The unlikely winner of the US social ad shake-up

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Facebook and YouTube will still be the top US social media platforms for buying ads or monetizing content this year, though their dominance is eroding, according to October 2022 polling by Integral Ad Science.

Nearly every major platform saw a decline in the percentage of US digital media professionals planning to advertise on it. WhatsApp bucked the trend with a 2-percentage-point increase from a year earlier. Twitter stayed flat—with the caveat that the survey was conducted prior to Elon Musk’s takeover.

Beyond the chart: More than three-quarters (77%) of the digital media professionals surveyed said that eroding consumer trust in major social media platforms will “negatively impact” their media spend. As a result, budgets are shifting across these platforms.

To build back trust with consumers (and curry favor with regulators), social media companies are introducing a number of changes to their platforms, including the ability to pause notifications or ensure content is age-appropriate.

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Methodology: Data is from the December 2022 Integral Ad Science (IAS) "The 2023 Industry Pulse Report." 356 US digital media professionals were surveyed online during October 2022. Respondents include advertiser/brands (33%), creative agencies (24%), publishers (20%), ad network/exchanges (8%), media agencies (8%), supply side platform (4%), trading desk (2%) and demand side platforms (1%) that use programmatic advertising.