Earlier this year, we projected that social video would see the second largest growth rate midterm-to-midterm among all political video ad spending.
This may come as a surprise to people who have followed Cross Screen Media. We’ve traditionally been pretty negative on Social Video. Back in 2016, Social Video represented ~50% of digital ad spend.
When we started CSM in 2017, we began comparing formats on an apples-to-apples basis using an effective CPM. We found that very few people actually watched videos on Facebook. The in-stream newsfeed was a poor environment for video consumption.
Ten years later, Social video is fundamentally different and deserves a second look from political advertisers.
How much time do American adults spend on Social Networks?
1 hour and 37 minutes a day. The third most popular medium behind Traditional TV and Streaming.
47 more minutes per day than YouTube.
59 minutes per day are spent with Social Video, roughly the same as YouTube.
How do American adults consume Social Video?
44% of time spent with Social Video is on Meta properties: Facebook and Instagram.
TikTok does not allow political advertising, making Meta the largest source of available Social Video inventory for campaigns.
How many people use Meta properties?
Time spent is not the same as reach. On every platform, heavy users will account for a disproportionate share of total usage.
More Americans report using YouTube than any other platform, followed by Facebook and Instagram.
TikTok is only used by 37% of Americans, despite accounting for a significant share of total Social Video time.
More important than overall usage is frequency of use. And this is where Meta shows real value.
Half of American adults use both Facebook and YouTube daily, with Facebook showing slightly higher daily usage frequency.
Reach and frequency of use is only one part of the equation for effectiveness. It doesn’t matter how many people are on a platform if no one watches your ads.
Next week, we’ll dive into how video and viewing behavior on Meta properties has changed and why that may make Social Video a stronger buy in 2026.
What does this mean for political advertisers?
Social Video deserves a second look. Platform behavior has changed materially over the past decade, particularly around short-form video consumption.
Meta is likely the largest scalable Social Video buy for politics. TikTok’s restrictions make Facebook and Instagram the dominant inventory sources.
Reach alone is not enough. Frequency of use and actual viewing behavior matter more than headline user counts.