LinkedIn has expanded its B2B advertising offerings with Thought Leader Ads LinkedIn Influencer Marketing If you thought influencers were just for dancing on TikTok or looking pretty on Instagram, think again. No longer relegated to clothing or beauty brands, influencer marketing has become a lucrative business-to-business (B2B) advertising strategy, too. In fact, there are whole B2B digital marketing agencies who specialize in this area, but you don’t need to pay a big retainer fee for your business to benefit from the huge reach of influential people online. LinkedIn has launched the full version of its Thought Leader Ads platform, which lets brands and companies pay to boost posts by respectable leaders in their industry with the author’s permission. This expands the reach of the post far beyond the brand’s organic network, elicits engagement, and can result in brand awareness lift and lead generation. Here’s a quick primer to get you started promoting your business effectively: What is an example of a B2B ad? B2B ads can take many of the same forms as B2C (or DTC) ads, except that they target other businesses rather than consumers, like: Paid media placements, which include sponsored Google links, display ads in publications, social media ads, TV commercials, and billboards; or: Influencer marketing, in which a brand pays someone with a large following on a social media platform to tout their brand or product. A popular example of a successful B2B advertising campaign was Slack’s “So yeah, we tried Slack” campaign, an entertaining video series in the mockumentary style of “The Office” in which fictional characters described how they’d incorporated Slack into their workflows. The campaign was funny and irreverent, standing out from the often-boring crowd of B2B ads, while presenting solutions to the target audience’s pain points. Which platform is best for B2B advertising? The best social media platform for your B2B brand really depends on where your target audience is looking for solutions and where you can shine in format-specific content. Answers will vary, but we find LinkedIn to be the most commonly effective platform for reaching decision makers at businesses who are seeking business-related information. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (its advertising platform) lets you set a budget, select goals, target audiences by specific job title or industry, and analyze real-time data to optimize your campaigns with control. LinkedIn’s use of first-party data for precise targeting makes it an excellent choice for B2B advertising. In 2024, LinkedIn has taken over many of the functions that Twitter/X used to serve like information-sharing and people-connecting in a more professional environment than the more fun, personal platforms like Instagram or TikTok. However, LinkedIn far outperforms the other platforms in terms of advertisers’ confidence in brand safety and return on investment (ROI). What is a LinkedIn Thought Leader ad? Starting in July 2024, LinkedIn gave advertisers the power to amplify posts from independent creators, ushering in a new chapter of influencer marketing. LinkedIn’s new product, Thought Leader Ads, allows anyone to boost an organic post, provided they receive permission from the author. This opens up new opportunities for marketers to amplify their reach and execute more personalized and humanized campaigns. Facing a slowdown in growth, LinkedIn wants to challenge prominent players like TikTok and Instagram, capitalizing on the social media power trend of turning creators into brand ambassadors. Despite eMarketer's predictions that LinkedIn will capture only 4% of the market (equal to $4.5 billion in marketing revenue) the platform’s foray into influencer marketing demonstrates an ambitious vision for future growth. After launching on a limited scale last year, Thought Leader Ads is now positioned to fuel LinkedIn's expansion, using its 1 billion-member base to drive growth. LinkedIn’s venture into influencer marketing may present a refreshing alternative to traditional ads, often perceived as repetitive and generic. As this trend takes shape, brands should prepare to capitalize on the opportunity to connect with their target audiences more personally. And look out for LinkedIn’s new AI-powered advertising tool, Accelerate, to be released in the fall of 2024! We’re here for anything that makes the path to prominence a little bit smoother.

Properly placed video media assets can serve the full funnel, even for alcoholic beverage brands facing decline. "A lot of brands are still sleeping on using YouTube as more than Video. It’s Social, it’s CTV, it’s Audio, and even Commerce.” - Lexi Semanskee, senior programmatic trader, Exverus Although YouTube has risen to become the world's largest media company in 2026, estimated $40.4 billion from advertising alone  in 2025, many brands still have yet to use YouTube and other video marketing channels to their full growth-driving potential. In April 2026, Exverus by Brainlabs Senior Programmatic Advertising Trader Lexi Semanskee, M.S. , headed to New Orleans to present her team's successful 2025 video marketing strategy that grew an anonymous beer brand despite category decline. Lexi covered: Alcoholic beverage industry challenges Campaign parameters Media innovation within brand constraints Insights tracking by channel Learnings & recommendations You already know the importance of optimizing for brand equity. But if you need hard data to convince the CFO, click to download. Alcoholic beverage industry challenges Declining demand The U.S. beer category is in a genuine structural headwind. Over the past four years, the alcohol industry has seen an estimated $830 billion drop in revenue, and the trajectory continues. Beer volumes fell -3% in 2024 , consistent with the -3% CAGR decline recorded over the full 2019–2024 period, per IWSR. The reasons are well-documented: Gen Z entering the 21+ market with reduced consumption rates, and the simultaneous rise of cannabis and non-alcoholic alternatives. Only 58% of U.S. adults reported consuming alcohol at all in 2024  — a figure not seen since 1996. Beyond the macro decline, Lexi identified the internal obstacles her team navigates on every alcohol campaign: Creative barriers Even when creatives are fully compliant with TTB federal advertising regulations  — which govern alcohol advertising across all digital platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok under Industry Circular 2024-1  — campaigns can be rejected or paused without warning. A client may want to be on a specific platform lineup, and it may simply not be available to alcohol advertisers. Scalability The audience funnel for an alcohol brand shrinks fast. You're already restricted to 21+ content, then you layer in age, demographic, geographic, and third-party audience targeting. By the time you've done it right, the addressable pool is a fraction of what a standard CPG marketer works with. Maintaining CPM efficiency at scale requires deliberate architecture from the start. Campaign parameters Before diving into tactics, a quick look at what the team was working with: Budget:  Under $10 million Channel preference:  A preferred mix of CTV partners Primary KPIs:  VCR, CPCV, CPM, CTR, VTC, Reach, Frequency, and a cross-channel brand lift study (BLS) Available creative:  Video, social display, creator content, and custom content Stretch goal:  Be first in uncharted territory — test new formats in alcohol before anyone else does With those parameters set, the team evaluated the most-talked-about trend in full-funnel video: rich media and enhanced CTV. The pitch is compelling — enhanced CTV is one of the first formats to enable genuine engagement measurement beyond view-through on connected TV. But for this client, the team said no. The reasoning is worth noting: the brand had exceptional creative built to own the full screen. Choosing an interactive or enhanced format would have compromised that creative impact — and the campaign was anchored in an awareness mandate. Good strategy sometimes means declining what's new in favor of what's right for the specific brief. Learn when and how to think about integrating Shoppable CTV ad units into your video marketing strategy. Media innovation within brand constraints Here's where the actual work gets interesting. Rather than defaulting to off-the-shelf audiences and standard placements, Lexi's team built a layered, custom-architected approach across three innovation areas. Strategic audience sourcing The team deliberately avoided pre-built Trade Desk audience segments, despite the range available. Every audience was custom-built, with a lean toward first-party-quality shopper data: Third-party purchase data  drawn from trusted shopper and receipt sources — purchase-verified audiences rather than broad interest proxies. Resonate , an AI-powered audience platform, generated audiences from real-time behavioral signals and activated them across CTV, Meta, and TikTok. Lexi described it as "a first-party, third-party audience source" — third-party data powered by first-party-grade AI modeling. Retargeting  built not from general site visitors but from video-exposed, social-exposed, and  search-exposed users — then activated on standard CTV to raise frequency in Q2 and Q3 as the campaign pivoted toward consideration. Retail media via Walmart Connect & Kroger Using both Walmart Connect and Kroger through the Trade Desk, the team unlocked something most programmatic beer campaigns don't get: direct ROAS measurement on upper-funnel tactics. The approach paired standard CTV inventory with accompanying display, targeting net-new audiences on the retail platforms. Walmart's ROAS benchmark range was $0.91–$10.33; Kroger's was $0.60–$17.00. Performance came in within those benchmarks. Audience-driven genre & content targeting → YouTube The most analytically interesting move started as a contextual CTV play and became something else entirely. The approach: take the target audience profile, run it through emerging AI tools to identify what content and genre trends they were engaging with, then use those findings to inform targeting. The contextual layer on CTV didn't work — niche CTV setups with multiple priority audience segments already stacked in don't have headroom for additional contextual filters without collapsing delivery. So, the team pivoted: they pushed the content trend insights into YouTube activations and cinema instead. A brand marketer's guide to retail media buying strategies for sustained business growth Insights & tracking by channel YouTube as a full-funnel video marketing strategy "I feel like there are a lot of brands that are still sleeping on the opportunity to utilize YouTube as more than just video," Lexi said. "It's social, it's CTV, it's audio, and it's even commerce." YouTube's practical advantages the team identified for alcohol brands specifically: Greater CPM efficiency and reach  versus standard CTV buys Multi-touchpoint exposure  across Shorts, YouTube Select, and YouTube TV — all on the largest screen in the house Lower barriers to entry for brand lift and search lift studies  — every brand lift study the team ran on YouTube showed positive lift Over 70% of all impressions served across the full campaign — awareness and consideration combined — were on CTV devices. On YouTube Select alone, that figure rose to 95%. The brand was reaching people on the biggest screen in the house, through a platform with digital targeting precision, at costs that outperformed standard TV. The brand lift study confirmed the approach: YouTube Video and CTV both drove higher favorability lift year-over-year. Overall CTV awareness lift increased with the addition of retargeting audiences in Q3. Cinema: The surprise showstopper Cinema was largely managed as a direct partnership rather than through programmatic, but the results earned their own section. Using the content trend insights from the AI analysis, the team identified select genres and releases whose audiences overlapped with the target consumer profile. A 30-second spot ran across those titles at seven test sites nationwide. An intercept study surveyed approximately 250 moviegoers: Ad recall: 75%  — on par with the NCM category norm of 76% Aided awareness: +200%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -27.28%) Brand opinion: +46%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -0.20%) Future consideration: +50%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -2.32%) Cinema is a leaned-in environment with near-zero distraction. When the targeting is right — content that aligns with the brand's creative message, audiences who match the target profile — the impact is disproportionate to the spend. Stand out from cluttered digital media channels with big, creative ideas for building a brand. Learnings & recommendations for the brand Lexi's closing recommendations were honest about what worked, what was left on the table, and where the strategy grows from here. On CTV:  Lean harder into Resonate and retargeting audiences in 2026 to maximize first-party data signals and frequency. Continue prioritizing retail tactics paired with display — the combination of awareness reach and measurable ROAS is too valuable to treat as a one-year test. On YouTube:  Prioritize Select placements to maximize premium YouTube TV content and engagement metrics. Continue testing new formats — sequential messaging campaigns are a priority for the next cycle, and pause ads remain unexplored territory in the alcohol category. On Cinema:  Continue aligning with tentpole cultural moments where brand messaging fits organically. The lean-in environment remains one of the highest-impact channels per dollar when the content context is right. On the horizon:  Atmosphere (for digital out-of-home ) and GSTV (at gas station screens) are being added to the 2026 mix — extending the brand's video footprint into high-frequency, purchase-adjacent environments. The broader opportunity, in Lexi's framing: the future of video and TV is more social and engaging than ever. Go beyond awareness to give audiences the full picture. You can watch Lexi's full presentation here: For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

We don't do this work for the trophies. But when an industry as demanding as media planning stops to say this campaign was something special , we're not going to pretend it doesn't mean something. So, we're proud to share that Exverus by Brainlabs has been named a winner of the 2026 MediaPost Planning & Buying Award in the Pharma/Health/Wellness category  for our "Wellness Women Can Trust" campaign on behalf of client Theralogix . The award was presented at the annual MediaPost Planning & Buying Awards ceremony  on April 15, 2026, at The University Club in New York City. The Brief: Do More With Less Theralogix has been developing rigorously tested, affordable nutritional supplements — focused on fertility, uterine health, and menstrual regularity — since 2002. The brand deserves to be found. The challenge in Q2 2025 was that women searching for health information online were drowning in conflicting, often misleading advice. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges , women's health remains severely underresearched, and declining public trust in institutions since the COVID pandemic has made it harder than ever for science-backed brands to cut through the noise. Our mandate was aggressive: improve Social ROAS by a minimum of 50% quarter-over-quarter, launch Google Performance Max at a $3 ROAS, and grow overall brand sales at least 10% year-over-year. The twist? We had 18% less media budget than Q1 to do it. Congratulations to Media Director Georgia Schreiner ( 2023 AdAge Media Planner of the Year ), Senior Media Planner Jillian Telman, and every specialist across search, social, programmatic, analytics, and ad ops who made "Wellness Women Can Trust" a campaign worthy of that name. The Strategy: Full-Funnel, High-Precision This is exactly the kind of brief that makes our team lean in. Rather than chasing reach with a scatter-shot approach, we built a precision media plan anchored in audience intelligence — reaching the right women with the right message at the right moment in their health journey. According to EMARKETER , search behavior is being fundamentally redefined by generational shifts. Social platforms today aren't just discovery channels; they're search engines and points-of-sale simultaneously. We built a media plan that treated them that way, diversifying across social commerce, search, programmatic, and emerging channels to maintain a balance between brand building and performance without sacrificing either. Learn more about how to reach digital-savvy consumers everywhere they search and shorten the path to purchase. The Results: Unprecedented Performance In three months, the numbers didn't just hit targets. They redefined them: Meta ROAS more than doubled  quarter-over-quarter ($4.66 → $9.77) TikTok Search ROAS surged 293% Google PMAX generated $107K from 1,217 new customers  at a 4.3 ROAS, clearing the $3 objective Web traffic grew 20%  while cost-per-view dropped 3.55%, despite the smaller budget Overall purchases rose 18%, ROAS lifted 21%, and annual sales grew 19.5% YoY — nearly double the goal The bottom line:  In one quarter, with less money, Exverus delivered 19.5% year-over-year sales growth for Theralogix — nearly double the target — by building a diversified, full-funnel media plan that met women where they actually search, discover, and buy. What this means for our clients This win (our latest in a long line that includes 8 Adweek Media Plan of the Year awards, 3 Ad Age Small Agency of the Year honors, and 3 Cannes Lions finalist recognitions) reflects the talent of the entire team who brought this campaign to life. For our clients, it's a signal of something more important than hardware: it means the thinking, tools, and team we bring to every engagement are being measured against the best in the industry — and coming out on top. Most importantly, we helped real women find a supplement brand that actually delivers on its promises. That's the work that matters. Exverus Senior Manager of PR & Communications Michelle Andrade accepted the award onsite on behalf of the media planning & buying teams. Frequently Asked Questions What is media planning? Media planning  is the strategic process of determining where, when, how, and to whom a brand's advertising should appear across paid channels — from paid social and programmatic display to search, native, streaming, and beyond. Done well, it's not a logistics exercise. It's a creative act: one that requires deep audience insight, disciplined data analysis, and the ability to connect the right message to the right person at the right moment in their decision journey. Learn how growth-stage brands can outsmart the sleeping giants with smaller budgets but bigger ideas. What is the MediaPost Planning & Buying Award? The MediaPost Planning & Buying Awards  are an annual competition recognizing excellence in media strategy, planning, and buying across categories including social media, performance media, native marketing, and health/wellness. The awards are based on the belief that the process of planning and buying media is as creative and impactful as traditional advertising creative development. Exverus by Brainlabs won the Pharma/Health/Wellness  category at the 2026 Awards for the "Wellness Women Can Trust" campaign, created for nutritional supplement brand Theralogix. What results did the Theralogix campaign achieve? In Q2 2025, the campaign delivered: Meta ROAS that more than doubled quarter-over-quarter, a 293% surge in TikTok Search ROAS, 18% growth in purchases, a 21% ROAS lift, and 19.5% year-over-year sales growth — on 18% less media budget than the prior quarter. What is Exverus by Brainlabs? Exverus by Brainlabs is a Los Angeles-based, full-funnel media planning and buying agency. Founded in 2014, Exverus was acquired by global digital agency Brainlabs in 2025. The agency manages over $100M in annual media spend and has earned recognition as a three-time Ad Age Small Agency of the Year (Media), an eight-time Adweek Media Plan of the Year winner, and a three-time Cannes Lions finalist. Ready to talk about what precision media planning can do for your brand? Let's connect.

Exverus' Cofounder & Head of Operations was given Honorable Mention for outstanding culture-building in the 2026 IMPACT Awards. 4 Key Takeaways Workplace culture that actually works is built through sustained, deliberate systems — not one-off initiatives or performative programs. Exverus by Brainlabs maintains 80% women or POC in leadership, demonstrating that inclusion at the top is a strategic choice, not a byproduct. Responsible AI adoption means building understanding and integrating tools into real workflows — not just writing a policy and walking away. Values-driven leadership that extends beyond the office — like Jack's work with the Asian Hustle Network — is what separates culture as a talking point from culture as a practice. Good workplace culture is easy to describe. It's much harder to build — and even harder to sustain as a company grows, goes remote, and operates across a distributed team. That's exactly what makes this recognition meaningful. Jack Win , Co-founder and Head of Operations at Exverus by Brainlabs , has been named an honorable mention finalist for the 2026 Reworked IMPACT Award in the Workplace Culture Leader of the Year category. What is the ReWorked workplace culture award? Reworked is one of the leading communities for employee experience professionals, and this year's program — spanning seven categories across workplace culture, technology, employee journey innovation, and vendor excellence — recognized practitioners who didn't just design initiatives. They shipped them, measured them, and improved the experience on the other end. Jack was evaluated by a judging panel of workplace practitioners and industry specialists led by Reworked Editor-in-Chief Siobhan Fagan . The feedback they offered wasn't the kind of boilerplate praise you'd expect. It was specific, considered, and pointed at something real. Judges highlighted that Jack has built an environment where employees don't just perform — they stay. High retention and long-tenured staff aren't accidents; they're the outcome of deliberate systems : biannual retreats, a modernized 360-degree feedback process, positive incentive programs, and an open-door leadership style that makes people actually comfortable walking through it. One judge noted that Jack is a clearly "accessible" executive in a way that's become rare — someone people aren't apprehensive about approaching on a wide range of issues. That kind of psychological safety doesn't happen by default. It's designed. The panel also called out the intentionality behind Exverus's leadership composition (with 80% of leadership being women or people of color) as well as Jack's responsible approach to AI adoption. Rather than issuing rules and moving on, Jack has integrated AI education directly into workflow through tools like the internal Xavier chatbot and Brainlabs' AI media planning software Cortex. Judges found this particularly striking: most companies either over-restrict AI or ignore it entirely. Jack did neither. He built a culture where AI is understood, used responsibly, and genuinely accelerating what the team can deliver — including making enterprise-grade media planning capabilities accessible to growth-stage brands that otherwise couldn't afford them. Beyond the agency, Jack's involvement with the Asian Hustle Network — supporting AAPI creatives and entrepreneurs — was noted as an extension of the same values driving his internal culture work. This isn't a leader compartmentalizing "culture" as an HR function. It's someone for whom inclusion and community are the operating system, not a program. As one judge put it: "Nothing feels performative. It feels like steady choices over time that put people first and let the results follow." That's the Exverus way. Read the full 2026 Reworked IMPACT Award announcement here. For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Social media advertising continues to evolve as one of the most powerful tools for brand growth and customer acquisition. As we move into 2026, understanding where to allocate your social media advertising budget can mean the difference between breakthrough results and wasted spend. Key Components: Strategic platform selection  based on verified audience insights and engagement patterns Scientific creative testing  across social media channels to identify high-performing formats and messaging Regular performance analysis  to optimize social media advertising spend allocation Agile budget management  that shifts investment based on actual results rather than assumptions or trends Social media planning: A scientific approach A. Understand your audience Effective social media advertising strategy begins with understanding your audience's digital behavior. Optimizing your social media mix requires clearly mapping where your customers spend their online time and attention. For businesses without enterprise-level analytics platforms, we recommend two accessible approaches to inform social media advertising decisions: Customer research : Survey your existing customer base about their social media usage patterns, preferred platforms, and content consumption habits Platform analytics : Utilize native analytical tools within each social media platform. Meta's insights dashboard, for example, reveals engagement distribution between Instagram and Facebook audiences—providing clear direction for social media budget allocation. B. How to allocate your social media advertising budget At Exverus, we have refined a proven social media advertising rule-of-thumb through years of running campaigns for brands like Premier Protein, Theralogix supplements, and New Belgium Brewing: 60% Meta  (Facebook and Instagram) 30% TikTok 10% Reddit or emerging platforms This distribution maximizes social media advertising ROI while maintaining agility for testing new opportunities as the landscape shifts. Platform-specific strengths Meta: The ROI champion Social media advertisers industry-wide agree that Meta is the strongest performer for your paid social return on investment (ROI) . The platform's sophisticated targeting infrastructure, extensive user data, and conversion optimization tools make it the foundation of most successful social media advertising strategies. Instagram Reels beats TikTok on several key metrics, and Meta's ad capabilities are only getting stronger. Click to learn how. TikTok: A brand exploder TikTok has emerged as a social media advertising powerhouse for brand awareness campaigns. The platform offers unique ad placements that other social media advertising channels cannot match - including positioning alongside trending content, securing first-open placements, and appearing as the initial video users see upon launching the app. Although TikTok Shop was a powerful sales-driver in the holiday shopping season of 2025 for product-based brands, most brands see more success with TikTok as an awareness-builder, rather than a converter . Social media platforms are now brand discovery hubs, and search engines are now mid-funnel. Learn how to meet savvy consumers everywhere they search. Reddit: The community educator For brands with products requiring education or strong community engagement, Reddit represents an underutilized opportunity. The platform enables advertisers to integrate messaging within authentic user conversations and valuable community discussions. Reddit's keyword-based targeting is a significant advantage for social media marketing campaigns. This functionality mirrors Google Search capabilities and enables more cohesive cross-channel marketing strategies. TikTok has similarly introduced keyword targeting, further expanding strategic social media advertising options. Reddit has evolved from a niche forum into a marketing powerhouse, reshaping how consumers make decisions & how AI answers their questions. C. Measurement & Attribution Effective social media advertising requires rigorous measurement to understand what's working and where to optimize spend. Without proper tracking and analysis, even well-allocated budgets can fail to deliver maximum value. Essential Paid Social Metrics Different platforms and campaign objectives require different measurement approaches. For conversion-focused social media buying , track: Return on ad spend (ROAS) : The revenue generated for every dollar invested in social media advertising Cost per acquisition (CPA) : How much you're spending to acquire each customer through social media advertising Conversion rate : The percentage of users who take desired actions after engaging with your social media advertising ROAS and last-click metrics can be misleading because they capture a narrow slice of the journey, understating long-term brand impact. For brand awareness-building social media buying , especially on platforms like TikTok, monitor: Reach and impressions : How many unique users are seeing your social media advertising Engagement rate : Likes, comments, shares, and saves relative to impressions View-through rate : Completion rates for video-based social media advertising content Brand lift studies : Changes in brand awareness, consideration, and preference metrics Brand lift studies demonstrate the impact of your marketing on real brand growth over time. Attribution in Social Media Advertising Modern social media advertising measurement must account for complex customer journeys. Users rarely convert on first touch—they might discover your brand on TikTok, research on Reddit, and convert through an Amazon Display ad. Implement multi-touch attribution models that credit multiple social media advertising touchpoints along the conversion path. Digiday confirms that agencies large and small are using agile, new marketing mix modeling (MMM) tools to track how upper-funnel media leads to sales downstream. Platform-specific attribution windows (typically 1-day view, 7-day click for most social media advertising) provide baseline data, but cross-platform analytics tools offer more complete visibility into how your social media advertising channels work together. Predictive analytics and big-picture insights make marketing mix modeling tools invaluable to brand marketers of all industries in 2026 and beyond. Testing and Optimization Cycles Successful social media advertising programs establish regular measurement cadences: Weekly analysis : Identify trends, pause underperforming social media advertising creative, and scale winners Monthly reviews : Evaluate overall media strategy, test new platforms, and adjust budget allocation Quarterly planning : Reassess platform mix based on cumulative performance data This structured approach to social media advertising measurement ensures you're making data-informed decisions rather than relying on assumptions or outdated performance patterns. E. Case Studies & Examples Theralogix enters the Reddit chat In Q4 of 2024, our Reddit Ads brand campaign contributed to the supplement maker's +33% lift in web traffic and +634% lift in cross-network search! Click to read more below. Exverus' new Social Reach ad unit beats Meta's efficiency In 2025, Exverus partnered up with SeenThis to build a whole new ad unit called Social Reach , which splashes a brand's vertical video assets across Pubmatic's premium open web supply with zero additional production cost. Click to learn more below. Premier Protein was the first brand to test Social Reach and outperformed Meta Ads by 50% efficiency! 'The Chosen' integrates search & social to drive app downloads For TV's "The Chosen" mobile app campaign , we stitched Search and Social Media advertising initiatives together in a cohesive digital strategy that successfully drove nearly 1 million app downloads in 3 months at half the projected cost! Learn more below. To entice viewers, we teased behind-the-scenes footage, access to the stars, and app-exclusive trailers. In 2026 and beyond, the key to social media advertising success lies not in following industry trends, but in developing deep knowledge of where your specific audience engages and what creative approaches drive them to action. For further reference: Creator Marketing: FAQs for brands in 2026 Social media advertising: How it works & tips for success Link in Bio by Rachel Karten Based on insights from Inc. magazine's interview with Blake Anderson (founder, 10x) and Ryan Schuster, MBA (Director of Paid Search and Social, Exverus by Brainlabs). Original article: " How to Get the Most Out of Paid Social in 2026 " by Annabel Burba, Inc., December 23, 2025.

A scientific approach to measuring paid media's impact on actual business growth Key Facts: Attention-based optimizations deliver 20% higher unique reach  than viewability optimizations and are 31% more cost-efficient, according to The Attention Council. Traditional metrics like impressions and CPM suffer from key limitations  — they measure potential exposure rather than actual engagement and can be inflated by bot traffic. Brand lift studies provide more meaningful upper-funnel measurements  by tracking actual changes in brand awareness, consideration, purchase intent, and preference. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is often overlooked  but critical for understanding long-term profitability rather than focusing solely on short-term conversions and ROAS. It's 2025 -- we've all moved beyond the tired brand vs. performance debate, correct? And we understand the importance of brand as an indicator of sustained business growth . But the challenge remains: how do we effectively measure brand outcomes for upper-funnel paid media campaigns? The Challenge of Measuring Brand Common brand metrics include: awareness favorability perceived quality, and advocacy These metrics are inherently challenging to measure because they require either: Direct consumer feedback  through surveys, panels, or focus groups; or Indirect behavioral indicators  such as branded search volume or social listening tools There's no perfect solution! At Exverus, we prefer taking a scientific approach through brand lift studies. Understanding Brand Lift Studies A brand lift study measures an advertising campaign's impact on brand awareness and favorability. Brand lift studies use a test-and-control methodology , comparing a test group (people exposed to the ads) against a control group (people not exposed to the ads but otherwise similar). This approach offers significant advantages: It controls for external factors that might impact brand perception, such as negative press or viral content Unlike brand search trends or social listening, it specifically accounts for media exposure, allowing us to isolate the impact of marketing campaigns Brand Lift Studies: FAQs for CMOs How much does a brand lift study cost? Brand lift studies vary in cost: they may be added-value on some ad platforms and with some media partners with minimum media spend, or from about $30K for simple digital only studies to over $150K for complex multi-channel studies. Google Ads ,   Amazon Ads , and   Meta  offer free brand lift studies to advertisers who spend above a certain threshold and achieve a certain impression threshold to ensure enough data for a statistically significant result. The main disadvantage of these studies is the inability to account for exposure to ads from your campaign that are running on other channels that can potentially contaminate results. Research partners like Nielsen, DISQO, or Kantar can measure incremental brand lift across many media channels holistically ( CTV ,   digital audio ,   out-of-home ,   radio , you name it!) This can give your team a more complete idea of how exposures to your ad connect with real-life consumer sentiment. It’s usually less costly to run studies for online channels where ads can be tagged and more expensive to measure offline channels such as TV or out-of-home. Long campaign flights, interim reports, online dashboards, and larger samples needed to break out results in more detail are all factors that can add to the cost of a study. What's the minimum budget needed to run a brand lift study? Again, it depends upon the platform and the question(s) you're trying to answer. Below are the requirements for added values studies on a couple of popular ad platforms: LinkedIn Ads provides free Brand Lift Testing for campaigns spending at least: $60K to answer one brand metric $90K to answer two brand metrics Meanwhile, YouTube brand lift studies need only: $3,500 in the first seven days of the campaign for one metric $5,000 in the first seven days of the campaign for two metrics How large does my brand lift study sample size need to be for reliable results? This question is complicated because the answer can vary so widely and depend upon many considerations. We've seen sample sizes as low as 30, whereas Google recommends 2,000-5,000 responses per question in both the control and test groups for each lift metric. If you need multiple breakouts, such as by audiences or creatives, you'll need a large overall sample size to have enough data for each. Source: Google DV360 Help How do I know who saw my ad? Tracking ad exposure typically involves placing pixels on creative assets to digitally monitor viewership. However, this approach isn't feasible across all channels: Many social media platforms restrict this tracking capability Traditional channels like TV, radio, and out-of-home don't support digital tracking The common alternative is an opportunity to see (OTS) methodology , where survey respondents' reported media consumption is matched against media placement timing. In our experience, OTS works well for certain channels like TV or radio but yields inconsistent results for others like social media. The methodology assumes test and control groups are identical except for ad exposure. We attempt to ensure this through sample matching  based on demographics, geography, or online behaviors—but no two samples are 100% alike! The goal is similarity, not perfection. And beware of cross-channel contamination : Modern consumers fluidly move between mobile, video, and TV multiple times daily, making channel-level impact testing challenging. When we're trying to compare ad-exposed versus non-exposed individuals, channel-level  brand impact testing can be contaminated with other ad exposures. How do I connect brand lift metrics to business outcomes? Mid-funnel metrics like web traffic, customer acquisition rates, and customer acquisition cost (CAC). The more you invest in your brand, the lower your CAC should be. Marketing mix modeling (or media mix modeling) aggregates many sources of data to provide a comprehensive, full-funnel understanding of how different marketing channels contribute to overall business growth. AI-powered predictive analytics tools model different scenarios to help us choose the right course. Loyalty indicators like customer retention, online reviews, referrals, and consistent price premium. Your brand is strong if consumers think of you long after they've made a first purchase. The Importance of Data Integration Scientific measurement can be complex and messy sometimes . That's why we recommend integrating multiple data sources to corroborate brand lift results. For example, if your study shows no significant lift from advertising, but your searches and sales show substantial increases, you have good reason to believe your campaign was effective despite the study results. The Exverus Approach When making complex decisions about advertising strategy or evaluating campaign performance, we believe in considering multiple information sources and leveraging expert analysis. Our director of data analytics, Charles Lai, leads a team of seasoned statistics experts who can glean the strongest possible insights for your brand. Learn more about brand lift measurement from Charles below: For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Predictive analytics and big-picture insights make marketing mix modeling tools invaluable to brand marketers of all industries in 2026 and beyond. Can you predict the outcome of your brand marketing campaigns? Without the proper measurement tools, your media plan could feel like a (very expensive) shot in the dark. A 2022 McKinsey Global Survey found that only 17% of companies believe they can effectively measure marketing's impact on business outcomes. And with so many different retailers and media networks to reach customers, measuring the impact of your spending across platforms can be a nightmare! Fortunately, a suite of marketing mix modeling tools has recently emerged to help solve those problems more quickly and accurately. What is marketing mix modeling? Marketing mix modeling, also known as media mix modeling (MMM), is a sophisticated analytical method that provides a comprehensive, data-driven understanding of how different marketing channels contribute to overall brand growth. Unlike user-level attribution, MMM uses aggregated data to evaluate the effectiveness of different marketing channels while maintaining privacy compliance. Marketing Mix Modeling offers a comprehensive, data-driven understanding of how different marketing channels contribute to overall brand growth. For brands navigating an increasingly complex digital ecosystem, MMM is no longer a luxury—it's a strategic imperative. Talia Arnold, Cofounder of Exverus, explained onstage at MediaPost why MMM & incrementality testing are now table stakes in every media budget. How does AI power MMM? In 2025, several announcements brought new MMM solutions to the forefront, all led by AI. AI is revolutionizing MMM in several key ways, making it more accurate, efficient, and insightful. Here's how: 1. Handling Complex Data AI excels at processing massive datasets, including diverse data types like online behavior, social media sentiment, CRM data, and even weather patterns. This allows MMM to incorporate a wider range of factors influencing marketing performance. Traditional MMM often struggles with complex, non-linear relationships between marketing inputs and outcomes. AI, particularly machine learning, can model these intricate relationships more effectively, leading to more accurate results. 2. Improved Accuracy and Insights AI employs sophisticated algorithms like neural networks and Bayesian methods to identify patterns and relationships that traditional statistical methods might miss. This leads to more precise estimations of marketing channel effectiveness. AI can analyze data at a more granular level, providing insights into specific customer segments, campaigns, and even individual touchpoints. This allows marketers to understand which tactics are working best for whom and optimize accordingly. A study by Forrester Research indicates that AI-driven marketing tools can improve marketing efficiency by up to 40%, with predictive analytics significantly increasing conversion potential. 3. Enhanced Efficiency and Speed AI automates many aspects of MMM, from data cleaning and preprocessing to model building and interpretation. This significantly reduces the time and resources required for MMM analysis. AI enables real-time or near real-time MMM, allowing marketers to adjust campaigns on the fly based on the latest data and insights. This agility is crucial in today's dynamic marketing environment. 4. Predictive Capabilities AI can be used to forecast the impact of future marketing campaigns, enabling marketers to make data-driven decisions about budget allocation and channel selection. AI facilitates scenario planning by simulating the potential outcomes of different marketing strategies. This helps marketers identify the most promising approaches and mitigate risks. 5. Overcoming Limitations of Traditional MMM AI can more accurately model the long-term impact of marketing activities, such as brand building, by capturing adstock and carryover effects and can help address the complex challenge of attributing marketing outcomes to specific touchpoints across the customer journey. What is the difference between MMM and MTA? Marketing mix modeling (MMM) analyzes how various marketing elements collectively impact sales or other KPIs, while multi-touch attribution (MTA) identifies the specific contribution of each touchpoint in the customer journey. MMM relies on historical, aggregated data (like campaign budgets or overall sales figures) while MTA needs more granular, real-time data on individual user interactions. Learn more about how and when to use each analysis method below: What are the best marketing mix modeling tools? As with most things, it depends - on your needs, budget, and level of technical skill. Recent innovations in MMM tools are making it easier for advertisers to approach and understand statistical regression models. Keen Decision Systems Take, for example, the collaboration between retail data aggregator Crisp and MMM platform Keen Decision Systems. This partnership represents a significant leap forward, enabling CPG marketers to combine daily, store-level data from multiple retailers with advanced modeling techniques. The result? The ability to plan, measure, and adjust budget allocations in real-time with unprecedented precision. Resonate Insights Another standout tool our own analysts love is Resonate, an AI-powered data platform that goes beyond traditional analytics. By combining consumer data with machine learning, Resonate provides robust audience insights that go far deeper than surface-level demographics. Google's Meridian Meridian is an open-source MMM tool that measures full-funnel performance, integrating incrementality experiments, controlling for organic demand with the inclusion of search query volume data, and making video measurement more actionable by modeling reach and frequency. InsightMix reduces the time it takes our teams to develop MMM models from weeks to hours, and allows us to iterate through hundreds of model variants to maximize accuracy and relevance to real-world business impact. Meta's Robyn Finally, Robyn is an experimental, machine learning-powered, open-sourced MMM package from Meta Marketing Science. These sophisticated tools do more than just collect data—they illustrate the intricate interconnectivity between media channels. By leveraging advanced algorithms and comprehensive data sets, marketers can now confidently justify every marketing dollar spent, transforming what was once a guessing game into a strategic, measurable process. And couldn't we all use a little more peace of mind these days? To ask our media experts how MMM or MTA can help manage your brand's ad budget more efficiently, shoot us a note using the form below! For more ad buying news and tips, join our free, weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter.

Instagram Reels beats TikTok on several key metrics, and Meta's ad capabilities are only getting stronger. Photo by Victor Freitas While the industry fixates on TikTok's uncertain future, the real story is playing out in the data: Instagram Reels is quietly dominating the short-form video space. Our recent Q4 campaign analysis for a top CPG client revealed Reels crushing TikTok on cost-efficiency, engagement rates, and video completion —the trifecta that actually moves the needle for brands. Add Meta's AI-powered Advantage+ suite into the mix, delivering 22% performance lifts on average, and you've got a platform that's not just surviving—it's thriving. With Meta capturing 60% of US social ad spend and Instagram driving $37 billion of that revenue, the question isn't whether to advertise on Meta in 2026. It's how quickly you can shift budget to Reels before your competitors do. Key Facts: Meta accounts for 60% of all US social media ad spend, totaling $66 billion in 2024 (up 17% year-over-year). Instagram Reels delivers better cost-efficiency than TikTok, with 27% lower CPM and 30% lower CPC in Q4 2024 client campaigns. Reels users are twice as likely to complete videos compared to TikTok and show 29% higher engagement rates. Meta's AI-powered Advantage+ tools are driving significant performance gains, with businesses using Advantage+ Sales Campaigns seeing an average 22% increase in ad performance. Is advertising on Meta still effective? Meta's (which encompasses Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp) advertising journey has evolved dramatically since Facebook's first sponsored stories in 2004. The platform pioneered highly targeted social advertising by leveraging its rich user data, expanding to Instagram in 2013 and later incorporating advanced features like Dynamic Ads and Custom Audiences. Despite Apple's iOS privacy changes in 2021 impacting targeting capabilities, Meta's ad platform remains compelling for marketers, reaching over 3.19 billion monthly active users across its family of apps. According to 2024 data, 71% of online users are more likely to base purchase decisions on reviews on social media. There are three ways of optimizing for brand on Meta, so our analysis included the Reach, Ad Recall, and Thruplays objectives, testing their impact on audience type and brand metric shifts.  How much does Meta make from ads? Although TikTok has doubled its US ad revenue since 2022 (now totaling $11B), Meta still accounts for 60% of all US media spend, (increasing 17% year-over-year to total $66B in 2024). Worldwide, Meta's ad revenue totals a whopping $160B in 2024 and is projected to reach $183.8B in 2025! And despite fast growth from emerging social platforms like Snapchat  and Reddit , Instagram is still the primary driver of Meta's growth, accounting for $37B of US revenue this year. Will Meta use grow or decline in 2026? With TikTok 's  future uncertain, Instagram Reels is poised to capture its audience and advertising dollars, offering a similar short-form video format within an established platform. Reels' integration with Instagram's massive user base and robust advertising tools makes it a compelling alternative for brands seeking to maintain their reach and engagement. But Instagram faces headwinds in hooking Gen Z and Gen Alpha users who show strong attachment to TikTok and YouTube. It's unclear yet which channel would reign supreme in the case of a TikTok ban. 2025 Sprout Social Index Edition XX Is it better to advertise on Meta or TikTok? As with all media planning decisions, it depends on your brand and your audience. What matters most is not which platform, but providing culturally relevant, on-brand content and excellent customer service on social media. While TikTok is still available as an advertising channel, brands should continue to consider it if their audience indexes highly for TikTok. (See our own agency contingency plan here ). However, looking at one of our own top CPG client’s Reels-only campaigns in Q4, Meta Reels significantly outperformed TikTok in terms of key metrics, like:   Cost-efficiency Reels delivered impressions at a lower CPM ($2.80 vs. $3.27) and clicks at a lower CPC ($1.03 vs. $1.48) than TikTok. This indicates Reels is getting more bang for each buck!   Higher Engagement Rate Reels also had a substantially higher engagement rate (9.32% vs. 7.25%) than TikTok. This means viewers were more likely to interact with Reels content, whether through likes, comments, shares, or saves.    Video Completion Rate While TikTok boasts more total video completes, the much lower Video Completion Rate (VCR) on TikTok (0.75% vs 1.5% on Reels) suggests that Reels viewers who do start a video are much more likely to watch it to completion. The higher VCR on Reels is a strong indicator of more engaged viewership. 2025 Sprout Social Index Edition XX What were the major changes in Meta Ads in 2025? Meta recently added to its suite of AI-powered advertising capabilities, like: Advantage+ , which automates ad targeting and placement Advantage+Creative , a generative AI  tool that creates several variations of a creative asset to rotate throughout a campaign and prevent ad fatigue Advantage+Sales  (previously known as Advantage+Shopping) a social commerce  tool tying ad views to actual conversions; and now, Advantage+Leads , which uses AI to help brands find high-quality leads Nicola Mendelsohn , head of Meta’s Global Business Group, says the company is driving massive user engagement through AI recommendations, noting that businesses using Advantage+Sales Campaigns have seen an average 22% increase in ad performance . On average, ad campaigns using these genAI features have seen 11% higher clickthrough rates and a 7.6% higher conversion rate compared with those that don’t use the tools. While Meta strengthens its technical abilities, we’re devising creative ways to make social more searchable , shoppable  and “omni-funnel” for brands every day.   For more information about Paid Social Advertising , check out Exverus' Director of Paid Search & Social Ryan Schuster's expertise in Inc. Magazine : Which social platforms actually convert sales? Hint: It's not TikTok. For more ad buying news and tips, join our free, weekly Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

The world's biggest media channel has fundamentally evolved, and your media buying framework must, too. Key Takeaways YouTube is now competing for TV budgets — and winning on attention. Adelaide's Q4 2025 data puts YouTube's Attention Unit score (64.3) above both CTV (63.4) and linear TV (53.9). If your media plan still treats YouTube as a digital add-on, you're misallocating against where attention actually lives. Google's audience data layer is YouTube's biggest underused advantage.  Search intent, in-market signals, purchase behavior — layered onto video. No other platform offers this. Most challenger brands barely touch it. Format is strategy, not logistics. Shorts, skippable in-stream, bumpers, and Demand Gen are different tools for different funnel jobs. Defaulting to one format isn't efficiency — it's waste with a cleaner invoice. Last-click attribution is lying to you about YouTube.  YouTube builds mental availability that shows up later as branded search and lower CAC. If you're not using brand lift studies and MMM, you're systematically undervaluing your investment and you'll feel it in six months. Plenty of resources online discuss the benefits and different creative formats for YouTube advertising, but here, we want to focus on the strategy of building it into a full-funnel media campaign. Growth-stage brands particularly need to keep the bigger picture in mind and design for long-term, sustained growth, rather than wasting money on short-lived spikes. YouTube beats TV for attention Most brands treat YouTube, now the world’s largest media company per The Hollywood Reporter , as either one of two things: 1. a more affordable TV spot, or 2. a performance channel that delivers immediate ROAS It's neither of those, and brands stuck in that binary are leaving the most valuable thing YouTube offers on the table: superior attention metrics (AU) .  According to Adelaide data , YouTube’s AU beat out CTV and Linear TV in Q4 of 2025, placing it in direct competition for TV advertising budgets in 2026.  Device-wise,  YouTube is now a living-room TV staple , which means the creative and media buying implications are completely different here from on a mobile phone.  Meanwhile, Shorts crossed 70 billion daily views in 2025 — a wholly separate viewing context with different pacing, attention, and creative requirements than long-form. Brands still repurposing 16:9 cuts are running the wrong asset in the wrong environment. Plus, the Google audience data layer (search intent, in-market signals, purchase behavior) makes YouTube targeting different from any other video platform, and most brands barely use it.  What this means for brands: If your YouTube advertising framework hasn’t fundamentally changed in the last 2 years, then you’re planning for a platform that no longer exists.  Growth-stage brands can't afford wasted video advertising spend. Stretch every dollar with smarter placements, formats, and channel mix. 3 ways brands get YouTube video marketing wrong Mistake 1: Treating it as a TV substitute   Don't just repurpose 30-second broadcast spots without adapting for the skip button, the screen context, or the audience signal available. The first 5 seconds on a skippable, in-stream ad do more work than the rest of the spot combined — most TV creative isn't built that way. Mistake 2: Buying it purely as a performance channel YouTube can drive conversions — Demand Gen campaigns are real. But optimizing YouTube entirely to last-click ROAS systematically undervalues its brand-building  contribution, which shows up in search lift, consideration shifts, and lower CAC downstream.  Mistake 3: Running one format for the whole funnel Skippable in-stream is for awareness, bumpers are for reinforcement, Shorts are for discovery, and Demand Gen is for conversion. These aren't interchangeable, and brands that run a single format "because it's easier" are doing the equivalent of using a hammer for every tool in the kit.  Measuring YouTube campaign's actual business impact Here's the measurement trap most brands fall into : they hold YouTube to the same real-time accountability standard as paid search, then wonder why it doesn't look as efficient. YouTube's native metrics — view-through rate (VTR), cost-per-view (CPV), completion rate (VCR)— are useful signals for in-flight optimization. They tell you whether your creative is holding attention, whether you're bidding competitively, and whether a format is working within a campaign. What in-platform metrics cannot  tell you is whether YouTube is contributing to your brand's growth.  That's a different question, and it requires different instruments. For upper- and mid-funnel YouTube investment, brand lift studies are the right starting point.   Third-party tools from Kantar, DISQO, or Nielsen add methodological rigor and cross-channel comparability if you need to benchmark YouTube against other video investments. The key discipline: set up measurement before the campaign launches, not after, and resist the temptation to read results mid-flight before statistical significance is reached. For understanding YouTube's contribution relative to your full channel mix, you need MMM.  This is where YouTube is most chronically undervalued for challenger brands — and the reason is structural. Last-click and multi-touch attribution models are largely blind to YouTube's upper-funnel contribution  because they're built to trace individual user journeys through trackable clicks. YouTube awareness exposure rarely generates a click — it generates a mental availability shift that shows up weeks later as a branded search, a higher conversion rate, a lower cost-per-acquisition. Attribution models miss all of that. MMM, which works from aggregated business data rather than individual click paths, captures it. Predictive analytics and big-picture insights make marketing mix modeling tools invaluable to brand marketers of all industries in 2026 and beyond. Don't evaluate YouTube in isolation from your Search campaigns.   The two are more connected than most measurement setups acknowledge. YouTube exposure — particularly mid-funnel video view campaigns targeting in-market audiences — consistently lifts branded search volume among exposed users. That branded search lift is one of YouTube's most measurable downstream signals , and it's one you can track directly in Google Ads by cross-referencing campaign exposure windows with search impression share and branded query volume. Examples of successful YouTube advertising campaigns Video sells Voodoo Ranger 'Voodoo Ranger: Megabrand' won a MediaPost OMMA for Best Alcoholic Beverage Campaign! In 2024, New Belgium Brewing’s Voodoo Ranger product line was the #1 IPA in the US. But the craft beer category was sinking, and we needed to strengthen the brand just to hold the top spot, let alone grow in tough conditions. Video played a huge role, from Premium CTV to Paid Social and YouTube.  We used a mix of formats to balance efficiency and effectiveness, including  Vertical video spots on YouTube Shorts for efficient Reach Non-skippable :15 spots for Reach YouTube Select audiences to drive awareness among comedy / gaming / pop culture enthusiasts  and more The full-funnel media campaign secured 42% more incremental impressions than we’d planned while maintaining cost efficiencies. YouTube was a showstopper, driving significant lift in Ad Awareness (+9.6pp), Favorability (+8.7pp), and Familiarity (+8.3pp)! Specifically, the YouTube Select Comedy lineup drove an astounding +16.67% absolute Ad Recall lift, and the Entertainment/Pop Culture lineup drove a +162% relative search lift on “Voodoo Ranger” search terms.  Most importantly, we grew VDR Juice Force IPA sales by 8% YoY, bucking the category’s downward trend and doubling our growth goal! "The Chosen" breaks a brand record “The Chosen,” an indie streaming drama, faced an uphill battle. While big-studio productions enjoy massive marketing budgets, this homegrown brand needed to continue funding production against inflation on a shoestring budget. So, we decided to reverse the typical distribution model and premiere Season 5 in theaters, hoping to overcome Hollywood’s headwinds.  Video accounted for 52% of the media mix. Starting two weeks before premiere: YouTube, Prime Video, and Netflix delivered interactive trailers whose QR codes linked directly to ticketing pages in 20 global markets.  An efficient $7.58 CPM allowed the message to be shared across over 1.19 billion impressions. A 9 cent Cost Per Person Reached (CPPR) was efficient enough to reach 68 million unique US audiences. The whole campaign contributed to a $50MM global box office revenue and 6.1MM tickets sold, smashing our goals! Sources: The Hollywood Reporter. "YouTube lays claim to another crown: The world's largest media company." March 2026. EMARKETER. "YouTube rivals CTV for premium attention, edges out linear TV." March 2026. Google Ads. "Creative excellence guide for demand gen campaigns." 2023. For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

The ubiquitous video platform is now America's #1 home for podcasts. Learn how your brand can benefit from its reach, engagement, and loyalty. YouTube is now the #1 platform for podcasts in the US, beating Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You've probably noticed that many of your favorite podcasts now come in video form -- why is that? Video builds a deeper personal/emotional connection with viewers Advertisers are already well accustomed to video-format ads in multiple channels, so it's easier for them to integrate with YouTube podcasts than audio channels YouTube is a powerful discovery engine Video clips are easier to tease on social media for audience growth YouTube is the fastest-growing platform for podcasts, which increasingly include a video element. In fact, a 2024 report  from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill crowned YouTube the most popular podcast audience platform in the US , far surpassing Spotify and Apple! Semafor reports, " monthly podcast listenership on the platform surpassed 400MM hours, and it recently had 1B users who viewed podcast content on YouTube in a month." Then, in March 2025, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced via public letter that YouTube was preparing "more tools to support podcasters, improve monetization for creators, and make it easier to discover podcasts." Specifically, Semafor reports that YouTube is working on dynamically inserting host-read video ads so that viewers can watch an old video but see ads that apply currently (just like with programmatic audio ads ). That’s a golden opportunity for brands to slide in and showcase their look, sound, feel, and deals. So, what’s the most efficient way to advertise there? Frequently asked questions about YouTube podcast advertising: Can you advertise on specific YouTube channels? With   Google Ads , you can indicate which audiences, keywords, and yes, even specific channels or videos you’d like to target in your display campaigns. You can also exclude specific channels or videos that might not be safe for your brand. How much does it cost to advertise on podcasts?   According to Acast , “the average CPM (cost per 1000 listens) of podcast ads is between $15 to $30 for pre-recorded ads up to 60 seconds. Host-read sponsorships can cost between $25 to $40 CPM. Ultimately, podcast advertising rates vary based on the type of ad, audience size, targeting criteria, and other factors.” What are the different types of podcast ads? Baked-in ads. These pre-recorded audio clips are “baked” into the audio file, so everyone hears the same ad.  Dynamic ad insertion (DAI): This strategy uses advertising platforms’ audience data sets to tailor and target your ad more specifically, which can lead to better conversions.  Host-read ads: Unlike pre-recorded audio ads, host-read ads (also known as live-reads) are messages delivered straight from the mouth of a person your audience trusts. They’re like getting a recommendation from a friend or family member! They’re the least disruptive, most naturally integrated form of podcast advertising.  Branded audio content: Some brands work with podcasts (or the media publishers who own them) to produce fully branded audio experiences that both provide information or entertainment to the listener and get the brand’s message across.  A good recent example was Virgin Atlantic’s three-part branded series with Pivot , a business and tech podcast hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, owned by the Vox Media Podcast Network. The hosts discussed the future of travel and electric vehicles, interviewed transportation experts, and subtly slipped in Virgin Atlantic’s offerings. These kinds of integrations can be a big lift, but they’re highly engaging and effective when done well.  Is podcast advertising worth it?  If you’re looking for brand trust and loyalty, look no further. People tune into their favorite podcasts every week because they trust and admire the host; they enjoy and learn from the content; and they’re likely to remember and consider their product recommendations.  Ad Results Media  has the receipts: “​​Podcast advertising is highly effective for building brand awareness and promoting overall brand lift...driving an average of 28% improvement in baseline awareness across industries and 24% improved brand recall.” Click here to learn about programmatically buying audio ads So, now let’s talk about best practices. How can you make the most of your advertising budget while reaping all the benefits this hot-button channel has to offer?  4 Tips for buying YouTube podcast ads: Don't just talk; listen Those who discover a podcast on YouTube say they like the platform for the comments, community, entertainment, and recommendations . These features offer additional ways to engage with potential consumers and build community around your brand.  Consider the device Spotify and Apple Podcasts listeners predominantly listen on their phones, while 38% of YouTube podcast ads are viewed on laptops or TVs. Adjust your creative assets and messaging accordingly.  Invest in host-read ads While they can be more expensive than pre-recorded ads, host-read ads offer a level of intimate trust, engagement, and recall that can significantly increase brand awareness, perception, and purchase intent.  According to Audacy’s 2024 Podcast Playbook : 46% of listeners say host-read ads are “not intrusive at all”, and 80% stay tuned for the entire ad rather than skipping it.  Run the data YouTube offers podcasters and advertisers robust data analytics  to measure and optimize campaign performance. Metrics include CPM, RPM (revenue per mille), ad impressions, and estimated monetized playbacks, or the number of times a video was watched with ads.  As always, audio and video channels should be considered in the context of diversified, full-funnel media planning . Never put all your eggs in one basket! But if you want to reach consumers in a relaxed, trustworthy, and informative environment, their favorite video podcast is a great place to start. And the right full-service media agency can help get you there. For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly  Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Growth-stage brands can't afford wasted video advertising spend. Stretch every dollar with smarter placements, formats, and channel mix. Fortune 100 companies may enjoy unlimited digital media budgets, but challenger brands need every dollar to work harder. As the media agency of record for growth-stage brands like Premier Protein & Dymatize, New Belgium & Bell's Brewery, and indie show "The Chosen," Exverus' media planners have mastered the art of meticulously placing video assets where they'll bear the most fruit. Video ads grab attention, boost engagement, and drive conversions. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most brands are overspending — not because video doesn’t work, but because it’s not being used strategically . For example, YouTube  is now a dominant force in CTV, commanding more living-room TV watch time than any other single streamer, yet some brands remain hesitant to commit the same budgets they would allocate to traditional television. That hesitation is costing them reach, efficiency, and relevance. Meanwhile; Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch are all expanding their presence on TV screens, blurring the line between social and premium video. The living room is now the battleground for attention, and the old playbook doesn't work there. What this means for marketers:  Smart brands are treating CTV as the anchor of integrated campaigns. Launch with CTV for brand awareness, retarget engaged viewers with shoppable social ads, then convert them through retail media at the point of purchase.   The data connectivity between these channels finally makes true closed-loop attribution possible.   The brands still siloing "TV budgets" from "digital budgets" are the ones wondering why their media mix models  show diminishing returns. Key takeaways: Video advertising can't do all the heavy lifting Shoppable CTV isn't just about sales Instructional beats promotional content Prioritize UGC over AI Repurpose your social videos for Display YouTube reigns supreme for Gen Z viewers Tap into the right frequency Video advertising can't do all the heavy lifting Video is powerful for storytelling, but diminishing returns kick in fast. A heavy YouTube  or CTV  buy doesn’t automatically equal stronger results. Often, brands keep layering spend on video because it feels safe, not because it’s proven to be incremental.   The problem isn’t the medium, it’s the mix. Too much video comes at the expense of reach in other channels that may drive more efficient impact ( audio , OOH , retail ) .   Over-investment also creates frequency waste: the same users see the same ads repeatedly, while new audiences remain untapped.   The question isn’t, “Are we spending enough on video?”  but rather, “What role is video playing in the funnel — and is it carrying too much weight?”   Actionable Insight : Run a reach and frequency analysis on your current video campaigns. If 20% of your audience is seeing your ad 10+ times while half your target hasn’t seen it once, reallocate a portion of spend into complementary channels that expand reach. A brand marketer's guide to one of the fastest-growing, most dynamic areas of media buying. Shoppable CTV isn't just about sales Interactive, shoppable CTV (or T-commerce) is an increasingly popular way to shorten the path between TV and purchase this year, but our actual reports show it serves a different purpose, too. Interactive TV ad units collapse the path between entertainment and purchase. Learn how we've run it successfully. After reviewing the performance of QR codes and tappable trailers for "The Chosen" 2025 theatrical campaign , Exverus by Brainlabs Media Supervisor Melanie Mogey explained to Digiday , “The scanning of QR to buy tickets was not the primary KPI for these units. VCR on the trailer for awareness was the focus....despite the interactive units gaining 28.8 million impressions, they drew just 7,500 QR code scans. The scans are not the most impressive numbers in relation to the impressions and completed views." Other agencies have been finding similar results -- brands of all types can benefit from shoppable CTV, not CPG or retail, but the impact is more broad-funnel than sales-focused. Instructional beats promotional content People browsing videos on social media, YouTube, or TV are looking for useful information and entertainment. They're more likely to engage with videos that teach them something valuable, rather than just self-promoting and asking. Demonstrate how your product solves a problem, showcase its features, or offer step-by-step tutorials. This approach boosts brand affinity and consideration. In fact, TikTok's own research demonstrated that videos displaying product usage saw: +25% lift in ad recall +32% lift in ad likability +65% lift in brand affinity , and +18% lift in product consideration. The average engagement for a 3-5 minute instructional video is a whopping 74% ! Knowing where to allocate your social media advertising budget means the difference between breakthrough growth and wasted spend. Prioritize UGC over AI Consumer sentiment on AI-generated video ads is at an all-time low. Generative AI tools like Invideo and Gemini Veo can quickly churn out content, but the rise of misinformation and low quality concerns highlights the need for a human touch . If you're going to use AI, always double-check facts, ensure accuracy, and prioritize a personal, relatable voice. Or, better yet, try UGC. EMARKETER data from 2025 shows 36% of marketers say user-generated content (UGC) is "extremely important" to their social media strategy, compared with just 2% who say the same about AI. Why is UGC such an effective digital video advertising format? Trust sells. There's a reason why "authenticity" is a burnt-out buzzword in marketing: A 2024 study of 8,000 consumers showed almost half (47%) consider user reviews of products the most influential content when shopping online, compared to just 11% for brand content and 10% for influencer posts. This boils down to one key element: trust. Peer reviews are much stronger purchase drivers than brand advertisements. Northwestern University's Medill Spiegel Research Center agrees: The purchase likelihood for products with 5 reviews is 270% higher than those with none. That's a powerful testament to the impact of UGC video. What's the difference between an influencer and a creator? How do I choose the right one? Answers to these questions and more. Repurpose your social videos for Display Imagine you’re perusing various websites on your phone. Instead of the usual square, static or video ads around the content, you see vertical video ads like on TikTok or Reels. In 2025, Exverus by Brainlabs partnered up with SeenThis to develop the first-to-market Social Reach , which expands vertical video ads to the open web and improves upon them with high-quality streaming delivery and premium placements in brand-safe environments. Premier Protein's 6-week Social Reach by SeenThis campaign beat Meta Ads in efficiency by 50%! Social Reach powered by SeenThis vertical video ads can deliver in standard display ad slots, giving brands the ability to scale their campaigns across more of the open web and reach their audiences in new ways. “Social Reach powered by SeenThis streaming vertical video gives us access to new environments to deliver social creative to audiences beyond the social walled-gardens,” said Hillary Kupferberg, VP Performance Marketing at Exverus. "This represents the next generation of much needed social extension. SeenThis’ adaptive streaming technology takes existing social assets and delivers them more efficiently than standard social formats via targeted inventory from PubMatic across the open web." Premier Protein was the first brand to run a Social Reach campaign, and it outperformed Meta Ads in terms of efficiency in the first 6 weeks! YouTube still reigns supreme for Gen Z viewers While TikTok may seem like the popular kid at school, YouTube remains a dominant force for Gen Z viewers. EMARKETER's 2025 Gen Z Social Media Usage report showed that over half of Gen Z social media users are spending more time on YouTube than they did a year ago. D aily YouTube usage among US adults 18-24 will surpass that of TikTok and Instagram by the end of 2025. This reinforces the notion that Gen Z can be captivated by longer, horizontal videos if the content is compelling and the creators build connection. In other words, the length isn't as important as telling a compelling visual story. Additionally, 59% of Gen Zers have used YouTube as a search engine, making it ripe for brand discovery and product reviews on par with TikTok and other social-search platforms. Most brands advertise on YouTube wrong. Learn the right framework, measurement, and real-life examples. Tap into the right frequency   For FY26, we need to shift away from static frequency caps to a more performance-based approach that finds optimal exposure levels through data and modeling. There's a "sweet spot" where campaign performance peaks -- Amazon Ads' testing showed optimal results at 2 exposures per user , with efficiency declining outside of that. Rather than arbitrarily setting caps like "once every 24 hours" or "three times per week," advertisers should use total exposure modeling that considers the consumer's entire cross-channel journey, including digital, streaming, and even linear TV. The goal is to identify the specific frequency threshold where your campaign achieves maximum impact—which Amazon demonstrated with 15% lower CPCs at optimal frequency versus no frequency targeting. Remember, video content is an investment, not a quick fix . By embracing the power of storytelling, leveraging the latest trends, and understanding your target audience, you can create video marketing magic that drives engagement and fuels brand growth. Sources: AdExchanger. " Advertisers Should Think Of Video Holistically. Consumers Already Do. " Google. " Reach potential customers at every stage of the funnel with video. " The Trade Desk. " McDonald’s and Publicis innovate custom full-funnel video measurement solutions. " Fast Company. " More Americans watch YouTube on TV than on their smartphones—here’s what that means for creators and viewers." For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Influencers, or content creators, are your go-to partners for media performance in the digital age Photo Credit: Perfecto Capucine Think quick: I bet you can name your favorite influencer faster than your favorite celebrity endorsement.  The global creator industry is projected to reach some $480 billion in size by 2027, nearly doubling in three years, according to  Goldman Sachs . And just in the US, EMARKETER forecasted influencer marketing to grow 14.2% in 2025 to $9.29 billion—not including paid media amplification or spend outside social media . We all see this trend in our feeds every day! As Exverus Senior Media Planner Lorus Samo explained to AdAge , “Social platforms allow consumers to share products with friends, leave reviews and engage in the process of discovery in a more personal way than clicking Google search links.” And the right creator can do more than just recite your product’s features; they can demonstrate to an audience how  to use your product in real life and instantly show its effects.  For example, when we won a 2024 WARC Effectiveness Award for our work with Premier Protein on Amazon Prime Days , it wasn't for product-based ads listing the ingredients and health benefits. Instead, we partnered with fun, aspirational health influencers that made videos demonstrating how they use Premier Protein in their daily morning routines. This helped the audience visualize themselves using the product and increases the chance of a buy. Let's answer some FAQs about creator marketing in 2025: What's the difference between an influencer and a creator? We often use these terms interchangeably, but there are some subtle differences: Influencers are primarily defined by their ability to influence purchasing decisions and drive audience behavior. Follower count is traditionally the key metric for success. Creators emphasize content quality, storytelling, production value , and longer collaborations. They're usually positioned as experts with specialized skills, rather than merely people with large followings. Creators typically diversify their revenue streams, going beyond product sponsorships to subscriptions, courses, speaking opportunities, or their own product launches. Photo by Anna Nekrashevich How do we identify the right niche creators and local influencers? Bigger isn’t always better. In the past, larger influencers were thought of as better for brand awareness and broad reach, while micro- or nano-influencers were more likely to drive sales conversions for their trustworthiness and relatability. But today, that's not always the case. Algorithmic social feeds are now highly astute at feeding the right content to the right consumer at the right time, making follower count just one of many factors determining placement . The key to identifying the right niche creators for your project is precise targeting based on deep insights about your audience. Establish: Demographics and psychographics Campaign objectives Budget parameters Geographic scope Content format preferences These will help you narrow down your search to make the most of every influencer dollar you spend. Photo by RDNE Stock project Should I hire an influencer marketing agency or use a self-serve platform? This depends upon a few factors like your campaign budget, your in-house manpower, the length and complexity of the campaign, and the level of control and oversight you want to maintain. Agencies are excellent for managing complex or long-term partnerships, especially if you have limited time and resources to do the legwork in-house, but they can cost more. Choosing a self-serve creator marketing platform can be daunting, as the available options are ever-growing. But platforms like CreatorIQ and Captiv8  have been building out their tech capabilities to better automate creator vetting, brand safety management, customer service, and reporting. In short: More budget, less time? Agency. More time, less budget? Platform. Photo by MART PRODUCTION What's the relationship between UGC and creator marketing? User-generated content (UGC) is a highly effective type of content, which can come in the form of photos, videos, reviews, or text created by people, rather than brands. UGC can be: Organic , in which actual customers voluntarily create content for free. This type is the cheapest and most authentic but hard to scale and control. Paid , in which creators make content for a brand's channels that looks like organic UGC. It's cheaper than a full influencer partnership. 93% of marketers report that UGC performs better than branded content, according to Hootsuite . UGC can be integrated into social but also CTV campaigns , with shoppable ad formats  and interactive features for a smooth path to purchase. Organic UGC builds authentic community, UGC creators provide scalable authentic content, and influencers reach new audiences. Most successful brands use all three strategically. How to build a successful UGC partnership:  1. Run A/B tests to determine which creative messaging resonates best with your audience 2. Create a natural, relatable vibe that feels more entertaining or educational than promotional 3. Use UGC to retarget people who have already interacted with your brand to reinforce trust and push conversions 4. Integrate UGC onto your product detail pages (PDPs) to reinforce trust & drive conversions Photo by Liza Summer How does creator marketing fit into an omnichannel media strategy? Creator content can serve marketing objectives at all levels of the customer journey: Brand awareness & discovery As the Premier Protein example above illustrates, social media channels can be a powerful brand discovery source that displays your products and messaging to a wide audience with broad reach. Purchase consideration Creators can "unbox", review, or give informative tutorials on your products or services Link directly from content to purchase pages through link stickers, tappable buttons, or other interactive features. Creator discount codes & affiliate links drive conversion Source: WARC "The Future of Media 2026." Repurpose content Exverus recently partnered with ad-tech vendor SeenThis to launch a new ad format called Social Reach , which takes vertical videos (brand-made or creator-made) and places them in premium Display slots across the open web. This allows media teams to repurpose creative assets and extend their reach far beyond social media platforms. It's already beating the efficiency of paid Meta ads by 50%! Social Reach is just one example of repurposing creator content for multiple channels. Other ways include: Linking to YouTube videos from social posts or blog posts Reusing YouTube videos for CTV ads Building earned media coverage around brand/creator partnerships The key is keeping the visual vibe and the messaging consistent. Earned media & organic reach Trade publications like AdAge and Marketing Dive love to report on a good brand/creator collaboration, so leverage it to earn even more publicity for both parties. Planning a PR strategy around your partnership is a cost-efficient way to multiply the impact on awareness and reach. Live, experiential events Think outside the screen! Live, IRL activations with brand reps and creators onsite draw crowds, encourage organic posting, and leave a deeper impact on attendees than a digital ad alone. Get some ideas for experiential marketing activations here. How do you measure the ROI of creator partnerships? 79% of marketers cite determining creator ROI as their biggest challenge. That's not a measurement problem – that's a strategy problem. Why creator ROI feels impossible Attribution gaps  plague creator campaigns because creator content often drives awareness and consideration rather than direct conversions, making it difficult to isolate impact.  Add platform fragmentation —where each network offers different metrics, attribution windows, and reporting standards—and cross-channel comparison  becomes nearly impossible. But the silliest reason? Over 50% of marketers spend only 30 minutes or less vetting  a single influencer, and only 25.6%  consistently receive documentation on influencer vetting. You can't measure what you didn't plan for. The answer is upper-funnel Many brands push creator partnerships toward social commerce—buying products directly on TikTok or Meta . But as we've noted before , social platforms are still most effective for upper- and mid-funnel awareness goals, not direct conversions. Just because a platform is popular doesn't mean it's the most cost-effective way to close sales. Creator content builds discovery and demand; search  and retail media  convert it. How to measure creator ROI Map creator partnerships to funnel stages, not vanity metrics. Use creators for brand awareness and product education, then retarget engaged audiences through retail media networks where purchase intent is highest. Track assisted conversions, not last-click attribution. Also, build creator briefs that define success beyond engagement rates—brand lift, consideration, search volume increases.  Finally, invest in proper vetting: Consider audience quality, brand alignment, and past performance data. What mistakes should brands avoid when partnering with professional creators? Freebies aren't payment Sending a free product sample is not sufficient payment for a whole day's worth of work packing, commuting, shooting, editing, writing copy, sharing content, and doing internal admin tasks. If you don't have the budget to pay a creator's going rate for a day of labor and supplies, please don't reach out. It's a waste of their time and yours. Let creators do what they do best Don't hire a well-known internet personality and then snuff out their whole personality by making them read your scripts and perform your corporate-speak. Let creators do what made their audience love them in the first place. If you can't relinquish that control, then just hire actors for a traditional commercial. No generic template emails Lia Haberman , social & creator marketing consultant to Fortune 500 brands and author of the popular ICYMI Substack newsletter , advises: Don't send out a generic message. Don't address them as "Dear creator" or use their social handle instead of their name. Take the time to do your research. Make the effort, use their name and some acknowledgment of why they're a good fit for this campaign. Personalize the outreach. I've worked with creators who say they don't want to feel like they're just a cog in the wheel and impersonal pitches are a deal breaker for them. In 2026 and beyond, brands will start looking at influencer marketing as an overall strategy, rather than a silo in their marketing mix. Influencer and creator marketing can elevate, if not lead, every pillar of marketing communication when planned and executed thoughtfully. To learn more about what the right creator partnership could do for your brand, drop us a line ! For further reference: Marketing Dive. "Creators work, but measurement doesn't -- yet." March 2026. EMARKETER. "FAQ on the creator economy: How marketers can stand out in 2026." January 2026. LINQIA. "2026 State of Influencer Marketing Report." January 2026. This piece originally appeared in our weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter. For more tips, research, and analysis; subscribe for free here .