During a March 2023 survey among marketers worldwide, ** percent of respondents claimed that the biggest issue with the technologies used in digital marketing is their high cost. Another ** percent of marketers stated that these technologies are too complex to deploy, while ** percent say there is a lack of integration across tools and technology.

During an early 2023 survey conducted among senior brand marketers from the United Kingdom, ** percent stated they were already using artificial intelligence (AI) within their digital advertising. Additionally, ** percent believed that AI was an important part of their marketing strategy.

During the September 2023 survey, ** percent of responding brand and agency marketers from the United Kingdom (UK) stated that serving relevant ads or creatives to clients was a benefit of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to digital advertising campaigns. The way the most-frequently named benefit among respondents from the UK.

In 2024, digital pure players (companies that operate primarily online, such as Google or Amazon) generated an advertising revenue of *** billion U.S. dollars worldwide. In 2025, their ad revenue is forecast to amount to *** billion dollars.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 83 percent selected increased exposure as a benefit of social media marketing. Increased traffic followed, mentioned by 73 percent of the respondents, while 65 percent cited generated leads.

              The multibillion-dollar social media ad industry

              Between 2019 – the last year before the pandemic – and 2024, global social media advertising spending skyrocketed by 140 percent, surpassing an estimated 230 billion U.S. dollars in the latter year. That figure was forecast to increase by nearly 50 percent by the end of the decade, exceeding 345 billion dollars in 2029. As of 2024, the social media networks with the most monthly active users were Facebook, with over three billion, and YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion.

              Pros and cons of GenAI for social media marketing

              According to another 2024 survey, generative artificial intelligence's (GenAI) leading benefits for social media marketing according to professionals worldwide included increased efficiency and easier idea generation. The third place was a tie between increased content production and enhanced creativity. All those advantages were cited by between 33 and 38 percent of the interviewees. As for GenAI's top challenges for global social media marketing,
              maintaining authenticity and the value of human creativity ranked first, mentioned by 43 and 40 percent of the respondents, respectively. Another 35 percent deemed ensuring the content resonates as an obstacle.

In 2024, spending on advertising and marketing in digital and alternative media worldwide grew by over ** percent. Meanwhile, investments in traditional media increased by little more than * percent. The same study projected that online and offline advertising and marketing combined global revenues would surpass **** trillion dollars.

During a 2023 survey carried out among advertisers at media agencies and brands, ** percent of respondents stated that brand safety and suitability was their leading concern when it came to digital advertising. Being able to reach target audiences effectively at scale ranked first, mentioned with ** percent of responding advertisers.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, around 86 percent reported using Facebook for marketing purposes. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 79 and 65 percent of the respondents.

              The global social media marketing segment

              According to the same study, 59 percent of responding marketers intended to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes throughout that year. LinkedIn and Instagram followed with similar shares, rounding up the top three social media platforms attracting a planned growth in organic use among global marketers in 2024. Their main driver is increasing brand exposure and traffic, which led the ranking of benefits of social media marketing worldwide.

              Social media for B2B marketing

              Social media platform adoption rates among business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers vary according to each subsegment's focus. While B2C professionals prioritize Facebook and Instagram – both run by Meta, Inc. – due to their popularity among online audiences, B2B marketers concentrate their endeavors on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn due to its goal to connect people and companies in a corporate context.

During a survey carried out in 2024, 62 percent of responding marketers who were looking to decrease spend on cookie-based activations said they were planning to shirt spending towards social media. Nearly half were planning to invest in first-party data.

In 2023, the online advertising market in Poland was worth **** billion zloty. By 2028, the sector's revenue will grow to ********** zloty, with a CAGR of **** percent between 2023 and 2028.

During the September 2023 survey, ** percent of responding brand and agency marketers from Europe stated that high-quality targeting was a benefit of of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to digital advertising campaigns. The was the most frequently named benefit. Increased consumer engagement ranked second, mentioned by ** percent of respondents.

According to a 2023 survey among sales and marketing executives at software and cloud hosting companies in the United States, ** percent of respondents from high-growth firms said their organizations owned analytics and data visualization platforms for digital marketing. Among low-growth companies, the share stood at ** percent.

In 2023, Peru was expected to be the fastest-growing digital advertising market in the world, with an annual growth rate of about ** percent. Argentina and Chile rounded out the top three with annual increases of approximately ** and ** percent, respectively. Digital advertising in Latin America Based on the latest projections, five of the ** fastest-growing digital ad markets will be in Latin America in 2023. While traditional media channels still have a firm grip over the region’s advertising landscape due to media consumption habits and infrastructural hurdles, there has been a steady shift towards digital approaches in recent years. In 2022, internet advertising spending in Latin America was expected to reach roughly **** billion U.S. dollars, more than twice the amount that was invested in 2018. Interestingly, social media is set to draw the largest share of expenditures and outperform search in the running for the top digital advertising format in Latin America and the Caribbean. What are the top digital advertising markets worldwide? Data on the global distribution of internet advertising spending shows that North America and the Asia-Pacific region remain the largest spenders, with the United States setting the pace. And yet, forecasts also suggest that the most prominent players will see their market shares decline in the following years. Smaller fish such as Latin America or the Middle East and Africa (MENA), which currently represent less than *** percent of global digital ad spend, are set to slowly but steadily leverage their massive growth potential in the future.

During a September 2023 survey among in-house marketing decision-makers in the United States, around three-quarters (or ** percent) reported responding to consumer data privacy concerns by reallocating some digital marketing budget into direct mail.

During a survey carried out in early 2023, *** percent responding marketing leaders from the United Kingdom (UK) stated that digital marketing contributed very highly to the performance of their companies in 2021. On the other hand, nearly a third stated that it did not contribute at all to their companies' performance.

Social media companies are starting to offer users the option to subscribe to their platforms in exchange for monthly fees. Until recently, social media has been predominantly free to use, with tech companies relying on advertising as their main revenue generator. However, advertising revenues have been dropping following the COVID-induced boom. As of July 2023, Meta Verified is the most costly of the subscription services, setting users back almost 15 U.S. dollars per month on iOS or Android. Twitter Blue costs between eight and 11 U.S. dollars per month and ensures users will receive the blue check mark, and have the ability to edit tweets and have NFT profile pictures. Snapchat+, drawing in four million users as of the second quarter of 2023, boasts a Story re-watch function, custom app icons, and a Snapchat+ badge.

Concerning the ** selected segments, the segment Retail has the largest ad spending share with ***** percent. Contrastingly, Energy & Fuel is ranked last, with **** percent. Their difference, compared to Retail, lies at **** percentage points. Find more statistics on other topics: a comparison of countries or regions regarding the ad spending and a comparison of countries or regions regarding the ad spending share.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

How many people use social media?

              Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2024, over five billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to over six billion in 2028.

              Who uses social media?
              Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide and it is no surprise that social networking penetration across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January 2023, the global social media usage rate stood at 59 percent. This figure is anticipated to grow as lesser developed digital markets catch up with other regions
              when it comes to infrastructure development and the availability of cheap mobile devices. In fact, most of social media’s global growth is driven by the increasing usage of mobile devices. Mobile-first market Eastern Asia topped the global ranking of mobile social networking penetration, followed by established digital powerhouses such as the Americas and Northern Europe.

              How much time do people spend on social media?
              Social media is an integral part of daily internet usage. On average, internet users spend 151 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, an increase of 40 minutes since 2015. On average, internet users in Latin America had the highest average time spent per day on social media.

              What are the most popular social media platforms?
              Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.9 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide. In June 2023, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

During a January 2024 global survey among marketers, nearly 60 percent reported plans to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes in the following 12 months. LinkedIn and Instagram followed, respectively mentioned by 57 and 56 percent of the respondents intending to use them more. According to the same survey, Facebook was the most important social media platform for marketers worldwide.

As of the third quarter of 2023, around **** percent of internet users in the United Arab Emirates stated that they researched brands online before a purchase. Around **** percent reported that they visited brands' websites in the past month.