Some brands are now dedicating up to 90% of their marketing budget to social advertising. Those who embrace automation and drive cross-platform campaigns are the advertisers that will win in 2022.

On today's episode, we discuss the opportunities and challenges within social advertising and how automation will play its part. We then talk about what to expect from micro- and nano-influencers in 2022 and what the most interesting social media video statistics are. Tune in to the discussion with global director of marketing at Smartly.io Riikka Söderlund and eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Debra Aho Williamson.

Advertisers in the Middle East and North Africa spend more on social than on any other digital ad format. In 2020, $1.73 billion went to social advertising, more than double what the next biggest format, video, brought in.

On today's episode, we discuss whether Amazon's new home robot could be the "fourth screen," the significance of the creator economy, online shopping's ceiling, how much people notice social media ads, YouTube's upcoming Holiday Stream and Shop event, the real meaning of freedom at work, an explanation of who you’ve been dreaming about, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst Blake Droesch and senior analysts at Insider Intelligence Audrey Schomer and Ross Benes.

Three in five US internet users said that discounts are what influence them to buy a product through social media ads, far more than the 44% who cited the brand’s trustworthiness and customer data practices.

What’s next for social media advertising? Our models for Q1 were solid compared with actual results. We take a bottom-up approach to our forecasts, modeling quarterly revenue for each of the companies to build up to a full-year view. We update these full-year forecasts twice a year but do not publish our internal quarterly estimates.

This growth will underpin a jump in overall social media ad revenues that will exceed Google’s total ad spend by the end of 2024. TikTok’s Rapid Growth Will Put Twitter and Snapchat in the Shade. TikTok will earn more than Twitter and Snapchat combined from digital advertising this year, per our inaugural ad spending forecast for the platform.

More insurers will follow insurtechs’ lead and invest heavily in social media ads. Insurtechs like Root and Lemonade commit the bulk of their digital ad budgets to Facebook, while most incumbents focus on desktop display, per February 2020 Pathmatics data. (Allstate is an exception, having raised Facebook spend from 1% of its digital ad spend in 2016 to over half starting in 2018.).

TikTok’s advertising suite is becoming more sophisticated with more ad formats, targeting techniques, and measurement capabilities. In 2022, its ad revenues will rise by 184.4% as new advertisers lean in and existing advertisers spend more.

TikTok kills two birds with one stone: The platform needs to court advertisers and become the most creator-friendly social platform. Its new initiative could do both.

Snap’s investor warning is a worrying sign for social media: The ad-relient industry is feeling the effects of piling changes and weakening economic conditions.

Digital advertising will drive total media ad spending in Western Europe toward $150 billion in 2022, as brands scramble for advantage in a rapidly changing world.

Meta juggles its Facebook present and metaverse future: The social network gains users, but recent losses could mean less money for metaverse R&D, giving VR platform competitors an opening.

Our latest forecasts for ad spending in Canada, which include our first-ever estimates for Google and Meta, show strong growth overall and an accelerated shift to digital.

Google, Meta to get boost from Western Europe digital ad spending: Total category expenditures to exceed $90 billion this year, fueled by appeal of search and display formats.

Meta clashes with Apple over AppTrackingTransparency: The change damaged Meta’s profits, but Apple’s ad business is soaring.

Two years in, Meta’s latest ecommerce effort fails to resonate: Ecommerce could soften the blow to its ad business, but it’s struggling to catch on.

Video is a growing part of advertising on social media. Here’s how advertisers are using video ads on social platforms to drive ad performance throughout the funnel.

TikTok’s hold on the social media industry is impossible to ignore: The video app and other visually oriented platforms thrive with key demographics.