Meta ad spending increased 15% last quarter as TikTok sees sharp decline
Meta properties saw ad spend increase 15% in Q4 2024, while TikTok, facing an unknown future in the US, fell 51 percentage points from Q4 2023 to 13%, according to digital advertising company Tinuiti.
These latest figures show the momentum that social media and commerce will maintain through 2024, although digital advertising overall expects its growth to slow in the coming year.
Dig Deeper: IAB expects digital advertising growth to slow significantly this year
Why we care. Marketers have two important reasons to continue, and in some cases increase, their investment in social media campaigns. First, they must remain competitive where the competition also invests. Two new AI tools help create more effective automated campaigns on these platforms. Platforms smaller than Meta’s are also important areas of investment, the Tinuiti study showed.
TikTok. US advertisers increased their TikTok spending by 13% year-over-year during the 2024 holidays. This is half the growth rate (27%) TikTok saw in the third quarter during the US election, and down from the growth of 64% on an annual basis in the fourth quarter of 2023.
None of this stopped the social media platform from having a very good year overall. Spending on TikTok for 2024 was $4.8 billion, according to MediaRadar. This is an increase of 27% compared to 2023.
Smaller platforms. The Tinuiti study showed that brands that shopped on both TikTok and Meta spent $0.19 on TikTok for every $1 spent on Meta. This is the same percentage that Meta advertisers invested in Pinterest, when they invested in both, and more than they spent on Snapchat (15%). When marketers invest in multiple social media platforms, they find value in smaller platforms and spend accordingly, the study suggests.
Meta. US ad spend on Meta properties saw 15% year-over-year growth in Q4 2024. This is an acceleration from 9% growth in Q3 2024.
For the first time since Q3 2022, Facebook’s CPM was above water, as it remained stable year-over-year. Spending growth on Facebook increased from 5% in the third quarter to 11% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Instagram ads increased 20% year-over-year during the 2024 holidays.
Facebook accounted for almost two-thirds (64%) of spending on Meta platforms. Instagram accounted for 35%. Marginal amounts were also spent on Messenger and Audience Network.
Amazon DSP. A third (32%) of all Amazon advertising investments in Q4 were in the demand-side platform (DSP), compared to 68% of investments in Amazon Ad Console.
This number represents the breakdown between brands advertising in both Ad Console and DSP. Additionally, the report states that a number of non-endemic brands that are investing in DSP, but are not active on the console, were not included in this number. This number has increased since Amazon Prime Video ads launched in early 2024.
Spending on Amazon DSP increased 36% year-over-year in Q4 2024. Amazon DSP sells to Amazon-owned and operated digital properties as well as publishers who use Amazon Publisher Services (APS). Additionally, it sells in other non-Amazon inventory. Due to the high CPM for Amazon owned and operated properties, this category receives a higher percentage of spend (55%) than impressions (46%).
Products sponsored by Walmart. Tinuiti saw spending increase 53% year-over-year on Walmart Sponsored Products in Q4 2024. This is the strongest growth Sponsored Products has seen since the 2023 holidays.
Eighty-eight percent of all Walmart search ads were for sponsored products. Two other search formats were used in a smaller percentage: Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Video, each accounting for 6%.
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