Social media advertising will remain vulnerable in Q2 and possibly longer. CPMs will stay low, spending cuts will persist, and ad creative will be tricky to get right.

With the coronavirus pandemic keeping most people worldwide at home, media consumption is up. But with an economic slowdown crashing markets and supply chains disrupted by the virus, many advertisers are pulling or pausing spend—meaning increases in media engagement aren’t translating into increased ad revenues.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom, vice president of forecasting Monica Peart and principal analyst Nicole Perrin discuss the latest revisions to our US ad spending forecasts. They then talk about Twitter sharing more information with advertisers, social distancing ads showing up in games and Microsoft's digital-only events commitment.

Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov about the company’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including what’s behind its latest ad policy update, usage trends and how it's helping brands pivot their campaigns. Made possible by Salesforce.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues and the federal government extends social distancing recommendations, people are spending more time on their phones, but advertisers are most likely going to be spending less money on mobile advertising.

As with every other aspect of our lives, COVID-19 is impacting social media usage and advertising. Some of those changes, along with other important ad product launches, will continue to affect advertisers once the pandemic ends.

At a time when reliable information about the coronavirus is critical, trust in the news media in Canada is not as high as it should be, according to new research.

With large sectors of the economy unable to do business as usual, many marketers have paused or changed media plans. In one potential early sign of the tough times to come for digital advertising, Twitter updated its guidance to investors earlier this week and announced that it expects to see a drop in Q1 2020 revenues, on a year-over-year basis, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The wave of coronavirus (COVID-19)-related content has become a high-stakes test for social media platforms’ abilities to fight misinformation. False recommendations about how to avoid contracting the virus or what measures infected people should take to avoid spreading it have the potential to cause more sickness and death from a pandemic that has already taken thousands of lives worldwide.

The influx of political content and ad dollars for the upcoming US presidential election will inevitably impact commercial advertisers on social media. Understanding the political ad cycle and consumer attitudes toward political content can help brands better reach their audiences.

As the government continues to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic, US consumers and news organizations have rediscovered one of the things that made social media so valuable: Democratizing information about a fast-moving global story brings to light important narratives that official sources may miss, ignore or suppress.

Twitter’s user growth has been plateauing for years, as social media users gravitate toward newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. But among the countries included in our forecast for Twitter user growth, seven of the top 10 are in Asia-Pacific—a regional trend also evident with Facebook and to some extent, Instagram.

In-person events are a cornerstone touchpoint for many B2B companies, but as the coronavirus outbreak progresses globally, major business events have been cancelled or postponed. This will come at great cost to marketing budgets and can have a lasting impact on revenue and sales.

Social ad spending is continuing to rise, and more US marketers—particularly those in retail—will keep funneling money into the channel.

Brands have sought after millennials since the segment was identified as a demographic phenomenon reminiscent of the boomers. There’s been heavy investment in the creation of products and services that fit within an evolving consumer culture, one increasingly defined by this influential cohort. Growing independence and earning make this group the most digitally connected of all.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and junior analyst Blake Droesch recount their experiences interviewing 16 social media creators about how they approach brand partnerships, which platforms are working for them and influencers' role in the purchase process.

US digital political ad spending will hit a record high for the 2019/2020 political cycle, crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time ($1.34 billion), as a larger number of highly engaged voters are expected to donate to the candidates of their choice in this year’s presidential race.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson discusses Twitter's and Snapchat's Q4 2019 performances. She then talks about how much money Instagram supposedly makes Facebook and the seriousness of the big tech antitrust investigations.

This report will take a look at the key digital habits and personas across age groups in Canada.

The role of political advertising in social media will be a key discussion topic in 2020—an easy prediction to make. Kantar Media expects that US digital political ad spending will reach $1.2 billion this year, and we believe the social platforms that continue accepting political advertisers will be major beneficiaries of that spending.