For marketers, millennials represent high engagement across social platforms and elevated price sensitivity amid cost-of-living pressures.

37.2% of US adults say they're most likely to shop via Instagram, making it the top social commerce platform, ahead of TikTok (30.5%), according to a September 2025 survey from Power Digital Marketing.

From facilitating discovery to purchase, content creators play different roles for each generation. This report explores how platform choice, content formats, and trust in creators vary by age and what marketers and retailers can do.

AI is already disrupting programmatic. Generative search is reshaping web traffic, while agentic buying and curated deals redraw how ads are bought and sold. Expect more automation and more premium pipes, but tougher transparency tradeoffs.

YouTube reaches more people than any other media platform in history. But saturation, slower growth, and rising competition are reshaping its future.

Mexico’s digital ad market is rapidly transforming as new formats, channels, and players emerge. Understanding the local market forces, challenges, and opportunities driving these shifts is vital to staying competitive.

The FTC is appealing the Meta monopoly ruling; but while a breakup would disrupt cross-platform buying, fragmented user attention still weakens the FTC’s hand.

Brazil’s digital ad market continues to transform as new formats, channels, and players emerge. Understanding the local market forces, challenges, and opportunities driving these shifts is vital to staying competitive in the country’s fast-evolving landscape.

Threads and WhatsApp ads are growing as novelty draws interest, but lasting ad spend hinges on better, platform-native formats.

Instagram's explosive EU audience growth compared with Facebook's slowing momentum means advertisers should follow suit.

Reddit ad spend is growing 46.3% YoY, more than double Instagram's growth rate and five times TikTok's, according to a November report from Sensor Tower.

Social commerce is booming in the UK, but the era of hyper-growth is coming to an end. Even so, social will continue gaining share of the digital wallet through 2029.

Reuters reporting suggests Meta has been unable to contain large-scale fraud in its China ad ecosystem. Despite launching a dedicated crackdown in early 2024 that cut violating ads from 19% to 9% of China revenue, enforcement was later relaxed, allowing misconduct to climb back to 16% by mid-2025. A multilayer reseller network, weak overseas deterrence in China, and partner whitelisting made violations difficult to trace. China advertisers still generated more than $18 billion for Meta in 2024, creating tension between revenue goals and quality controls. The case raises sharp questions about platform accountability and advertiser risk.

Generational splits shape how consumers find, research, and trust banks. Younger adults move through digital channels with ease, while older adults rely on branches, human support, and established institutions.

Meta has rolled out major upgrades to partnership ads on Facebook and Instagram, introducing new AI-enabled tools, broader creator discovery surfaces, and an API that lets advertisers programmatically convert UGC and creator posts into paid ads at scale. Partnership ads already outperform standard formats—19% lower CPAs and 13% higher CTRs—and with Gen Z more receptive to creator messaging and most consumers taking action quickly after seeing creator content, Meta is formalizing the path from organic influence to paid performance. For marketers, the message is clear: creator content is now a foundational performance lever, not an experimental add-on.

Social networks will claim close to 32% of US digital ad spending in 2026, as powerful AI systems and improved video monetization help push social past a plateau in time spent among US consumers.

Attention metrics (AUs) in the social media video landscape are gradually fragmenting as audiences shift to platforms with interest-driven feeds, per our industry KPI data provided by Adelaide. Consumer attention fragmenting across platforms means that advertisers who are already struggling to reach target audiences on social media are facing an uphill battle. Focusing on interest-driven platforms like Reddit and Pinterest as they gain AUs can help drive stronger results, while maintaining investment in leaders like YouTube will remain essential.

For social platforms, AI hype is colliding with user fatigue and rising regulations. In the US, they face stalled engagement and tougher rules as people demand more control and more human experiences.

LinkedIn released a report on the trends shaping small businesses in 2026, proving that technology, trust, and relationship building will be the pillars of success for small businesses in the years ahead. Despite the unique roadblocks small businesses face amid current macroeconomic conditions, success is possible for those who stay on top of emerging technologies, invest in their digital presence, and build professional relationships.

This is the second installment of our “UK Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.