Social media and influencers

The global social media ad market is expected to grow 12% this year (Source: WARC)

59% of marketers plan to partner with more influencers in 2025 compared to 2024 (Source: Sprout)

76% of social media users say social content influenced a purchase decision; this jumps to 90% when just looking at Gen Z consumers (Source: Sprout)

41% of Gen Z consumers use social media as their first source when looking for information; 32% turn to traditional search engines while 11% use chat-based AI (Source: Sprout)

Disclosure: Informa, which owns a controlling stake in Informa TechTarget, the publisher behind Marketing Dive, is also invested in WARC. Informa has no influence over Marketing Dive's coverage.

The AI future

71% of marketers plan to invest at least $10 million into AI over the next three years, up from 57% in 2024 (Source: Boston Consulting Group)

83% of CMOs have expressed optimism in the technology, a five point increase from the year prior (Source: Boston Consulting Group)

Economic uncertainty

On a scale of 1-10, 51% of U.S. consumers rate their tariff concerns as an eight or higher (Source: Kearney)

Despite economic worries, 66% of consumers feel they are able to pay for necessities and 48% feel positively about affording non-necessities (Source: Gartner)

42% of consumers have decided to wait on making a bigger purchase in 2025, up from 28% in early 2024 (Source: Gartner)

The CMO breakdown

84% of CMOs report difficulty when it comes to developing and executing a marketing strategy (Source: Gartner)

Only 15% of CMOs plan beyond three years (Source: Gartner)

Average marketing budgets make up 7.7% of company revenue, the same as in 2024 (Source: Gartner)

30.6% of total budgets in 2025 are allocated to paid media (Source: Gartner)

The rise of Gen Alpha

53% of Gen Alpha children receive an allowance, equating to $28 billion in direct spending power (Source: Horizon)

Gen Alpha is expected to have a $5.5 trillion global footprint by 2029 (Source: Horizon)

90% of millennial parents with Gen Alpha kids agree digital content has become unavoidable (Source: Horizon)

CTV’s bright side

Digital video ad spend is projected to increase 14% from 2024, reaching $72.4 billion (Source: IAB)

58% of total video ad spending will go towards digital video (Source: IAB)

CTV is expected to grow 13% in 2025 (Source: IAB)