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During a 2026 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 83 percent selected increased exposure as a benefit of social media marketing. Increased traffic followed, mentioned by 71 percent of the respondents, while 62 percent cited generated leads.

The multibillion-dollar social media ad industry

Between 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and 2025, global social media advertising spending skyrocketed by nearly 200 percent, surpassing an estimated 275 billion U.S. dollars in the latter year. That figure was forecast to continue to increase throughout the rest of the decade, exceeding 480 billion dollars by 2030. As of 2025, the social media networks with the most monthly active users included Facebook, with over three billion, and YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion.

Pros and cons of GenAI for social media marketing

According to a 2024 survey, generative artificial intelligence's (GenAI) leading benefits for social media marketing according to professionals worldwide included increased efficiency and easier idea generation. The third place was a tie between increased content production and enhanced creativity. All those advantages were cited by between 33 and 38 percent of the interviewees. As for GenAI's top challenges for global social media marketing, maintaining authenticity and the value of human creativity ranked first, mentioned by 43 and 40 percent of the respondents, respectively. Another 35 percent deemed ensuring the content resonates as an obstacle.