That is the fifth installment in Digiday’s 2025 CMO Methods collection that analyzes key marketer methods and challenges throughout main advertising channels, comparable to retail media, show promoting, social media and ad-supported streaming.
Amongst all channels thought of in Digiday’s 2025 CMO Methods collection, social media had the very best utilization price for the third 12 months in a row, with 92% of the greater than 190 marketer professionals who responded to our Digiday+ Analysis survey saying their firm makes use of social media for advertising. That’s down 5 proportion factors from the share of respondents who mentioned their firm used social media for advertising final 12 months and the 12 months earlier than — 97% respectively for 2024 and 2023.
Social media stays a preferred advertising channel 12 months after 12 months due to its huge viewers attain and since it provides entrepreneurs the chance to determine real, natural connections with customers.
“We imagine that investing in social today is one of the best distribution channel for any model,” mentioned Emmanuel Orssaud, CMO at language-learning app Duolingo. “It’s the place you’ll be able to attain the very best variety of folks, and it places the emphasis on the content material and never the spend. … Whereas we spend on efficiency advertising and acquisition, one of the best ways to construct a model is thru content material that’s distributed via social media.”
International social media advert spend is projected to complete $276.72 billion in 2025, up 13.6% 12 months over 12 months from 2024, in accordance with Statista. Nonetheless, President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a possible ban on TikTok in america might upend these optimistic projections. Certainly, these elements might have already got contributed to the 5 proportion level drop in entrepreneurs’ utilization of social media in 2025.
As TikTok’s preliminary Jan. 19 ban deadline loomed, the platform had already turn out to be an more and more dangerous prospect for advertisers. Some advert executives informed Digiday that they had slowed their spending on the platform consequently. Nonetheless, in June, the president prolonged the ban deadline for a 3rd time to Sept. 17., and entrepreneurs proceed to speculate.
The precise affect tariffs can have on the advert trade continues to be in flux and relies upon largely on the extent of the tariffs. For instance, eMarketer’s predictions for complete advert spend in 2025 vary from $394 billion to $422 billion, relying on the place the tariffs land. And it’s price noting that, on the bottom finish of eMarketer’s predictions, advert spend will fall by $1 billion in contrast with 2024.
To map out entrepreneurs’ present digital playbook, Digiday+ Analysis despatched out a survey asking 195 respondents about previous and upcoming investments, advertising channel ways, preferences, and enterprise challenges.
Digiday+ Analysis additionally performed particular person interviews with advertising executives throughout industries.
03
Entrepreneurs diversify their use of social media platforms
Entrepreneurs are diversifying their use of social media platforms in 2025, in accordance with Digiday’s survey outcomes. General, the highest 5 social media platforms that entrepreneurs mentioned they presently use observe the identical rating order as final 12 months, with Meta’s Instagram and Fb persevering with to cleared the path, adopted by YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest.
Nonetheless, entrepreneurs are utilizing Instagram and Fb barely much less this 12 months than they did final 12 months — down 2 proportion factors and 1 proportion level respectively in 2025 vs. 2024. On the identical time, they’re growing their investments in different platforms.
Particularly, the share of entrepreneurs who mentioned their firm presently makes use of YouTube elevated by 4 proportion factors in 2025 vs. 2024, whereas the share of entrepreneurs who mentioned their firm makes use of TikTok grew by 3 proportion factors. Reddit utilization was up by 2 proportion factors this 12 months vs. final 12 months.
Julianne Fraser, founder and CEO of digital advertising company Dialogue New York, mentioned in an e-mail that she encourages her shoppers to unfold their advert spend throughout social media platforms. “Be cautious of counting on any single platform, however diversify throughout a number of (the extra apparent ones like TikTok and Instagram, in addition to rising platforms like YouTube Shorts, Substack, and many others.),” Fraser mentioned. “Having a test-and-try mindset will be largely beneficial to establish the place your model narrative resonates most, and refine from there.”
One purpose some entrepreneurs informed Digiday they’re diversifying their social platform utilization in 2025 is due to the lingering uncertainty across the potential ban of TikTok within the U.S.
“We have been ready for the vary of outcomes with the potential [TikTok] ban this 12 months, and had eventualities and methods in place if that was to maneuver ahead,” mentioned Laura Knebusch, svp of CPG advertising and shopper expertise at Georgia-Pacific. “We’re persevering with to promote or leverage TikTok for a few our manufacturers in numerous methods, however we’ll proceed to remain near the heart beat and make it possible for we’re ready and perceive the place and the way we will diversify.”
“We’ve additionally invested in YouTube Shorts for the primary time this 12 months,” Knebusch added. “That could be a newer platform for us, however we expect it’s an effective way to succeed in our goal.”
In truth, along with entrepreneurs’ elevated use of YouTube in 2025, YouTube stands to profit if a TikTok ban is put in place within the U.S. That’s as a result of YouTube’s Shorts video format is similar to TikTok by way of advert artistic, engagement and capabilities.
On a Feb. 4 earnings name, Google svp and Chief Enterprise Officer Philipp Schindler informed analysts that advert income from Shorts was shortly catching as much as income from YouTube’s long-form content material. “In 2024, the monetization price of quick relative to in-stream viewing elevated by greater than 30 proportion factors within the U.S. and we anticipate to make further progress in 2025,” Schindler mentioned on the decision.
YouTube has begun encouraging advertisers to spend extra on the platform, particularly emphasizing why they need to take into account YouTube Shorts as an alternative choice to TikTok, in accordance with three advert executives Digiday interviewed earlier this 12 months. “[YouTube has] shared numbers from eMarketer on how Shorts, after TikTok, is the go-to platform for Gen Z to look at short-form content material,” mentioned Shamsul Chowdhury, evp of paid social at Jellyfish.
For its half, earlier this 12 months, Reddit rolled out a number of new instruments that it hopes will demystify the platform for entrepreneurs and assist entrepreneurs have interaction extra with customers. The updates — together with Reddit Professional Developments, which tracks developments and communities in actual time, and advert format AMA Adverts, which supplies entrepreneurs extra methods to make use of paid media to succeed in the proper varieties of customers — purpose to floor contextually related real-time mentions of manufacturers, subjects and classes so entrepreneurs know the place they need to focus each paid and natural content material.
As a part of entrepreneurs’ diversification of their use of social platforms, they’ve decreased use of a number of platforms as effectively. X, Snapchat and Pinterest noticed the share of entrepreneurs who mentioned their firm makes use of these platforms drop by 13, 9 and eight proportion factors respectively.
X nonetheless hasn’t recovered from continued turbulence since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. X has been making an attempt to entice entrepreneurs again, nevertheless, with alternating stress ways and value reducing measures that haven’t yielded a lot success. In line with market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, 66 of the highest 100 spending U.S. advertisers on X previous to its acquisition weren’t spending on the platform as of March 2025. In the meantime, giant manufacturers like American Categorical which have returned to the platform are placing in solely 20% of their earlier funding.
Messaging app Snapchat and image-based platform Pinterest have a tendency to draw area of interest audiences who’re extra concerned about particular content material than different platforms with wider viewers bases. Nonetheless, each Snapchat and Pinterest have been making an attempt numerous ways to entice a broader vary of advertisers.
A latest pitch deck from Pinterest highlighted the platform’s AI-based, automated advert shopping for software Efficiency+, which Pinterest mentioned improves entrepreneurs’ CPA/CPC by greater than 10%.
For Snapchat’s half, the platform has been centered on enhancing its direct response enterprise to make it extra accessible to small- to medium-sized enterprise advertisers. That features increasing knowledge partnerships, growing advert merchandise and simplifying shopping for and automation instruments, comparable to its not too long ago introduced AI-powered Good funds optimization function.
04
Platform funds allocation takes successful in 2025
Throughout the board, entrepreneurs are devoting a smaller portion of their advertising budgets to every social media platform in 2025 than they have been in 2024, in accordance with Digiday’s survey outcomes. When requested how a lot of their advert funds goes to the varied platforms, marketer respondents mentioned all platforms noticed a lower in funds allocation in 2025 vs. 2024.
Moreover, Digiday’s survey discovered that entrepreneurs elevated their use of different media channels in 2025, whereas they decreased their use of social media total. For instance, 79% of survey respondents mentioned their firm makes use of show advertisements for advertising in 2025, up from 75% of entrepreneurs who mentioned the identical in 2024. Conversely, 92% of survey respondents mentioned their firm makes use of social media for advertising in 2025, down from 97% of entrepreneurs who mentioned the identical in 2024.
Entrepreneurs are nonetheless spending the best parts of their social media budgets on Meta’s Instagram and Fb in 2025, simply as they have been in 2024. However Instagram had a weighted common rating of three.1 in 2025, down from 4.0 in 2024, whereas Fb’s weighted common decreased by 1.1 factors in 2025 vs. 2024. Equally, YouTube noticed a dip of 1.1 factors in 2025, and Pinterest’s weighted common declined from 1.6 in 2024 to simply 0.7 in 2025.
Duolingo’s Orssaud mentioned one purpose entrepreneurs are dispersing their budgets throughout extra social platforms in 2025 is as a result of there are a variety of newer entrants, like Threads and decentralized platform Bluesky, that they’ll run content material on and gauge the way it performs.
“As marketeers, you’re all the time making an attempt to stability your funds,” Orssaud mentioned. “The massive distinction in comparison with final 12 months is that we’ve an array of social channels. It’s vital to keep watch over modifications within the panorama — whether or not that’s because of laws like a possible TikTok ban or rising channels like YouTube Shorts — and perceive tips on how to method these channels. The easiest way is to distribute the identical content material to these channels and see what sort of response you get. That helps to determine the proper technique for these channels, after which iterate from that.”
Georgia-Pacific’s Knebusch famous that the kind of content material every platform hosts and every person base performs a big position in figuring out advert spend as effectively. “We need to be actually choiceful with the place we make investments, and we need to make sure that it’s the proper factor for our goal shopper,” Knebush mentioned. “There’s a foundational ingredient of our media plan and our marketing campaign that we plan out effectively forward of time, often having to do with longer lead time channels like video, but additionally [channels] the place you’re establishing your model’s story. However, we’re investing extra in social. We’ve constructed out our social crew to ensure we’re ready to pay attention and establish the place in tradition we expect our manufacturers can play an even bigger position.”
05
Conversions vs. branding: Meta holds regular as YouTube beneficial properties traction — slowly
When Digiday requested entrepreneurs which social platform is finest for branding, 56% of survey respondents selected Instagram, making 2025 the third 12 months in a row that Instagram was respondents’ best choice for branding. Instagram was additionally entrepreneurs’ best choice for conversions in 2025, 2024 and 2023.
In truth, Instagram has dominated all social media platform rankings inside Digiday’s CMO Methods collection. Instagram is especially efficient for rising natural model attain, with extra instruments for engagement and a deal with photographs and movies which may encourage feedback, likes and shares. Likewise, engaged customers are extra apt to transform on Instagram.
In contrast to its sibling Instagram, Fb continues to not be a favourite branding software amongst entrepreneurs. Solely 12% of entrepreneurs mentioned it was finest for that function, down 1 proportion level from 2024. A number of elements hamper Fb’s usefulness as a branding software, together with oversaturation of advertisements, restricted customization of brand name pages and model security challenges.
YouTube, nevertheless, is gaining traction as a branding software — 18% of entrepreneurs mentioned it’s best for branding, up 2 proportion factors from final 12 months. This marks the second 12 months in a row that entrepreneurs mentioned YouTube is the second-best social media platform for branding.
YouTube will be helpful for branding as a result of its user-generated content material attracts a big, engaged person base. A number of of the CMOs Digiday interviewed for this report talked about that YouTube Shorts, particularly, is an efficient advertising software.
“We’ll take a look at some content material, see what resonates and, if it really works, we’ll proceed on that path,” mentioned Duolingo’s Orssaud. “That’s what we did with YouTube Shorts, for instance. We had 400% year-over-year development by way of impressions on that platform.”
Whereas Fb isn’t a prime branding software for entrepreneurs, its worth for changing customers continues to develop. Thirty-three p.c of entrepreneurs mentioned Fb is finest for driving conversions in 2025, up 2 proportion factors from final 12 months.
Fb’s standing as a legacy social media platform and its extensive number of advert codecs make it a helpful platform for producing conversions. In truth, 25% of U.S. adults take into account Fb to be essentially the most influential social media platform for buying selections, placing it simply forward of TikTok (21%) and Instagram (20%), in accordance with knowledge from Relex.
Allison Stransky, CMO at Samsung Electronics America, defined {that a} marketing campaign’s aim in the end determines which social media platform will carry out finest for branding and conversions. “This goes again to the target of the marketing campaign. Your KPI and your goal are actually a very powerful to match, much less so than the platform is,” Stranksky mentioned. “Is that this a conversion second, or is that this a attain and consciousness second? You must make it possible for your content material is about up not simply by goal, however by platform, so that you just get essentially the most out of it. An consciousness marketing campaign on Instagram is completely different than on TikTok. That’s how we plan our method.”
06
Engagement and impressions vie for prime KPI
As previously two years, engagement stays the first measurement of success entrepreneurs flip to on all social platforms in 2025, Digiday’s survey discovered — except for Pinterest and YouTube the place impressions is the highest metric this 12 months.
A couple of-third of marketer respondents (37%) mentioned engagement is the primary success metric they take into account for Instagram in 2025 and greater than one-quarter of respondents (26%) mentioned it’s their prime metric on Fb. That’s a slight shift from final 12 months when impressions tied with engagement as entrepreneurs’ essential success metric on Fb.
Engagement and impressions are carefully linked KPIs that may swap locations in significance 12 months over 12 months for any given platform as a result of they work hand-in-hand — the better the variety of instances an advert is displayed, the better the chance for shopper interactions.
“We care about natural impressions as a result of you may’t faux it and you’ll’t put the media funds behind it,” Duolingo’s Orssaud mentioned. “It’s purely all the way down to creating content material that engages folks and, if the content material is partaking, the algorithm will prioritize it and serve it to extra folks. Natural social impressions are the closest connection we’ve to point {that a} piece of content material actually hits effectively and we all know that we’ve carried out one thing proper.”
Ryan Meegan, CMO at disposable wipes producer Dude Wipes, mentioned Meta’s platforms are usually finest for gathering impressions knowledge. “The simplest to purchase and get essentially the most beneficial impressions is Meta,” Meegan mentioned. “[Meta has] been round in all probability the longest for a legacy social media firm, and so they’ve perfected how manufacturers should purchase advertisements and goal particular audiences and get good worth by way of CPMs, CPCs and basic attain.”
Engagement and impressions have been entrepreneurs’ No. 1 and No. 2 success metrics on TikTok as effectively this 12 months — 42% and 25% of respondents chosen these metrics respectively. As a result of TikTok primarily hosts user-generated content material that’s centered on producing dialog amongst viewers, manufacturers primarily depend on engagement to gauge success on the platform.
“Throughout the social area, we give it some thought as I wouldn’t say completely different objectives per platform, however we do arrange completely different artistic per platform, as a result of customers and viewers have interaction very otherwise on each,” Samsung’s Stransky mentioned. “All of [the platforms] are [meant] for driving engagement, having a extra approachable dialog, as a result of that is the place we all know that [users] are in a linked mindset. Nonetheless, Instagram and TikTok are very completely different by way of what it seems to be like and what works.”
Whereas the primary KPIs entrepreneurs monitor throughout social platforms might to not fluctuate a lot from 12 months to 12 months, Duolingo’s Orssaud mentioned that the language-learning app is paying extra consideration to the variety of new viewers it reaches on TikTok, particularly, which he added is without doubt one of the few platforms to trace this metric.
“The brand new viewer price is essential as a result of as you proceed to develop as a model — we’re at about 17 million followers on TikTok — having a brand new viewer metric means that you can perceive what content material is partaking the bottom that you just presently have,” Orssaud mentioned. “Reaching the identical folks on daily basis is nice, however that doesn’t assist us broaden our viewers pool. … We care quite a bit concerning the new viewer price to make sure that by diversifying our content material, by tapping into new fandoms, we’re certainly capable of attain a brand new viewers. [That metric] it’s not out there on each platform, so we will’t monitor it persistently throughout channels, sadly.”
Georgia-Pacific’s Knebusch mentioned that whatever the social media platform the house items producer advertises on, the corporate nonetheless depends on media combine modeling to gauge marketing campaign success throughout all media channels.
“For nearly all of our investments, social included, we nonetheless use MMM because the apples-to-apples comparability of how all of our investments are doing,” Knebusch mentioned. “The contribution, effectiveness, ROI and ROAS are all coming via MMM. That’s the highest line [for] how we’re taking a look at effectiveness inside a marketing campaign. It’s goal particular.”
“Often, [we look at] viewability, completion price and engagement as effectively,” Knebusch added. “As we’ve developed our social, much less into solely paid social, but additionally into natural, activations and influencer, we’re beginning to take a look at metrics that will assist us perceive that elevated engagement.”
