Are advertisers overindexing on Meta?

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Key stat: Meta accounts for 19.5% of US digital ad spend, despite US adults spending only 7.6% of their time with digital media on the platform, according to our forecasts.

Beyond the chart:

• In contrast, YouTube, Hulu, TikTok, and Snapchat each make up a higher share of time spent with digital among US adults than digital ad spend.
• Meta is making much more per hour spent with Facebook and Instagram per person ($0.93) than YouTube ($0.13) or TikTok ($0.16), per our forecast.
• Some 37% of US Facebook users and 35% of Instagram users will buy on the platforms this year, per our forecast.
• Meta is ahead of the game with user data, ad placement, and trackable ROI.

Use this chart:

• Allocate digital ad spend.
• Consider the value of time spent as a marketing metric.

More like this:

• US Time Spent vs. Ad Spending 2023 (Insider Intelligence subscription required)
• Instagram users are getting a suite of generative AI features
• A guide to vertical video ads on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snap Spotlight
• Meta’s strategic efficiency and diversification pay off

More Chart of the Day:

• 8/1 - Keeping it dynamic
• 7/31 - Streaming showdown
• 7/28 - Price is key for D2C
• 7/27 - Ad channel choices
• 7/26 - CTV’s $15B boost

Note: Time spent with each medium includes multitasking; for example, 1 hour of multitasking on a smartphone while watching TV is counted as 1 hour for smartphone and 1 hour for TV. Figures are rounded to the nearest minute. Estimates of average time spent with media are based on the total US adult population according to the US Census Bureau 2010 release, not the number of users of each medium. Digital ad spending includes banner ads and other (static display ads such as Facebook's News Feed Ads and Twitter's Promoted Tweets), classified ads, email (embedded ads only), mobile messaging (SMS, MMS, and P2P messaging), rich media (including in-stream and outstream video ads), search ads (including contextual text links, paid inclusion, paid listings, and SEO), sponsorships, lead generation (referrals); rich media data for 2017-2022 includes in-stream and outstream video ads; data prior to 2017 includes only outstream video ads.

Methodology: Ad spending estimates are based on the analysis of various elements related to the ad market, including macro-level economic conditions; historical trends of the advertising market; historical trends of each medium in relation to other media; reported revenues from major ad publishers; estimates from other research firms; data from benchmark sources; consumer media consumption trends; consumer device usage trends; and eMarketer interviews with executives at ad agencies, brands, media publishers, and other industry leaders. Time spent estimates are based on the analysis of estimates from other research firms, consumer media consumption, device adoption trends, company reports, primary research, and interviews.