78.7% of companies run social media advertising — Meltwater data
Meltwater surveyed 1,500 marketers: 78.7% run social media ads, TikTok is expanding its reach to 1.9 billion, and 55% of social listening users are increasing their investment.
Three quarters of marketers believe organic social media will play a more important role in 2026, but only 31% of companies plan to increase their budgets. These findings come from Meltwater's global study, which covered more than 1,500 marketing professionals from the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, the UAE, Italy, South Africa and other markets.
Paid promotion remains the dominant format for working in social media: 78.7% of companies run social media advertising. Audience behavior also confirms the channel's effectiveness — more than 30% of internet users learn about new brands precisely through such advertising.
Video and carousels: demand growing faster than resources
Video remains the leading content format. On average, users spend 6 hours 39 minutes per week watching short videos such as TikTok and Reels. Companies continue to strengthen this area but face practical barriers: teams lack time and people, and the second most significant constraint is limited video production capabilities.
The conclusion is simple: demand for video content is growing faster than companies' resources to produce it. At the same time, interest in carousels has grown noticeably — by 24% compared to the previous period.
TikTok and Reddit push Facebook* and X out of priorities
The most active platforms for paid promotion are Instagram*, Facebook* and LinkedIn. But the structure of priorities is changing rapidly. TikTok's use in paid promotion has grown by roughly 50%. On the metric of “which platforms marketers plan to spend more time on,” TikTok rose from third place in 2025 to second in 2026, second only to Instagram*. The platform's potential ad reach increased by 17.6%, approaching 1.9 billion users.
Reddit is turning from a niche platform into a full-fledged marketing channel. The number of marketers publishing content there 1–2 times a week has grown by 42%, and overall platform usage — by 63%.
Facebook* and X are increasingly classified as lower-priority channels. That said, Meltwater separately emphasizes that Facebook* still remains an important platform for brand discovery and advertising.
Social listening: reputation control as the main task
For businesses, social media is no longer just a place for publishing. Companies increasingly see it as a system where they need to simultaneously create content, analyze audience reactions, and choose the most effective channels. The growing interest in social listening — the systematic collection and analysis of mentions of a brand, product, or business-relevant topic across social media and other online sources — is telling. This tool allows companies to understand audience sentiment, track reputation changes, identify trends, and spot potential risks in a timely manner.
52.5% of companies already use social listening. More than half of those working with it — 55% — plan to increase their investment. The main task is brand reputation control: 87% of surveyed marketers named it as such.
The study records an obvious shift: businesses are professionalizing their work with social media, but doing so carefully — expanding the set of channels and tools without forcing spending growth.
*Meta, as well as its social networks Instagram and Facebook, are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation.
Source: AdIndex
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