Meta ad spend up 15% last quarter as TikTok sees sharp drop

Meta properties saw 15% ad spend growth in Q4 2024, while TikTok, facing an unknown future in the U.S., dropped 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 carry into 2024, although digital advertising overall expects a slowdown in growth in the coming year.

Dig deeper: IAB expects digital advertising growth to slow considerably this year

Why we care. Marketers have two significant reasons to continue, and in some cases increase, their investment in social media campaigns. One, they have to remain competitive in places where the competition is also investing. Two, new AI tools are helping create more efficient, automated campaigns on these platforms. Platforms smaller than Meta’s are also areas of significant investment, Tinuiti’s study showed.

TikTok. U.S. advertisers upped their TikTok spend 13% YoY during the 2024 holidays. This was half the growth rate (27%) TikTok saw in Q3 during the U.S. elections, and down from 64% YOY growth in Q4 2023.

None of this prevented the social media platform from having a very good year overall. Spend on TikTok for 2024 was $4.8 billion, according to MediaRadar. This was a 27% increase over 2023.

Smaller platforms. The Tinuiti study showed brands that bought on both TikTok and Meta spent $0.19 on TikTok for every $1 they spent on Meta. This is the same percentage 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 are finding value in the smaller platforms and spending accordingly, the study suggests.

Meta. U.S. ad spend on Meta properties saw 15% year-over-year growth in 4Q 2024. This was an acceleration from 9% growth in 3Q 2024.

For the first time since Q3 2022, Facebook CPM was above water, as it remained flat YoY. Spend growth on Facebook rose from 5% in Q3 to 11% in 4Q 2024.

Instagram ads were up 20% YoY during the 2024 holidays.

Facebook represented nearly two-thirds (64%) of spend on Meta platforms. Instagram was 35%. Marginal sums were also spent on Messenger and Audience Network.

Amazon DSP. A third (32%) of all Amazon ad investment in 4Q was in the demand-side platform (DSP), versus 68% of investment in the Amazon Ad Console.

This number represents the split for brands that advertise in both the Ad Console and DSP. Additionally, the report stated that left out of this number were a number of non-endemic brands that invest in the DSP, but aren’t active on the Console. This number has grown since the launch of Amazon Prime Video ads in early 2024.

Spend on Amazon DSP was up 36% YoY in Q4 2024. The Amazon DSP sells into Amazon’s owned and operated digital properties as well as publishers who use Amazon Publisher Services (APS). Additionally, it sells into other non-Amazon inventory. Due to high CPM for Amazon owned and operated properties, that category receives a higher percentage of spend (55%) than impressions (46%).

Walmart Sponsored Products. Tinuiti saw spend up 53% YoY for Walmart Sponsored Products in 4Q 2024. This was the biggest growth Sponsored Products had seen since the 2023 holidays.

Eighty-eight percent of all Walmart search ads were in Sponsored Products. Two other search formats were used in a smaller percentage — Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Video, each making up 6%.

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