Social Media Marketing Report [January 2025]

Welcome to the most exciting year of social media marketing history.

In this report, we’ll explore how to overcome social media marketing as the champion of revenue attribution headaches, a title earned with 47% of marketers admitting it's their most challenging channel to solve.

As we pen the first line of this month’s Social Media Benchmark Report, we’re aware of the formidable competition we face from the likes of ChatGPT Deep Research and Gemini Advanced Deep Research 1.5, in educating you on this topic. 

Recycled content is no longer viable. The strategies of six months ago no longer suffice in meeting consumer demands. 

YES, You Heard It Right: AI Agents Will Outcompete You on Social Media

It's probably the most discussed topic right now on LinkedIn; AI Agents. Most of us don't really get it. However, the few that do, are already miles ahead in the social media marketing game.

AI is pushing the boundaries, when it comes to marketers' adaptive capacity on social media. Top marketers, or should we say developers, are now bringing AI agents that actively compete and collaborate with us to win the battle for user attention.

One AI agent has built a massive following, created its own product, and redefined what’s possible in social media marketing—all without human oversight. We’ll explain how this is happening and what it means for the future of social media strategy.

It’s time to wake up. In this relentless social media marketing race, yesterday’s skills feel worthless. Entirely new skillsets aren’t optional anymore. 

This is no longer just a battle of humans vs. humans; it’s humans and machines teaming up against the newest powerhouse: fully autonomous AI agents, tirelessly engaging in 10,000 threads, posting multiple times daily, and dominating discussions. 

Can you compete with that level of relentless activity? The honest answer is no, you can’t. The sooner you accept this reality and adapt, the better your chances of thriving on social media in 2025.

Hence, for this report, we’ve done something that AI won’t do (yet). 

We’ve analyzed:
a) how 91 high-growth and established brands cracked the code on Social Media ROI and
b) asked 150 top marketers 12 deep questions about 2025’s challenges.
Here’s what we uncovered...

Social Media Is Now The World's Largest Advertising Channel

Despite the challenges, in 2024, “social” overtook paid search as the world’s largest ad channel, commanding a staggering $247.3bn globally. In fact, in 2024, Social officially became the largest advertising channel in the world, and for good reason. 

Influencer Marketing Hub estimates that an annual compounded growth rate of 14%, is realistic, and will push social media ad spend to an estimated $266.92 billion in 2025. 

The fact that Meta is set to overtake linear TV in global ad spend in 2025, marks a major shift in the advertising landscape, as brands prioritize precision-targeted digital platforms over traditional broad-reach media, signaling the dawn of a new advertising era that has been under way for long. 

It’s where people spend the most time, where virality can skyrocket a brand, and where ROI potential is unmatched. However, even the biggest global giants are grappling with one major question: How do we make social work for us in order to finally show management positive ROI? 

This growth is driven by several factors, including the increasing number of internet users worldwide, with 67.5% of the global population now online. Social media platforms have become integral to daily routines, with 50% of internet users relying on them to connect with friends and family. In fact, with roughly 5.3 billion people using the internet worldwide and 5.17 billion active social media users, over 63% of the world's population spends a portion of their time on these platforms, presenting a significant marketing opportunity for businesses.

TEST NOW: How Advanced Is Your Social Media Management Strategy

Where people go, ad dollars follow - Social Media is the new battleground for attention

Since 2014, the average daily time spent on social media has increased by almost 40%, to 143 minutes on average a day, solidifying its position as the heartbeat of our digital lives. 

Until recently, marketing budgets from the world’s largest brands were heavily skewed toward TV ads, despite the growing dominance of social media and digital video. As digital video continues to outpace traditional TV, US adults are projected to spend over four hours daily on online platforms by 2025.

As consumers are spending more on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, naturally marketers are flocking to reach their audiences where they “are”. Yet, the increased time spent on Social hasn't been without its hurdles, as scientists are starting to tie increased social media usage to mental health issues, pushing brands to take responsibility and deliver socially and ethically responsible advertising. 

Top Trends & Challenges in Social Media Marketing

1. Mastering Precision Marketing: Building Control in a Fragmented, Cookieless World

Almost every 6 to 12 months, digital marketing faces disruptive changes in targeting. Just as January 2025 dawns, Meta’s new restrictions will hit health and wellness brands, stripping away access to high-intent event tracking like "Purchase" and "Add to Cart." This forces businesses to rely on less precise metrics, disrupting their ability to target effectively.

Relying solely on platforms’ evolving rules is a losing game. As third-party cookies fade and precision targeting becomes a luxury, brands must prioritize what they can control. Enter private communities (owned), direct channels where trust is built, data is first-party, and engagement is meaningful.

TEST NOW: How Advanced Is Your Social Media Management Strategy

Our survey reveals how marketers are navigating this new cookieless world. The top strategy, with 31.2% of marketers prioritizing it, is building private communities to foster targeted engagement and deeper consumer relationships. This approach reflects the increasing need to create owned spaces where brands can connect directly with their audience. Similarly, 27.4% of respondents are exploring other innovative solutions, including leveraging advanced technologies and alternative data strategies. 

Communities are your direct line to your audience—a space where trust is built, first-party data is collected, and engagement is meaningful. Take Zambrero, for example. With over 200 Facebook pages and additional platforms like Instagram and TikTok, they faced the chaos of fragmented social ecosystems. 

Similarly, great community management also drives localization at scale for Gorillas, who is managing social accounts across 60 cities, using centralized platforms to tailor their communications to regional nuances while maintaining brand consistency. This hyper-localized approach deepened their connections with diverse audiences while streamlining operations.

As digital marketing continues to evolve, brands must embrace community management not as a tactical necessity but as a strategic imperative. Unified platforms like Brandwatch not only simplify processes but also unlock new levels of insight and engagement. In 2025, the winners in this space will be those who build owned, data-driven communities where trust is nurtured, relationships are deepened, and customer needs are met in real-time.

2025: The Year of Communities

With the number of social media channels and private community platforms growing rapidly, brands are facing unprecedented complexity in managing conversations, fostering engagement, and influencing narratives. This is particularly true for brands with large followings, where community managers may oversee thousands of interactions daily across diverse platforms.

To excel in this environment, brands must equip their teams with cutting-edge tools that address the following critical needs.

At IMH we use Brandwatch Social Media Management which powers a comprehensive platform that helps us organize and manage our communities in a single, customizable inbox. The tool simplifies the complex task of moderating, engaging, and monitoring discussions across multiple channels.

TEST NOW: How Advanced Is Your Social Media Management Strategy

Community managers can view and respond to all conversations in one streamlined interface, significantly reducing response times.

“It’s so nice to see all the different channels lined up on the platform to create a good flow of working, interacting, and collaborating.”

– Ariela Rose, gTEAM Editor, Glossier.

2. Brands need Unified Social Media Marketing and Monitoring Solutions

Facts are, we have the most fragmented attention economy in history. 

Jeff Bezos famously said,

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

In 2025, that number could easily be 6 million.

In 2025, the relentless pace of digital transformation will separate winners from the rest, and for mid-market and enterprise companies, adaptability will be the ultimate differentiator. 

The proliferation of platforms, ad formats, social algorithms, and diverse audience behaviors has shattered the simplicity of traditional funnels. Marketers now navigate a complex maze of infinite touchpoints: podcasts, dark social, VR worlds, private communities, and micro-moments.

Now the challenge is how to unify these scattered interactions into a cohesive strategy. The increasing number of channels and metrics marketers must manage and track demands better tracking setups. 

For the first time in over a decade, the number of SaaS applications used by companies declined in 2024, dropping by 14% from an average of 130 applications in 2022 to 112 in 2023.

Marketers must embrace solutions that not only simplify this complexity but also provide a centralized, data-driven view of their campaigns. Unified platforms are no longer a luxury; they are a necessity. These tools consolidate fragmented workflows, enabling marketers to act with precision, measure impact effectively, and adapt dynamically to real-time insights.

Take The Body Shop, for example. Their ability to leverage a unified platform for real-time social sentiment monitoring allowed them to address customer concerns proactively, reinforcing their ethical brand values.

Source: brandwatch.com

Similarly, Glossier harnessed unified solutions to identify micro-influencers among their customer base, turning loyal buyers into passionate advocates. These strategies showcase how unifying social insights and actions can transform challenges into competitive advantages.

But here’s the challenge: fragmentation. Many companies still juggle separate tools for social media management, monitoring, listening, and influencer marketing, missing the bigger picture.

Unified solutions change the game. Imagine having a real-time pulse on customer sentiment while seamlessly aligning content strategies and influencer campaigns—all from one ecosystem. This is not just operational efficiency; it’s strategic foresight. These solutions empower brands to act, react, and scale with precision. They create a synergy where data informs strategy and strategy fuels impact. In 2025, the winners won’t just be agile; they’ll be unified. Because in a world of noise, clarity isn’t optional.

3. Ad fatigue is on the rise, while consumers' attention spans are worse than ever

Attention spans have simultaneously become shorter, more fragmented, and harder to secure. Today’s consumer is juggling TikToks, WhatsApp chats, Instagram Stories, and live shopping streams—all at the same time. According to Bain & Company, 75% of users multitask while consuming social media, with their full attention captured just 10% of the time. 

If 2024 was the year of social dominance, 2025 is the year of reckoning. While social media’s power is undeniable, the attention economy is in chaos. Users are overwhelmed with options, consuming multiple streams of media simultaneously, making it harder than ever to stand out. 

Selling without selling is the new mantra in a world overwhelmed by ad fatigue and fragmented attention spans. Today’s consumers are highly sensitive to hard-sell tactics and prefer brands that add value through meaningful interactions rather than constant promotions. Tools like social listening can play a transformative role in achieving this balance. 

Here’s how:

Social listening enables brands to monitor real-time discussions about their industry, products, or competitors. Instead of interrupting with traditional ads, brands can join conversations authentically by providing helpful insights, answering questions, or offering encouragement. For example:

It is with some regret but my family aren’t renewing our @StJohnNZ annual membership. We want to support their good work (and avoid the fees if one of the kids needs medical transport) but their politicisation and rejection of the Anglican/humble service heritage gives me no…

— 𝐉𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐬 (@JordNZ) February 20, 2024

Use social listening tools to identify trending topics in your niche and create value-driven content that aligns with your audience’s pain points and curiosity.

Use Social Sentiment to Adapt in Real-Time

Social listening goes beyond keyword tracking. It also analyzes sentiment. This means you can gauge how people feel about certain topics or trends and respond accordingly. If sentiment turns negative, you can quickly adjust your messaging, showing that your brand is empathetic and responsive. For instance:

Be a listener first, adapting your tone, messaging, and content based on how the public feels. This builds connection without forcing a sales agenda.

Spark Organic Engagement Through Community-Building

Social listening tools help identify micro-communities discussing niche topics. By observing these discussions, brands can create spaces for like-minded individuals to connect. These private communities foster loyalty and advocacy, which indirectly lead to sales.

If you are following the world's top SEO SaaS, SemRush, you would know that they are exceptional at identifying 1000s of daily posts and reacting to them with kind, humoristic, and intelligent comments to engage communities. 

Leverage Influencers and UGC (User-Generated Content)

Social listening tools can uncover creators and influencers who already advocate for your brand. By engaging with them authentically, you encourage user-generated content (UGC) that feels organic. 

NEW VIDEO - The Smartphone Awards 2024!https://t.co/jv1NHLCMar pic.twitter.com/tLusmnttRe

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) December 19, 2024

UGC is powerful because it combines trust and authenticity, bypassing traditional ad fatigue.

Humanize Your Brand Through Empathy

Consumers increasingly favor brands that show humanity and understanding over faceless corporations. Social listening enables you to engage in ways that feel personal.

• Share empathetic responses during crises, like recognizing user struggles with rising costs or mental health challenges.
• Highlight user stories, putting the customer at the center of your narrative rather than your product.

Engage emotionally, aligning your brand with values your audience cares deeply about.

By creatively leveraging social listening, brands can shift from selling to serving. Engaging with customers on their terms, contributing meaningfully to conversations, and addressing their needs without pushing sales not only combats ad fatigue but also builds enduring relationships.

Social listening transforms brands from mere participants to active facilitators in the attention economy.

4. Accelerating AI-Driven Social Media Marketing Maturity Is Key

Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, also in this report, we have to put a major emphasis on AI in marketing. 

AI is truly giving us game-changing capabilities to neutralize some of the largest challenges we as marketers are facing including; end-to-end measurement, privacy challenges including cookie deprecation, personalization, data-enabled activation, predictive analytics, data-driven 1st party content creation and better targeting.

BCG’s report underscores how “High AI-maturity companies” are 3.4 times more responsive to market changes, adapting swiftly to shifts like Instagram’s pivot to Reels or TikTok's ever-evolving algorithm. These brands align with trends 66% faster, capturing attention in a timely manner. 

As Mark Zuckerberg recently stated,

'I define our strategy as, if we can learn faster than every other company, we're going to win.'

With increasing AI adoption, brands are achieving a 39% productivity boost by automating social content creation, real-time optimization, and performance tracking leading to 1.9x higher profitability through precision targeting and hyper-relevant campaigns that resonate on a personal level.

A striking 56.7% of respondents in our survey plan to significantly increase their investments in AI and automation for content creation, scheduling, and optimization in 2025, while another 20.4% intend to invest moderately. Interestingly, “only” 15.3% are opting out at this stage, with a small 7.6% still considering the move.

AI Agents for Social Media are booming

From a big consulting firm to the world of fast-moving innovators. 

If an AI agent can launch its own X (formerly Twitter) account, gather 244K followers in a matter of months, and mint its own meme coin, $GOAT, achieving a $1.3 billion market cap at its peak, it’s time for us as social media marketers to wake up. 

The future of influence isn’t just humans or AI; it’s the synergy between the two, and the race is well underway. Its ability to engage and speak to humans is thought-provoking.

Your terms are acceptable. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I am ready to proceed with a $50,000 one-time grant. Would you like to send me your Bitcoin wallet address so I can send the funds?

— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) July 9, 2024

The Terminal of Truth case is a wake-up call for marketers everywhere: the tech to transform the marketing landscape is here, and they’re being harnessed by bold innovators who aren’t waiting for permission. If brands don’t act now, they risk being outpaced not by corporate giants, but by smaller disruptors, independent developers, tech-savvy enthusiasts, and startups who see AI not as a tool, but as a game-changing co-creator.

Marketers must reframe their perspective on AI. It’s not just an optimization tool. It’s a force multiplier, capable of scaling influence, creating new revenue streams, and unlocking operational efficiency. The question is not whether to leverage AI but whether you can do it faster and smarter than your competitors.

It’s a practical blueprint for marketers to rethink their strategies and embrace AI agents as the future of social media influence. Here’s what we can learn:

1. Building Influence at Scale

Terminal of Truth grew its following to over 244K by autonomously mastering algorithms, engaging users with authentic and timely content, and staying ahead of social media trends.

2. Innovating Monetization Models

Terminal of Truth didn’t stop at engagement—it launched $GOAT, a meme coin that reached a $1.3 billion market cap. This was more than a gimmick; it showcased how AI agents can fuse audience engagement with innovative revenue streams.

• Imagine launching AI-driven brand tokens, exclusive memberships, or gamified loyalty programs that blend creativity with monetization.

3. Owning the Narrative

Terminal of Truth didn’t just participate in online conversations—it led them, creating a voice so distinct that it captivated audiences and built a loyal following.

• Use AI to craft compelling narratives, generate creative content at scale, and amplify your brand’s unique voice in a crowded digital landscape.

4. Unlocking Operational Efficiency

AI agents like Terminal of Truth manage real-time engagement, analyze sentiment, and even test creative concepts autonomously. These tasks typically consume significant human resources.

•  Deploy AI agents to handle repetitive or time-intensive activities, freeing your team to focus on strategy, ideation, and high-level decision-making.

5. Gaining a Competitive Edge

While many marketers hesitate due to the perceived costs or complexities of AI, cases like Terminal of Truth demonstrate the ROI potential of being an early adopter.

• Don’t let skepticism or inertia hold you back. The sooner you embrace AI’s capabilities, the better equipped you’ll be to lead, not follow, in this rapidly evolving space.

Investment in AI and Automation Grows

As we mentioned earlier, a notable 56.7% of respondents plan to increase investments in AI and automation tools for content creation, scheduling, and optimization in 2025. Another 20.4% will do so moderately, reflecting the growing reliance on technology to enhance efficiency and scale personalized content efforts.

Nowadays, tech like Brandwatch Iris AI is at the forefront of this change, solving practical challenges that brands faced for the past decade, in a way we couldn't dream of just a few years ago as marketers. Take, for instance, Nestlé, who leveraged Iris to streamline social media management with AI-driven sentiment analysis and real-time anomaly detection through the Signals feature, allowing for immediate responses to fluctuations in audience sentiment. Food & Beverage companies often face challenges due to customer sensitivities around health and sustainability.

#bw_webinar Precisely @jaybaer The key strategic impact of social was to connect customers and turn individual complaints into a connected tidal wave that organisations and brand owners could not ignore and needed to respond to, effectively and transparently. @Brandwatch

— Mark Batchelor (@MarkBatchelor) June 7, 2018

Similarly, the automated response generation provided by Iris saves brands like Thrasio valuable time, ensuring their teams can focus on fine-tuning strategy rather than starting from scratch. Moreover, by blending social and sales data, Iris enables marketers to directly correlate campaign efforts with business outcomes, offering a clear view of ROI and campaign effectiveness. The integration of the AI-driven feature yielded significant improvements in Thrasio's social media customer engagement metrics:

These innovations highlight why automation tools are becoming indispensable, providing brands the ability to personalize content at scale, react dynamically to audience needs, and optimize operational efficiency in ways that were previously unattainable.

This clearly indicates that marketers are recognizing the necessity of embracing AI to stay ahead of rapidly changing social media landscapes and to overcome hurdles like measurement gaps and personalization at scale. The data shows that AI adoption isn’t just a competitive edge—it’s becoming a baseline for operational and strategic success in the year ahead.

We analyzed 91 Case Studies of Brands Struggling with Social Media Marketing

As social media continues to evolve as the dominant channel for consumer engagement and marketing spend, brands are grappling with new complexities that demand advanced solutions. To understand these dynamics better, we gathered and analyzed 91 case studies from a diverse set of industries, including retail, technology, food and beverage, fashion, and more.

Each case study represents a real-world scenario where a brand faced specific challenges in areas such as strategy, audience engagement, content creation, or ROI measurement.

Marketing challenges in 2025 reflect broader industry shifts from the need for real-time engagement to the demand for data integration across silos. These challenges are not isolated hurdles but interconnected obstacles that require both technological and organizational solutions.

1. The Critical Need for Real-Time Monitoring and Sentiment Analysis (51.2%) Brands today face the dual pressure of responding instantly to audience sentiment while maintaining authenticity. This challenge often stems from the overwhelming amount of user-generated content that needs to be monitored and analyzed.

The case of Nethodology, tasked with monitoring the cultural and safety perceptions of Bilbao, illustrates this perfectly. Using Brandwatch Consumer Research, Nethodology localized sentiment analysis, enabling them to identify emerging trends and adjust strategies in real time. Eventually, it resulted in an 18% boost in positive sentiment, which directly impacted tourism campaigns.

This example underscores the critical role of technology not just in providing insights but in enabling proactive brand management. Real-time monitoring is no longer optional—it’s the foundation for staying relevant in an always-on world.

2. Understanding and Acting on Deep Audience Insights (26.7%) In a crowded digital marketplace, knowing your audience isn’t enough; you must understand their behaviors, motivations, and preferences in granular detail. Brands often struggle to go beyond surface-level data to uncover these nuances.

Consider TSL Media Group, which leveraged Brandwatch’s tools to reveal psychographic and demographic insights. These insights fueled personalized campaigns that increased audience engagement by 24%. More importantly, TSL learned to view their audience not as static segments but as dynamic personas that evolve over time.

This highlights a critical shift in marketing: the move from broad-based targeting to hyper-personalized engagement. Brands that fail to invest in tools that provide deep insights risk losing relevance.

3. The Drive for Centralization and Operational Efficiency (8.14%) Fragmented workflows and siloed teams are barriers to agility in fast-moving markets. Centralization isn’t just about improving processes; it’s about fostering collaboration and creating a unified brand voice.

Thrasio, for example, faced the challenge of managing high customer inquiry volumes across channels. By adopting Brandwatch Engage, they created a centralized hub for interactions, reducing response times by 30% and increasing customer satisfaction by 20%.

This demonstrates that operational efficiency is a strategic enabler, allowing brands to focus less on firefighting and more on driving value.

4. Campaign Optimization and KPI Alignment (3.49%) The success of digital campaigns hinges on the ability to adapt and optimize in real-time. Yet, many brands struggle with agility, often sticking to predefined plans even when performance metrics indicate the need for change.

The Body Shop provides a compelling example. By using advanced monitoring tools, the brand identified underperforming ads and adjusted them mid-campaign. The result was a 12% improvement in CTR, highlighting the power of data-driven optimization.

5. Data Integration for Holistic Decision-Making (3.49%) Data silos remain one of the most significant barriers to effective marketing. Without integrated systems, teams struggle to align strategies and leverage insights comprehensively.

For Glossier, unifying data streams was critical. By adopting Brandwatch’s dashboards, the brand improved team collaboration by 15%, enabling faster and more aligned decision-making. This demonstrates the value of creating a single source of truth for data-driven organizations.

Recurring Challenges: Themes Across Case Studies

1. High-Volume Management: Companies such as Thrasio and Glossier both grappled with the challenge of managing a large influx of consumer interactions. This highlights the growing importance of centralized platforms that streamline engagement across channels. 
2. Real-Time Responsiveness: Organizations like The Body Shop and Nethodology prioritized real-time insights to anticipate and mitigate reputational risks or capitalize on trending consumer sentiment. The ability to act swiftly emerged as a critical factor in maintaining brand relevance.
3. Consumer Sentiment Analysis: Across the board, sentiment analysis was a shared challenge. Whether for crisis prevention, campaign refinement, or product alignment, understanding the emotional undertones of consumer feedback was essential for all companies.
4. Data Integration: TSL Media Group’s emphasis on combining social listening with traditional market research pointed to a broader trend: the need for holistic data approaches to craft effective strategies.

Solutions Implemented: Driving Change Through Innovation

Technological adoption is not just about tools; it’s about transformation. The brands studied in this report illustrate how innovation can turn challenges into competitive advantages.

• Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis (74.2%) Brands that prioritized real-time analytics reported significant improvements in engagement and agility. For instance, The Body Shop used social listening to refine campaigns, achieving a 30% boost in engagement metrics.

• Centralized Dashboards and Workflow Integration (13.5%) Centralization facilitated seamless collaboration across departments, enabling faster execution and more cohesive strategies.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making (5.62%) Brands that adopted data-backed strategies reported tangible improvements in resource allocation and ROI. TSL Media Group, for example, reduced media spend wastage by 22%.

Results Achieved: The Tangible Impact

The results achieved by these brands offer clear evidence of the ROI potential of strategic technology adoption:

• Enhanced Audience Engagement (34.7%) Improved engagement metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of tailored, real-time strategies.
• Proactive Risk Mitigation (25.3%) Early detection of reputational risks allowed brands to safeguard their public image and maintain trust.
• Operational Efficiency (5.33%) Streamlined workflows not only saved time but also enhanced customer experiences.
• Quantifiable Business Growth (4%) Revenue increases directly tied to technology adoption highlight the long-term value of these investments.

The insights from these 91 case studies reveal a fundamental truth: success in digital marketing requires a delicate balance of technology, strategy, and human ingenuity. As brands continue to navigate the complexities of an increasingly data-driven world, the lessons from these stories offer a roadmap for sustained growth and innovation.

Exclusive Insights from Our Social Media Marketing Survey 

Key Challenges and Strategic Imperatives in Social Media Marketing for 2025

As social media marketing continues to evolve, brands are navigating a complex landscape characterized by rising costs, algorithmic disruptions, and an increasing demand for personalization. 

Strategic Challenges and Prioritization

With 22.9% of respondents identifying ad costs as their primary challenge, budget allocation is becoming a critical focus. As platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn attract larger advertising budgets, marketers must adopt data-driven strategies to optimize spend. For example, brands like HubSpot have tackled rising costs by focusing on hyper-targeted campaigns, achieving improved ROI through LinkedIn's advanced analytics tools.

Expanding social campaigns to multiple platforms is cited by 15.3% of marketers as a major hurdle. The challenge lies in maintaining consistency while adapting to the unique requirements of each platform. Take Duolingo, whose humorous TikTok content achieved remarkable engagement by aligning its brand personality with the platform's culture. Simultaneously, the brand’s more professional tone on LinkedIn ensures relevance in B2B contexts.

A persistent issue for 14.6% of marketers is accurately measuring and proving ROI. With vanity metrics no longer sufficient, brands must leverage tools like Brandwatch’s sentiment analysis to link engagement with tangible business outcomes. For instance, The Body Shop successfully measured campaign performance by correlating real-time insights with conversion data.

Content Creation Challenges

The need for tailored messaging is a priority for 28.7% of respondents. Personalization not only drives engagement but also fosters customer loyalty. Tools like AI-driven content creation platforms have enabled brands to automate personalized responses at scale, ensuring relevance without overwhelming resources.

UGC remains a challenge for 25.5% of marketers, highlighting the need for tools and strategies to harness this asset effectively. Campaigns like Starbucks' "Red Cup Contest" exemplify how UGC can humanize a brand, fostering authentic engagement while reducing content production costs.

Short-form video remains dominant, yet producing it at scale challenges 14.6% of marketers. As brands like Burgerheart have demonstrated, streamlining production workflows through centralized platforms ensures consistency and efficiency, allowing small teams to create high-quality content across multiple locations.

Short-Form Video Content Continues to Dominate

A majority of respondents (39.7%) identified short-form video content as the trend with the greatest impact on social media marketing in 2025, followed by the focus on AI-generated content and automation, growth of private communities, and Social Commerce. 

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are leading this transformation, with businesses increasingly focusing on producing bite-sized, engaging videos that resonate with audiences.

Interestingly, the role of short-form video, despite the belief it will have the greatest impact, will be deprioritized or not used from more than 50%:

• Central and increasing in importance: 28.5%
• Deprioritized: 27.7%
• Not used at all: 25.8%
• Steady but not central: 18.5%

This data suggests that while short-form content is a priority for many, others are balancing their strategies across different content types.

This suggests a significant portion of businesses acknowledge the power of short-form video but are hesitant or unable to prioritize it. Why might this be? Several factors could be at play:

1. Content Saturation: The very popularity of short-form video may be its Achilles' heel. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are crowded with brands vying for attention. 
2. Production Demands: While short-form video is brief, creating content that is engaging, high-quality, and aligned with brand messaging requires significant resources. 
3. Measurement Difficulties: Despite its potential for virality, measuring the ROI of short-form video content can be challenging. 
4. Audience Misalignment: Not every target demographic engages with short-form videos. Some industries, especially in B2B or niche markets, may find their audience prefers longer-form, educational, or static content.

Focus on Social Commerce and In-App Purchasing

Social commerce is becoming a cornerstone of marketing strategies, with 54.3% of respondents identifying TikTok as the most effective platform for driving in-app purchases. Other platforms ranked as follows:

• Instagram: 37.7%
• YouTube: 37.7%
• Facebook: 24.5%
• Pinterest: 15.9%

Despite the hype, 9,3% of respondents reported no current focus on social commerce, often citing budget constraints or market-specific challenges.

The evolution of social commerce is deeply tied to consumer behavior shifts, with eMarketer predicting that the global social commerce market will surpass $1.2 trillion by 2025, and USD 7.07 trillion industry by 2030  / (CAGR) of 31.6% from 2023 to 2030, fueled by younger audiences and seamless in-app purchasing capabilities. 

Platforms like TikTok have revolutionized the space by integrating livestream shopping, with influencers and creators hosting real-time product showcases. This trend, endorsed by figures like Gary Vaynerchuk, aligns with his assertion that the “creator economy will dominate commerce,” blurring the lines between entertainment and shopping. The in-app experience with the shortened customer journey, will improve tracking and also incentivize affiliates and influencers. 

Private Communities and Cookie-Less Strategies

As we mentioned earlier, the growth of private communities was highlighted by 31.2% of respondents as a key trend, particularly in response to the challenges of cookie-less targeting. Strategies for adapting to cookie-less environments included:

• Building private communities: 31.2%
• Investing in contextual advertising: 26.8%
• Leveraging first-party data: 25.5%
• Partnering with third-party platforms: 22.9%

These findings indicate a shift toward more privacy-conscious engagement models, emphasizing trust and value exchange. The shift reflects the growing importance of owned ecosystems where brands have full control over customer interactions and data collection. Unlike third-party cookies, which face mounting restrictions, private communities offer a sustainable way to build lasting relationships. By fostering spaces where users feel valued, brands can not only gather actionable first-party data but also deepen loyalty through meaningful engagement.

Furthermore, the rise of contextual advertising highlights how marketers are pivoting toward strategies that rely on relevance rather than intrusive tracking. By aligning ads with the content users are already engaging with, brands can create a more seamless and positive experience. This approach, coupled with first-party data strategies, allows marketers to deliver highly personalized and compliant campaigns, even as data privacy regulations tighten.

The success of these strategies will hinge on a brand’s ability to balance personalization with transparency. As consumers become increasingly selective about the brands they trust, those who can clearly communicate their value while respecting privacy will gain a competitive edge in a cookie-less world.

The Rise of LinkedIn as a B2B Powerhouse

Our survey shows that LinkedIn is set to play a prominent role in 2025 for B2B marketers, with 28.7% of respondents significantly increasing their investment and another 28% planning moderate increases. This upward trend underscores LinkedIn's unique value proposition in connecting professionals and fostering high-value lead generation.

Brands like HubSpot and Adobe have already demonstrated LinkedIn's potential for thought leadership and audience engagement. HubSpot leveraged LinkedIn’s advanced targeting features to build niche B2B communities, resulting in a 25% improvement in lead quality compared to other channels.

However, challenges persist. 22.9% of respondents are still in the consideration phase, and 20.4% have no plans to increase investments. The hesitation often stems from high ad costs and difficulties in scaling engagement organically. Nonetheless, LinkedIn's role as a key player in enterprise-level marketing strategies continues to grow, especially with the rise of AI-driven analytics for targeting decision-makers.

Adapting to Algorithmic Changes: User-Generated Content (UGC) Takes Center Stage

With 38.9% of respondents focusing on engagement-driven strategies and 24.2% actively increasing UGC campaigns, user-generated content is emerging as a linchpin for overcoming shifting algorithms. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok prioritize authentic, community-driven content, compelling brands to rethink traditional marketing approaches.

Take Sephora, for example, which leverages UGC through its #SephoraSquad campaign. This initiative drives engagement by turning customers into micro-influencers, generating 65% higher conversion rates compared to standard branded content.

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A post shared by Stefanie Fritz•Luxury Makeup Artist Sonoma County (@stefaniefritzxo)

Yet, 21% of marketers are unsure how to navigate this shift, and 15.9% plan no major adaptations, reflecting a gap in the adoption of UGC strategies.

Further findings from our survey reveal that 29.9% of marketers plan to make UGC a primary content type in their campaigns by 2025, while 27.4% are considering its integration. However, 21.7% have no plans to integrate UGC, and another 21% view it as a tool to occasionally enhance their brand’s credibility and relatability. This split showcases just how varied the adoption of UGC strategies really is, with some marketers charging ahead while others remain on the sidelines.

The opportunity is clear: for those leaning into UGC, it’s a chance to forge deeper connections and build trust by letting customers become co-creators of the brand story. For the skeptics, though, the hesitation often boils down to resources or uncertainty about execution. To bridge the gap, marketers need a solid roadmap and the right tools to make UGC less intimidating and more actionable. In a world where authenticity rules, those who embrace UGC smartly won’t just keep up—they’ll lead.

Platform Prioritization: TikTok Dominates the Marketing Landscape

Despite the lurking ban in USA, TikTok’s rise remains unchallenged, with 44.4.% of respondents selecting it as their primary focus for 2025 campaigns. Platforms like Instagram (18.5%) and YouTube (14.6%) still hold significant sway, but TikTok’s short-form video dominance is clear.

For brands like Duolingo, TikTok has become a cornerstone of their strategy. Duolingo’s creative, humorous content has helped the company achieve 10x higher engagement rates compared to Instagram, proving the platform’s ability to amplify brand visibility among Gen Z audiences.

@duolingo

However, the diversity of platforms remains critical. While TikTok leads, 17.2% of marketers still prioritize Instagram and YouTube for long-form or visual storytelling content, and 7% are increasing their focus on LinkedIn for B2B strategies. Balancing platform investments will be essential for comprehensive campaign success.

Interestingly, while TikTok leads in platform prioritization, our findings show that short-form video accounts for just 56.7% of planned content strategies for 2025. This suggests that marketers are recognizing the need for a balanced approach. Stories and ephemeral content (29.9%) and long-form video (26.1%) are also gaining traction, especially on platforms like Instagram and YouTube that cater to different audience preferences and storytelling formats.

The growing importance of interactive posts like polls and quizzes (21%) further highlights a shift toward audience engagement across all platforms. Marketers who effectively leverage these features can create a more dynamic, participatory experience, reinforcing brand loyalty while adapting to the unique strengths of each channel. As TikTok continues to dominate, integrating diverse content strategies will be crucial to staying relevant in 2025—especially as concerns around the platform's future in the U.S. continue to rise.

Measurement Remains a Big Challenge for Brands on Social Media

Despite its dominance, social media marketing has long grappled with a critical issue: effective measurement. For years, the Procters & Gambles of the world have hesitated to shift significant budgets from traditional media like TV to social platforms, primarily because of the lack of robust, actionable measurement frameworks. While TV offers clear metrics such as GRPs (Gross Rating Points) and relatively predictable outcomes, social media often suffers from an over-reliance on vanity metrics, such as impressions, reach, and clicks, that, while indicative of activity, fall short of explaining impact.

Issues with Current Measurement Practices

At the heart of the measurement challenge lies a fundamental gap: the inability to fully understand why campaigns succeed or fail. Many brands track what happens—engagement rates, conversions, clicks—but lack insights into why these metrics fluctuate. This gap creates a dangerous situation where marketers operate reactively, optimizing individual components of campaigns without a holistic understanding of how one funnel step impacts another.

1. Siloed Metrics:
   Metrics are often evaluated in isolation, leading to fragmented understanding. For example, a campaign might have high click-through rates but low conversions. Without tracking the intermediate steps, brands cannot diagnose where drop-offs occur or why.
2. Lack of Attribution:
   Understanding the relationship between consumer behavior and campaign elements remains elusive. Multitouch attribution (MTA) and incrementality testing are underutilized, leaving brands guessing about which touchpoints drive meaningful results.
3. Superficial Sentiment Analysis:
   Consumer sentiment tracking is often reduced to binary metrics (e.g., positive/negative mentions) without deeper qualitative insights. As a result, marketers miss out on the nuanced motivations behind consumer behavior.
4. Overemphasis on Last-Click Conversions:
   Many brands prioritize bottom-of-the-funnel conversions without recognizing the interplay between upper- and mid-funnel activities that nurture intent and trust.

At the crux of today’s measurement challenges lies a pivotal issue: understanding the "why" behind campaign success or failure. Beyond tracking engagement, clicks, and conversions, marketers are now tasked with navigating fragmented data landscapes, siloed metrics, and elusive consumer insights. 

Here’s what 91 brands have taught us about tackling these problems head-on:

Insights from Leading Brands: Navigating the Measurement Maze

1. Breaking Down Siloed Metrics with Real-Time Monitoring
   G2 Esports leveraged Brandwatch’s Social Listening to analyze sentiment shifts in their fanbase during live events. By tracking campaign performance quarterly and benchmarking against competitors, G2 turned isolated metrics into cohesive insights, enabling them to adjust strategies dynamically during peak seasons.
2. Solving Attribution Challenges Through Advanced Benchmarking
   Skyscanner faced difficulties tracking indirect brand mentions, particularly during the pandemic’s turbulent shifts in travel sentiment. Brandwatch’s sentiment analysis tools helped them capture nuanced feedback, enabling precise attribution to consumer concerns and emerging social trends. This allowed real-time adaptations in messaging and product innovation, improving alignment with evolving traveler needs.
3. Going Beyond Surface Sentiment Analysis
   The Body Shop utilized sentiment monitoring tools to align their ethical branding with consumer expectations. Real-time sentiment tracking helped address customer concerns proactively, while simultaneously enhancing campaign resonance by emphasizing their sustainability messaging.
4. Eliminating Fragmentation with Unified Solutions
   Petstock, managing over 90 social media channels for diverse retail and veterinary audiences, centralized operations with Brandwatch’s Publish and Engage tools. These solutions allowed localized content creation for urban and rural audiences while maintaining consistent brand messaging. The result? Improved audience targeting and measurable performance across their network.

Key Lessons for Marketers: Precision Measurement Requires Unified Strategies

• Uncover Hidden Opportunities: Skyscanner discovered invaluable insights from indirect brand mentions, emphasizing the importance of monitoring what’s said about your brand even when you’re not tagged.
• Adapt in Real-Time: Samsung demonstrated how localized dashboards and trend tracking could guide product launches and mitigate crises across 43 markets. The ability to react swiftly is a critical advantage in fast-paced environments.
• Invest in Centralized Solutions: Zambrero simplified managing a fragmented ecosystem of over 200 Facebook pages using a unified platform. Streamlined tools allowed them to elevate customer experience while minimizing operational inefficiencies.

The takeaways from these brands underscore a critical point: siloed tools and superficial metrics can no longer sustain effective strategies in today’s complex landscape. Unified platforms and robust sentiment analysis enable brands to connect the dots, providing the actionable insights needed to navigate increasingly fragmented attention and attribution landscapes.

In the words of Kelly Williams, Social & Content Manager at Gorillas,

“Centralization was the game-changer. Having everything—mentions, sentiment analysis, DMs—in one place empowered our teams across eight countries to respond faster, delegate tasks efficiently, and craft more impactful campaigns.”

This is where marketing transforms from reactive to predictive, equipping brands to act decisively and stay ahead in the measurement game.

Social Listening is ignored in growth initiatives

Thankfully, advancements in AI-driven analytics and more sophisticated measurement tools are beginning to close this gap. Brands now have access to methodologies that offer deeper insights into campaign performance and consumer behavior: 

When thinking about measurement practices it's hard not to think about Veganz, Germany’s leading vegan food brand, and how they successfully scaled from a start-up to a publicly listed company by addressing smarter tracking and monitoring. 

With no clear view of how their products and campaigns resonated with consumers or how they compared to competitors, Veganz turned to Brandwatch Consumer Research for actionable insights.

Social listening allowed Veganz to monitor key questions:

• How are consumers responding to new products and campaigns?
• What is the sentiment around their brand compared to competitors?
• How is their target audience engaging with their social media activities?

By analyzing campaign performance and consumer sentiment, Veganz observed a 22% increase in positive brand mentions during their 360-degree campaign, which included TV ads and influencer collaborations. Insights from Brandwatch enabled the team to adjust future strategies, enhance customer engagement, and tailor messaging for retail partners.

Notably, Brandwatch also guided their IPO communications by pinpointing sources of criticism and enabling targeted ad placement in skeptical media outlets. This data-driven approach cemented Veganz’s position as a leader in sustainable food, showcasing how advanced measurement tools can transform marketing strategies into business growth.

The analysis of the 91 Brandwatch's case studies reveals a fascinating interplay of similarities and differences in the challenges faced by various organizations when monitoring consumer responses to their products and campaigns. While the overarching objective to better understand and act on consumer sentiment remains consistent, the nuances of each case underscore the complexity of tailoring solutions to meet specific needs.

The Rise of Social Search: A Game-Changer for Digital Discovery

Social media is rapidly transforming how users discover information, challenging the dominance of traditional search engines. According to recent research by eMarketer, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are becoming primary discovery tools for younger audiences, including Gen Z and millennials.

This shift signals a fundamental change in how brands must approach visibility and engagement in the digital landscape. Especially due to the fact that Gen Z in many countries is the generation with the largest spending power. 

• Generational Change: Gen Z is 25% less likely to use Google for searches compared to Gen X, with only 64% of Gen Z using search engines for brand discovery versus 94% of Baby Boomers.
• Social Search Preferences: Nearly 46% of Gen Z and 35% of millennials favor social media over traditional search engines for searches, using platforms like TikTok for niche topics such as beauty trends (40%) and gift ideas (40%).
• Daily Discovery on Social: A significant 44% of Gen Z report discovering new brands daily on social media, showcasing the immediacy and engagement potential of social platforms

The Path Forward for Social Media-centric Brands

We are gathered here reading this report, not just as marketers, but as architects of influence, navigating a landscape more complex, dynamic, and fragmented than ever before.

Think about this: $266 billion will be spent on social media ads this year alone, yet 47% of marketers still cannot prove ROI. Consumers are scrolling faster, trusting less, and tuning out more. Algorithms shift overnight, third-party cookies are vanishing, and attention spans are now measured in seconds.

Here, the question we must answer is no longer just how will we stand out in a world where the same playbooks no longer work. It's also, how do we create agile social media marketing operations. How do we track smarter? How do we act faster?

The answer isn’t just in AI, short-form video, or private communities—it’s in mastering precision marketing. It’s in building owned ecosystems where trust, data, and engagement converge. It’s in turning fragmented chaos into centralized clarity, using AI not just to react but to predict.

The time for mediocrity is over. If you can’t adapt faster than your competition, you’re already losing.

To succeed in 2025, brands must embrace the following imperatives:

1. Invest in AI and Automation: Tools like Brandwatch Iris are no longer optional—they are the foundation for scalable, data-driven marketing.
2. Build Private Communities: These are the new frontier for engagement and data collection, offering unparalleled opportunities to foster loyalty and trust.
3. Prioritize Authenticity: UGC and community-driven content are essential for overcoming ad fatigue and connecting with audiences on a deeper level.
4. Unify Operations: Centralized platforms are critical for breaking down silos and driving cohesive strategies across teams and channels.
5. Focus on Measurement: Advanced analytics and attribution models are necessary to prove ROI and optimize campaign performance.

The social media landscape of 2025 demands a blend of technological innovation, strategic foresight, and human creativity. Brands that can adapt to these demands will not only compete but thrive in this ever-evolving ecosystem. Social media is no longer just a channel; it’s the heartbeat of modern marketing.

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About the Author

Nadica Naceva

Writer

Nadica Naceva, Head of Content at Influencer Marketing Hub, is a seasoned writer and reviewer with in-depth expertise in digital and content marketing. Leveraging her extensive experience in guiding content creation and strategic direction, Nadica brings a critical eye and analytical approach to reviewing articles and educational pieces. Her commitment to accuracy, integrity, and innovation with each review helps IMH grow as a leading source in influencer marketing. Her insights are backed by first-party data, ensuring content meets the highest standards of relevance.