US Time Spent vs. Ad Spending 2025

What Are the Most Intriguing Imbalances Between Consumer Behavior and Marketer Investments This Year?

Report by Ethan Cramer-Flood  | UPDATED: Aug 14, 2025
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Ad dollars and consumer time spent are not aligned, and the skew mostly benefits social networks
YouTube and TikTok show unique, and opposite, trend lines
Sub OTT’s unusual path to advertising has created major misalignments
Advertisers may be overinvested in mobile and underinvested in other media access points
Media Gallery
About This Report
This report compares our 2025 US ad spending and time spent with media forecasts. It identifies incongruities between how marketers are spending ad dollars and where consumers are spending their time.
Topics
Media Consumption
Digital Advertising
Total Media Ad Spending
United States
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Ad dollars and consumer time spent are not aligned, and the skew mostly benefits social networks
YouTube and TikTok show unique, and opposite, trend lines
Sub OTT’s unusual path to advertising has created major misalignments
Advertisers may be overinvested in mobile and underinvested in other media access points
Media Gallery

Marketers will spend over half of their $413.55 billion US ad total on media and entertainment platforms this year. US adults will spend an average of 12 hours, 44 minutes (12:44) per day with those platforms. But our analysis reveals significant—and sometimes extreme—imbalances between where marketers put their ad dollars and where consumers spend their media time.

Key Question: What insights can be gleaned by comparing our US time spent with media forecast with our US ad spending forecast—and where is ad spending most misaligned?

Key Stat: Facebook and Instagram will claim over 20% of US digital ad revenues this year, but only about 7% of US adults’ daily time with media.

Among the Top Platforms for Time Spent, Meta's Flagships Vastly Outperform on Ad Spend Share (top platforms, ranked by % of time spent per day with digital media by US adults, and % of US digital ad spending, 2025 (redacted))
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Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Ad dollars and consumer time spent are not aligned, and the skew mostly benefits social networks
  1. YouTube and TikTok show unique, and opposite, trend lines
  2. Sub OTT’s unusual path to advertising has created major misalignments
  1. Advertisers may be overinvested in mobile and underinvested in other media access points
  2. Media Gallery

Charts in This Report

Among the Top Platforms for Time Spent, Meta's Flagships Vastly Outperform on Ad Spend Share (top platforms, ranked by % of time spent per day with digital media by US adults, and % of US digital ad spending, 2025 (redacted))Digital Will Claim Over 80% of Ad Budgets in 2025, but Only About Two-Thirds of Media Time Spent
Social Networks Take a Huge Share of Digital Ad Spend, Despite Other Media Taking So Much TimeAmong the Top Platforms for Time Spent, Meta's Flagships Vastly Outperform on Ad Spend Share (top platforms, ranked by % of time spent per day with digital media by US adults, and % of US digital ad spending, 2025)
YouTube's Time Spent Share Is Trending Up, but Its Ad Spending Share Is Trending DownTikTok's Time Spent Share Is Trending Down, but Its Ad Spending Share Is Trending Up
Sub OTT Time and Ad Spend Remain Deeply Misaligned, Despite the Trend Toward Ad-Supported Tiers (subscription OTT (sub OTT) video as a % of time spent per day with media by US adults and % of US total ad spending, 2020-2027)Netflix Takes the Most Sub OTT Time, but Hulu, Amazon, and Peacock Win on Sub OTT Ad Spend Share (% of time spent per day with subscription OTT (sub OTT) video by US adults and % of US sub OTT ad spending, by platform, 2025)
Mobile Devices and PCs Overindex on Ad Spend, While TV, CTV, and Radio Heavily UnderindexTime Spent With Mobile Devices Is Flattening, yet Mobile Continues to Grow Ad Spend Share (mobile as a % of time spent per day with media by US adults and % of US total ad spending, 2020-2027)
Viewers Are Streaming to CTV Far Faster Than Ad Dollars Are, and the Gap Is Widening (connected TV (CTV) as a % of time spent per day with media by US adults and % of US total ad spending, 2020-2027)

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First Published on Aug 13, 2025

authors

Ethan Cramer-Flood

Contributors

Vivian Dong
Forecasting Analyst
Jasmin Ellis
Forecasting Analyst
Zach Goldner
Senior Forecasting Analyst
Penelope Lin
Director, Data Visualization
Oscar Orozco
Senior Director, Forecasting
Naomi Rebuelta
Copy Editor
Shelleen Shum
VP, Forecasting
Andrew Spink
Senior Forecasting Analyst
Matt Torpey
Senior Chart Editor
Julia Woolever