Tinuiti Report: Social Ad Spend Is Up

Social ad spend is shifting again — and the signals are coming into focus. New Q4 data from Tinuiti shows advertisers regaining confidence in TikTok’s U.S. future, increasing spend after months of pullback, while platforms like Instagram Reels, YouTube, Pinterest, and Reddit continue to absorb growing shares of social ad spend. As automation expands and platform economics change, the latest trends point to a rebalancing moment for social media advertising …  one that will shape how brands and agencies plan, test, and allocate social ad spend heading into 2026.

Mark Ballard, Director of Research at Tinuiti, sat down with StreetFight to go deeper.

The report shows Google Search and Amazon Sponsored Products both posting strong holiday gains after Amazon pulled back from Google Shopping ads. How should regional retailers rethink search strategy when platform dynamics shift this dramatically? 

Retailers should be assessing whether recent changes to the auction dynamics have opened up any opportunities for them. With Amazon out of U.S. Google Shopping listings many brands are seeing lower cost-per-click even as click growth has jumped. Brands may find they’re able to push a little harder on their bids, while still remaining profitable, or that there may be entire segments that were previously cost-prohibitive that are now viable.

Click growth on Google Search hit a five-year high while CPCs remained relatively flat.
Is this a temporary window of efficiency for brand advertisers, or a longer-term structural change in search economics? 

Google search ad-click growth is likely to remain strong in year-over-year terms over the first half of 2026 as Amazon pulled back on its investment in Google ads dramatically in Q3 2025. So far, it doesn’t look like any of the other big retailers are stepping up to fill the void left by Amazon, so the economics of the marketplace have fundamentally changed.

Reels placements have now surpassed Feed on Instagram for ad impressions. What does this shift mean for brands that still rely heavily on static or feed-based creative? 

The Instagram ad market has been shifting steadily to Reels over time, so brands that aren’t seeing a significant contribution from Reels ad impressions may be leaving money on the table.

Pinterest and Reddit both posted some of the fastest ad spend growth in Q4. For local marketers, where do these platforms fit in the mix compared to more established social channels like Meta and TikTok? 

Both Pinterest and Reddit command a significant share of social ad spend dollars among the brands that have adopted them so the opportunity is meaningful. For brands looking to diversify their ad mix, the barriers to entry for some of these smaller platforms are also falling given the rise of AI-powered tools and campaigns.

Performance Max now accounts for more than 60% of Google Shopping spend, but with slightly lower ROAS than standard campaigns. How should brands balance automation and control when margins are tight? 

AI-powered campaigns like Google’s Performance Max campaigns can be a very effective way to scale a brand’s marketing program, but to get the most out of them, it still requires the right strategy, intelligent oversight, and the use of appropriate guardrails by smart marketers.

Amazon DSP spending continues to grow rapidly, including among non-endemic advertisers.
What opportunities does this open up for service brands or retailers that don’t sell directly on Amazon? 

The Amazon DSP has been seeing strong investment growth in large part due to advertisers, both endemic and not, using it to target premium inventory, including Prime Video ads. Prime Video ads alone saw ad investment more than double year over year in Q4 2025.

YouTube CPMs fell sharply while impressions surged, especially through Demand Gen campaigns. How can local advertisers take advantage of this shift without overextending into upper-funnel spend? 

Google transitioned its Video Action Campaigns to the Demand Gen model in mid-2025, so direct-response focused advertisers should consider using Demand Gen campaigns to target YouTube inventory to generate online conversions. As a result of this transition, video inventory, primarily from YouTube, now accounts for about two-thirds of Demand Gen spending.

Across the report, AI-powered campaign types are driving more spend but less transparency.
What advice do you have for brand marketers who want the efficiency of AI without losing visibility into performance? 

While brands might not expect the ad platforms to reveal their secret sauce when it comes to the mechanics of their AI-powered campaigns, it is reasonable to expect a certain degree of transparency, particularly in the reporting of when and where ads are showing. The platforms have tended to make progress in this area over time, but sometimes they need to hear that feedback. Generally, it’s often the best strategy to use AI-powered campaigns as part of a broader mix that includes more manually-driven and transparent campaigns.