The pendulum is swinging back to the feed, signaling that the crown of digital video dominance is going to social media. Brand spending on social video is set to outpace media investments on connected TV (CTV) ad inventory, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
While CTV spending is projected to grow year-over-year to 11% in 2026, spending on social video — which includes video on apps like Instagram, YouTube and Reddit — is set to rise faster for the first time, at 13%. Based on a survey of 360 U.S. marketers who spent at least $1 million on advertising last year, the IAB estimated that total digital video spending for the U.S. would reach $80 billion this year.
Media buyers say they’re seeing the phenomenon play out among their own clients. Katya Constantine, CEO of performance marketing agency DigiShopGirl Media, said social video commands more than 50% of client ad spend. Fashion and supplement brands are transferring more linear ad budgets into digital platforms like YouTube and Meta, per Constantine.
“More of our dollars are going into performance buying and we’re just doing less CTV,” she said, without outlining specific spend figures.
The IAB’s ad spend estimates suggest brands are investing to keep up with social platform users’ hunger for video content. Global Facebook users spent 8% more time watching videos in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the previous quarter, according to Meta’s Q1 earnings call. A similar lift in time spent watching video led to an increase in sales at YouTube of 10.7% in Q1, rising to a total of $9.88 billion.
Falling production costs (thanks to the burgeoning cottage industry of generative AI creative tools) and an emphasis on close audience targeting among small and medium-sized advertisers may also be contributing to rising social video spending.
