The news: Meta announced today updates to its Brand Rights Protection product to combat an influx of scam ads across its social platforms. Meta will now give brands using Brand Rights Protection the option to report scam ads at scale, regardless of whether the ads use the brand’s intellectual property. This feature includes ads that are suspected as scams or ads that are misleading and exploit a brand’s name without authorization. Our take: With social media’s vulnerability to ad fraud and proliferating concerns about brand safety causing some advertisers to reconsider spending, Meta’s update comes at a critical time.

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

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

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

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

The news: Direct messages (DMs) are becoming a key channel to reach consumers as follower growth, once the gold standard for social media success, declines. The average number of shares for brands on TikTok increased 60% quarter over quarter in Q1, per Dash Social’s 2025 Social Media Trends report, showing a pivot toward private content distribution. At the same time, average monthly follower growth for brands on TikTok dropped 27% YoY. Our take: The rise of DMs as a preferred engagement channel signals a deeper shift in social media strategy—from public broadcasting to private conversation—that requires brands to prioritize intimacy to maintain trust and drive meaningful outcomes.

Time spent with social media is plateauing, but Gen Z and Gen Alpha are still platform-hopping. As Gen Zers steadily overtake millennials in terms of share, brands must understand the nuances of how each generation uses its platforms of choice.

After advertisers spent Q1 2025 reacting to the threat of tariffs, they shifted their focus back to the business of figuring out how social platforms’ automated offerings complement more established methods of investment.

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

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

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

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

The news: TikTok renewed its Lionel Messi-focused live broadcast deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) after a successful 2024 livestream, per a blog post. TikTok will partner with Apple TV to broadcast four select matches in the current MLS season, with a dedicated camera angle focused on Messi during each match. Our take: TikTok and Apple TV’s newest move is another bid to capitalize on a well-known athlete in a profitable genre, where advertising opportunities are plentiful and success is essentially guaranteed. Sports are one of the most reliable ad environments, offering scale, loyalty, and global reach.

YouTube is the No. 1 US media platform when it comes to time spent by US adult users, reaching 11.4 billion minutes per day in 2025.

The news: Reddit’s ad business is on a path of steady growth, with ad revenues expected to reach $1.8 billion this year and grow 29% to reach $2.5 billion in 2026, per a new WARC forecast. Brand participation on Reddit shows promising results: One organic brand post per week increases positive mentions by 3.5%. Our take: Though Reddit’s massive growth is partially attributed to its smaller reach, its ability to reach users that aren’t frequenting more popular platforms warrants investment, and a diversified approach combining Reddit’s unique community-driven base with larger platforms’ massive reach is key.

The news: Meta is experimenting with letting users sign up for Threads through Facebook, potentially attracting older users and further separating Threads’ identity from Instagram. Our take: Combining data from Facebook and Threads will give advertisers deeper insights and opportunities to optimize campaigns. Marketers can use this to tailor platform-specific campaigns or create unified cross-platform content to better resonate across demographics.

Social search is gaining ground. Roughly two-thirds of US consumers search on at least one social platform in ways that can influence every part of the consumer journey.

Social network user growth will be slow on a worldwide level, but 2025’s meager 2.9% increase will still equate to more than 115 million new users. Facebook remains in the lead in most countries and regions, even though its share of internet users is declining.

Despite high penetration of social networks among internet users in Asia-Pacific, population-wide adoption lags. As such, we expect 209.6 million new social media users in the region between 2025 and 2029.

A young, culturally influential, and economically powerful group, Black consumers are shaping digital trends through high engagement with streaming and social media while shaping retail with their distinct shopping preferences.