prices will appear on that page exactly as they are. In short, your catalogue is no longer just a data file; it is one of your brand's shop windows.

Platform changes like this are happening more and more often, and they usually arrive quietly, through default settings. In ad management, keeping track of these settings is now part of the job, not just creative and targeting. At Apex Kreatif we assess the path to purchase of every campaign in the accounts we manage, test changes like this before they take effect and decide based on the data.

If you have seen this notice in your own account and aren't sure what to do, we recommend taking a look before 28 October. We're happy to look at it together.