Technology
Basis Platform
Advertising Operating System
Communication Portal
Intelligent Collaboration
All Channel Activation
Activate Media on Every Channel
Consulting
Resources
Key Takeaways:
One might expect that the more time consumers spend with a certain channel, the more money advertisers would want to invest in it. In reality, however, the two rarely match.
Some channels, like CTV, command far more consumer time than their share of ad dollars suggest. Others, like social media, attract spend that far outpaces the time consumers give them.
These gaps are, in part, a result of the pressure to prove how every dollar spent contributes to business outcomes. This pressure can lead teams to overinvest in channels with advanced performance offerings, thereby undermining the long-term demand and brand equity built by upper-funnel marketing. Understanding these dynamics is key to crafting effective media plans in 2026, especially as economic anxiety makes consumers more discerning with their spending.
Divergences between the percent of daily time spent by US consumers and the percent of total US media ad spend show up across many (if not most) advertising channels.
The divide is particularly pronounced on subscription OTT, where ad spend accounts for 12.5 percentage points less than consumer time spent, and social media, where ad spend accounts for 15.2 percentage points more than consumer time spent.
Adding to the disconnect, social engagement is growing by only a few minutes annually, but ad spend will grow by over 20% in 2026. This phenomenon is largely driven by Meta platforms: US adults spend 3.9% of their daily time with digital media on Facebook and 3.4% on Instagram, but those channels receive 11.9% and 12.8% of total US digital ad spending, respectively.
There are a variety of reasons behind the gaps between consumer time spent and ad spend. CTV inventory, for example, is expensive to buy, and producing broadcast-quality video adds another layer of cost, keeping the channel out of reach for many advertisers despite its heavy viewership. Social platforms sit at the other end of the spectrum, with comparatively low CPMs and low barriers to entry that make them approachable for smaller-budget teams. On the other hand, audio and radio draw significant daily time but tend to be consumed more passively, which may be part of why they attract less spend despite the hours consumers listen.
These factors explain part of the picture, but they don't account for the full size of the gap. The imbalances are also rooted in advertisers’ efforts to demonstrate the impact of every dollar spent. CMOs are increasingly under pressure to deliver measurable business outcomes, which understandably leads marketing teams to invest more in channels whose performance advertising offerings make ROI easy to show.
Meta is a prime example, offering granular targeting, massive scale, and conversion tracking that ties spend directly to outcomes—likely one of the main factors driving advertisers to invest so heavily in Facebook and Instagram. In contrast, CTV has a reputation for being more difficult to measure, which is part of why ad spend drags so heavily behind consumer time spent.
Channels that make ROI easy to prove have real value. At the same time, attribution-based measurement can overstate how much performance marketing actually contributes. These methods tend to over-credit the channels closest to the point of purchase, skewing the picture of how channels work together to drive results. For example, one study found that 30% of paid search clicks are attributable to other advertising channels (mostly video). And the channels with the biggest imbalances between time spent and ad spend are where this dynamic plays out most, with a recent ad effectiveness analysis showing that large brands tend to heavily overspend on social.
These skewed understandings of channel contribution are a problem because overinvesting in performance marketing can backfire. Reports have framed this trend as defining the industry’s “performance era,” finding that these overinvestments can decrease revenue returns by 20% to 50%, while moving from a more performance-focused investment profile to one that balances performance with brand can increase overall revenue returns by a median of 90%.
“You can’t just chase performance,” says Kelly Boyle, SVP of Strategic Business Outcomes at Basis. “If you’re not building future demand, your performance marketing will eventually lose steam.”
Finding the optimal media mix for each brand and campaign depends on marketing teams’ approach to measurement. Attribution-based measurement is often platform-specific, which leaves advertisers without a clear view of how investments across different channels work together. Modern modeling approaches like MMM, regression modeling, and scenario planning, on the other hand, show teams how investments across channels and platforms can optimally work together to drive business outcomes. Platform-specific attribution should remain a core function, but modern modeling is essential to seeing the full picture.
Of course, consumer time spent is just one consideration to factor into a media strategy. “Every brand’s audience and their consumer journey is different,” says Boyle. “It’s not just about showing up in the places where people are spending time. It’s also important to consider, ‘Where is my audience being influenced? Where are they making decisions? Where are they in the right mindset for a certain message?’”
Ultimately, the most successful advertisers use a granular understanding of the brand's customer journey—informed by platform-specific measurement and modern modeling as well as additional consumer signals and market research—to allocate budget where it will actually move the business.
Channels that make ROI easy to demonstrate have earned their place in the media mix. At the same time, it’s important for advertisers to understand how last-click attribution can lead teams to overinvest in them—and that it does so at the expense of the brand-building that sustains performance over time.
In response, leading marketing teams are evolving their measurement approaches to get a clearer picture of how their investments work together and allocating accordingly. Ultimately, the quality of a team's measurement approach is what separates spending that looks good from spending that actually grows the business.
—
Want to go deeper on what better measurement looks like in 2026? In Bringing Momentum to Measurement: What Marketers Are Missing in the Pursuit of Effectiveness, Basis experts break down where most teams get stuck and what measurement approaches actually drive effectiveness.