Social ad spending skews toward low-consideration products

Most industries leaning into social advertising are targeting younger audiences with offers for products with low price points. They’re going where their audience spends time—and in response, social platforms are continually expanding their portfolio of direct-response shopping and game install ads, as well as branding video formats.

• Media and entertainment remains in its advertising slump. However, it has found social media a good way to spur game installs and spread awareness through cost-effective video ads. The industry is also still recovering from writers’ and actors’ strikes, and it has reduced spending on more expensive branding media, such as TV, that it traditionally favors.
• CPG and retail are both core buyers of social media ads, in part to deflect the threat from new online challengers. The two industries will account for nearly 50% (29.9% by retail and 18.9% by CPG) of social ad spend this year. Retail has always spent heavily on social media, but heavy spending on social ads by Shein and Temu has driven the rest of the retail industry to spend more there as well. Similarly, traditional CPG companies continue to spend heavily on social media to compete with D2C and white-label players.

Read the full report, Q3 2024 Ad Spending Forecast and Trends.