Take into consideration what drives our day-to-day advertising lives: social media. Campaigns, conversations, collaborations, memes, and even milestones… all dwell on social platforms.
From podcasts being clipped and shared on YouTube, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Shorts, to international model campaigns launching on social first, each touchpoint comes again to the place audiences already spend their time, on-line.
As our three newest Metricool research present, whether or not it’s AI, podcasts, or paid advertisements, social media isn’t simply a part of the technique. It’s the technique.
AI’s Position in Social Media
Our State of AI in Social Media 2025 report reveals that 96% of social media professionals are already utilizing AI of their workflows, with the highest use circumstances being for content material ideation and writing posts, captions, and replica. Newer improvements, akin to picture and video creation, measurement, and automation, stay underutilized, indicating that deeper AI instruments are nonetheless in early adoption.
Six in ten entrepreneurs say AI-generated content material now matches or outperforms human-created posts, with the highest three most used AI instruments being ChatGPT, Canva, and Gemini. Nonetheless, over a 3rd don’t observe AI content material efficiency, leaving a crucial hole between creation and measurement.
73% of respondents say that AI helps them experiment with new codecs or methods. That is the place inspiration and motion can meet 🤝 and, after all, the info can assist. Whereas AI has reworked day by day workflows and velocity, it might probably’t absolutely change our distinctive on-line voices. That is the place entrepreneurs can transfer previous the preliminary hype of AI and think about generated content material with a extra crucial lens.
Podcasting In The Social Period
Our Podcasting and Social Media Research highlights how the top-charted podcasts have developed far past simply an audio medium. Among the many high 100 U.S. podcasts we analyzed, YouTube emerged because the clear chief, with 87% of podcasts publishing to the community, driving a median engagement fee of three.13%.
Instagram is the clear runner-up, driving a median engagement fee of two.08% and 5,517 interactions per submit, 724% above platform averages. That is largely due to Reels, which account for almost 80% of podcast content material shared on the platform.
The place YouTube drives views and dependable engagement, Instagram delivers uncooked interactions. YouTube attracts dedicated audiences who wish to watch and pay attention, whereas Instagram fuels discovery by fast, shareable bites.
Podcasts now not thrive on audio alone. They develop on social platforms the place visible and interactive codecs dominate. Whereas long-form content material might construct depth on YouTube, short-form content material drives consciousness and creates model hype.
Social Advertisements: Right now’s Digital Bilboards
Our 2025 Social Advertisements Research reveals that social promoting is the brand new billboard advertising, solely smarter, sooner, and extra measurable. TikTok is the clear winner in discoverability, with manufacturers investing 85% extra in TikTok attain campaigns.
In the midst of the funnel, TikTok continues to outperform. Its visitors campaigns ship a 94% larger click-through fee than Meta, accounting for almost 75% of TikTok’s conversions. But, on the subject of closing gross sales, Meta stays unmatched. Its campaigns drive 61.3% of complete conversions at a cost-per-action as much as seven instances cheaper than TikTok.
The place Meta as soon as dominated advert spend, TikTok is rapidly turning into the platform for discovery and visitors, whereas Meta stays indispensable for gross sales. This shift displays the preferences of Gen Z and youthful audiences, particularly with the rise of influencer and UGC campaigns. This isn’t about strictly selecting TikTok or Meta, however about understanding the position every performs within the buyer journey.
In 2025, success is determined by assembly audiences the place they’re, on social, in video-first codecs favored by youthful audiences. If it’s not social, it’s not a part of at present’s conversations or tomorrow’s future.
Go to Metricool at sales space #10 this October at DMWF North America, and catch Anniston Ward, US PR, Occasions, and Training Supervisor, presenting “Every thing is Social: How Knowledge and Digital Innovation Form What Comes Subsequent”, on the Social Media, Group, and Influencer Advertising and marketing Observe at 2 PM on October thirteenth.
