First-mover advantage is rare in marketing. But for brands in sectors like finance, healthcare, and B2B, influencer marketing presents an opportunity to claim it.
By building trust with audiences and delivering highly engaged, targeted reach, influencer marketing has reshaped how brands across sectors like beauty, travel, and fitness connect with consumers and drive business results. For marketers in industries that have yet to embrace the approach, early adopters can use creator partnerships to differentiate their brands, establish credibility with target audiences, and capture attention in new ways. However, success requires a thoughtful approach that considers measurement challenges, effective team management, and strategies for handling media complexity.
Influencer marketing has experienced explosive growth in recent years. In 2025, creator-generated revenue is expected to increase 20% year over year, and by 2030, the market is projected to more than double, reaching $376.6 billion.
This growth is driven, in part, by creator content’s ability to accelerate the customer journey, condensing awareness, interest, and consideration into a shorter path to action. Consumers are also significantly more likely to search for additional information and actively engage with creator content compared to studio-produced alternatives.
The impact of influencer marketing is significant, with 83% of industry leaders in categories like beauty, retail, food and beverage, and entertainment reporting that creator content generates higher ROI than traditional digital advertising. That edge is particularly valuable amidst today’s economic pressures, especially considering that creator production costs have stayed relatively steady while the price of traditional digital advertising continues to climb.
For brands in categories that haven't yet fully influencer marketing—such as B2B, finance, healthcare, and automotive—the tactic presents a significant opportunity to unlock a key relative advantage, giving early adopters a competitive edge via strategies their competitors have not prioritized.
Influencer marketing offers several key benefits. First, it provides a new way to create fresh, differentiated content that can be used across multiple touchpoints and platforms. B2B companies, for example, might partner with industry thought leaders to explain complex SaaS solutions, while automotive brands could collaborate with car reviewers to showcase new safety features or electric vehicle technology. Additionally, influencer marketing plays a crucial connector role between owned and earned media, enabling brands to craft a more seamless omnichannel experience for their audiences.
Perhaps most significantly, creator collaborations help brands build credibility with audiences—something that’s particularly hard to earn intoday’s environment of widespread consumer skepticism. Leveraged thoughtfully, influencer marketing can serve as a powerful trust builder for brands: When a financial advisor explains retirement planning or a healthcare professional discusses wellness trends, audiences receive information from sources they already trust and follow, creating a more credible pathway to brand consideration.
That being said, because trust is fragile, advertisers must carefully vet creators for audience fit and brand alignment, and require clear, visible disclosures on every paid post. Additionally, brands in highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance must navigate additional compliance requirements when implementing influencer partnerships. Marketers in these sectors will need to ensure all creator content meets regulatory standards, which can require careful legal review and clear partnership agreements before launching campaigns.
While 83% of industry leaders in categories like beauty, retail, food and beverage, and entertainment believe that creator content drives more ROI than traditional advertising, measurement remains a significant hurdle. Currently, 28% of brand marketers in these industries struggle to capture ROI, highlighting the need for a more strategic approach to measurement and analytics.
To address this, advertisers must first establish a clear learning path for their teams by defining the right questions to understand the value of their investment. Is the goal sign-ups, sales, downloads, or lead collection? Clarifying what a brand seeks to achieve—and what it is reasonable to expect, especially in early tests—is crucial for setting appropriate learning expectations and building scalable programs.
Social listening can also be a critical component of measuring success. This includes tracking conversations about a brand, monitoring sentiment (positive or negative), and analyzing how content is shared and amplified. In practice, it functions as a measure of share of conversation: Within a given category, how much of the discussion is a brand capturing, and does that align with its share of investment?
Finally, advertisers should complement the reporting offered by influencer marketing platforms with media mix modeling (MMM) to understand how influencer marketing is performing in tandem with other channels. This provides a more holistic view of its contribution to business outcomes.
Brands are increasingly facing criticism from consumers for out of touch or poorly executed creator partnerships. Soda brand Poppi, for example, received backlash after sending full-size vending machines stocked with product to 32 influencers, with critics calling out both the extravagance of the stunt and the lack of diversity among recipients.
To avoid missteps such as these, creator partnerships and activations must be executed with intentionality. Campaign concepts must align not only with brand values and messaging, but also resonate positively within the current cultural context. Successful activations require careful planning with clear objectives and creator guidelines. Advertisers may also want to consider running small pilot tests to gauge audience resonance before making larger investments.
Successful influencer programs work best when they're fully integrated across the entire marketing team and often require close collaboration with PR. This integration ensures consistent messaging, aligned objectives, and coordinated execution across all brand touchpoints.
A full-fledged influencer program typically requires several full-time employees, but for those organizations that are dipping their toes in the water, team members who already manage social media investments can begin the testing and learning process.
Brands can also scale these programs by partnering with trusted partners who can serve as a bridge and help manage initial programs while building internal capabilities that can eventually scale. This approach allows brands to learn, optimize, and grow their influencer marketing capabilities systematically rather than jumping in without the necessary support systems.
When selecting partners for influencer marketing initiatives, marketers should carefully evaluate any influencer platforms under consideration. Key factors include measurement capabilities and ease of use, since adding influencer marketing to a media plan introduces operational complexities and another platform to manage.
If testing and learning evolves into larger investments, marketing leaders should assess whether their tech stacks enable teams to manage the complexity of an expanding mix of channels, platforms, and strategies. Investing in technology that streamlines manual processes and unifies disparate systems allows teams to handle the added complexity influencer marketing brings more effectively.
For marketers in sectors that have yet to embrace influencer marketing, there is a clear opportunity to capitalize. With a considered approach to measurement, intentional partnerships, and the organizational infrastructure that enables teams to manage rising media complexity, brands can tap into the full benefits of this rapidly growing tactic.
And for early adopters in non-traditional sectors, the reward extends beyond immediate campaign results. They'll build valuable creator relationships before competition drives up costs while positioning themselves as innovators, rather than followers. The window for gaining competitive advantage is open, but with the market’s rapid pace of growth, it likely won't stay that way for long.
The marketing funnel has been advertisers’ go-to model for decades—we've planned around it, measured against it, and organized strategies into neat awareness-to-conversion paths. But it doesn’t accurately reflect how consumers behave.
In today's complex digital landscape, people don't make decisions in predictable linear paths. They jump between channels, loop back through consideration phases, and make purchase decisions that defy our carefully constructed funnel framework. It's time our media plans caught up with this reality.
The outdated idea that consumers move step by step from awareness to consideration to conversion still shapes many advertisers’ media plans. It drives decisions around channel selection and budget allocation, with rigid role assignments: CTV and display for awareness, native and video for consideration, search and retargeting for conversion, and so on. But in reality, consumer journeys have fractured into unpredictable, nonlinear patterns across an expanding network of touchpoints.
The images above illustrate this evolution. On the left is the traditional funnel, and on the right is what Google calls “the messy middle” —a more accurate representation of how people make decisions today.
Google’s “messy middle” research reframes the customer journey as two mental modes: exploration, when consumers are discovering options, and evaluation, when they’re narrowing them down. They loop repeatedly between these two states, across countless touchpoints, until something triggers a purchase.
Other models, like the Hankins Hexagon, express the same idea: There are very few fixed pathways, and most are two-way, with constant feedback loops and changes of mind. For example, a shopper might see a smartwatch in an influencer’s Instagram post (discovery), read reviews of different smartwatches on Reddit (evaluation), notice another option in a display ad while reading the news (discovery), and then purchase one on Amazon after spotting a promotion.
This shift should transform how advertisers craft media strategies. We can no longer think of the customer journey as a rigid sequence of awareness first, then consideration, then conversion. Instead, we should develop media plans that align with the nonlinear paths people take as they explore, evaluate, and purchase.
Awareness, consideration, and conversion are still useful metrics—we don’t need to abandon them. However, they should measure the expected impact of a touchpoint rather than dictate its role. For example, when we use TikTok strategically, we expect it to drive consideration that leads to sales, because that’s what consumer behavior and media outcomes show. While social media has traditionally been seen as an “awareness” channel, we don’t let the funnel dictate TikTok’s purpose when real-world results tell a different story. Similarly, CTV is often slotted into the awareness stage, but we’ve seen it play a decisive role in driving conversions when paired with precise audience targeting and sequential messaging.
Instead of forcing media channels into predetermined funnel stages with assumed roles, advertisers should focus on understanding how audiences actually behave across touchpoints. For example, if the goal is building awareness, the question isn’t which “upper-funnel channel” to use, but which touchpoints truly drive recognition and recall for a specific target audience.
In a nonlinear world, more touchpoints mean more opportunities to influence. Considering that brand impact increases by 234% when the same budget is spread across five channels rather than just one, media strategies should prioritize variety and omnichannel integration to truly capture audience attention. Tools that streamline omnichannel activation and unify reporting help teams focus on the touchpoints delivering the strongest returns—and keep pace with today’s messy customer journeys.
The marketing funnel may be familiar, but it no longer reflects reality. Reframing the funnel helps advertisers stay focused on what matters: what actually moves the needle with target audiences, rather than assumptions about where they are in their journey. Marketers who adapt to this complexity will be best positioned to influence decisions and drive growth.
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Basis’ media consulting and activation team helps marketers craft omnichannel strategies that meet audiences where they are to maximize returns. Connect with us to learn how we help advertisers thrive in the messy middle.
Darrick Li of media planning data platform Guideline joins host Noor Naseer to unpack the big shifts reshaping media planning and buying. From brands bringing planning in-house with the help of technology, to the evolving role of data in smarter decision-making, Darrick highlights where advertisers need to be putting their attention.
This episode also explores key trends in retail media, CTV, and cross-platform measurement, as well as how AI is helping teams unlock insights and accelerate strategy in an increasingly complex ecosystem.
Few technologies have reshaped marketing as quickly as AI.
In the less than three years since ChatGPT’s public debut, generative AI has become embedded in many marketers’ workflows, influencing everything from media buying to creative development. And its influence is only expected to grow, with 90.7% of marketing and advertising professionals believing AI will radically transform the industry within the next three to five years.
But widespread use doesn’t guarantee effectiveness. In the rush to implement this new technology, many teams have overlooked one of the keys to its effectiveness: data. When AI runs on fragmented or low-quality inputs, results are unreliable. Insights get blurred, personalization misses the mark, and recommendations fall flat. Such missteps have a direct cost, as they quickly compound into wasted spend and weakened consumer trust. As AI transforms the industry, the organizations that thrive will be those that invest in clean, privacy-compliant first-party data—the foundation AI needs to deliver accurate, differentiated value.
From faster analysis to smarter targeting to more relevant creative and beyond, the potential for AI in marketing is significant. But the reality of implementing AI effectively is that its accuracy hinges on the quality of the data it consumes.
When data is inaccurate, siloed, or inaccessible, the risk of error increases significantly. Poor data not only muddies results but also raises the odds of hallucinations, where AI generates outputs that appear credible but are instead fabricated. Because the technology mimics the information it’s trained on, gaps or inaccuracies in the data increase the likelihood of such mistakes. This is a significant problem, with one recent test finding that newer AI models can hallucinate as much as 79% of the time.
For marketers, those hallucinations can look like real insights: an optimization tool shifting spend toward audiences built on incomplete signals, a personalization engine delivering irrelevant product recommendations with full confidence, or a dashboard surfacing “top-performing” keywords that don’t exist. These aren’t minor errors—they are costly missteps driven by weak data foundations. Even small inaccuracies can snowball, feeding back into models and negatively shaping future decisions.
For all the focus on AI, most organizations are still behind on data readiness. Increasing privacy regulations and signal loss have already made first-party data critical, and AI adoption further raises the stakes. Clean, consented, and unified data is what powers accurate insights and effective personalization.
Yet few organizations are currently treating it that way. Just 21.4% of industry professionals say first-party data is foundational to their AI efforts, while more than a third admit it plays little or no role. That gap between ambition and readiness helps explain why many AI tools underdeliver. Until first-party data is prioritized, real impact will be limited.
Though marketers know data is essential, many face significant barriers to leveraging it effectively. Roughly 34% of industry professionals say their first-party data is limited and fragmented, 11% don’t use it at all, and less than one in five describe it as extensive and well-structured.
Some of the key challenges that hinder marketers’ ability to effectively leverage data are data accuracy and quality, as well as scale and volume of data. While most teams have access to large amounts of data, fragmentation prevents them from forming a reliable single view of the customer. For example, a travel company might struggle to connect loyalty profiles with search behavior and purchase history. Despite having plenty of data, it’s difficult to use and more prone to errors because it’s siloed across platforms and systems. AI trained on only one slice of that picture could misread intent, recommending irrelevant offers or overvaluing the wrong audiences. Multiply that problem across numerous systems and campaigns, and it’s clear how marketers lose both efficiency and accuracy to data problems.
AI delivers its strongest results when it runs on a solid data foundation. Brands that prioritize clean, consolidated, and accessible data systems see stronger AI-powered targeting, personalization, and optimizations. For agencies, reliable data ecosystems fuel creative and strategic outputs that capture the nuances of their clients’ audiences.
This groundwork starts with first-party data itself: ensuring it is collected with consent, stored securely, and structured in ways that make it easy to analyze and share across teams. Data hygiene practices—regularly auditing for accuracy, de-duplicating records, and unifying customer identifiers—are also essential for maintaining quality at scale. Leaders that embed these practices into ongoing workflows, rather than treating them as one-off clean-up projects, see compounding benefits over time.
Equally important is making data actionable. Tools that unify disparate data sources and streamline reporting help address this challenge. By consolidating scattered signals into one source of truth, teams eliminate silos and reduce errors, thus allowing them to give AI models consistent inputs. Platforms that bring together existing media, CRM, and analytics systems into clear dashboards not only improve efficiency but also provide the clarity needed to optimize campaigns in real time. This enables a shared understanding across marketing, sales, and finance teams, which in turn makes it easier to align on strategy and measure impact.
With these foundations in place, teams are better positioned to unlock AI’s full potential.
AI has quickly become embedded in marketing workflows, but its value depends largely on the data that fuels it. Too often, that foundation is fragmented or incomplete.
Organizations that invest in systems to ensure clean, compliant, and unified first-party data will be well-positioned to capture AI’s full value. The payoffs are significant: stronger ROI, personalization that resonates, and long-term differentiation. In the years ahead, it won’t necessarily be the earliest adopters who come out ahead—it will be those who built the strongest data foundations.
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Looking for even more insights into the state of AI in marketing? We surveyed marketing and advertising professionals from leading agencies and brands for our third annual AI and the Future of Marketing report. It’s filled with insights to help industry leaders evaluate how to use AI responsibly, strategically, and with urgency.
As economic uncertainty puts pressure on marketing budgets, brands need strategic approaches to win new business and maximize every dollar spent. Relative advantage is one such approach that can help advertisers stretch their budgets further and stand out in a competitive market.
Often, the easiest way for brands to fuel growth is by outspending their competition: gaining excess share of voice, reaching the broadest pool of consumers, and investing heavily across a variety of channels. With budgets under closer scrutiny, however, few marketers can afford to deploy those strategies at full scale right now.
Relative advantage offers a strategy for working within these constraints. Put simply, it’s the practice of finding opportunities to gain ground that don’t rely on outspending—whether that’s through untapped audiences, underutilized channels, or moments competitors have overlooked. The payoff is significant: Brands that apply relative advantage see an average ROI of 500%, a 40% lift over their peers. They’re also 60% more likely to generate a major lift in awareness and 22% more likely to achieve stronger loyalty gains.
Opportunities to unlock relative advantage often fall into seven key areas:
The key to applying relative advantage is understanding both competitor and audience behavior, then using those insights to invest where others leave space.
Advertisers don’t need to execute on all seven key areas of relative advantage at once. Rather, they should evaluate each option and focus on the one or two that align best with their brand or client goals and market position.
The chart below illustrates how our team put relative advantage to use for a travel brand. We compared competitor spend, consumer interest, and peak travel seasons across multiple regions. This analysis revealed opportunities to increase spend when consumer interest and travel activity were high but competitor spend was low—for example, between June and August in region two. By increasing investment during those months, the brand connected with audiences in timely, high-interest moments while facing less competition, maximizing the impact of their media spend.
In today’s economic climate, simply outspending competitors isn’t an option for most brands. Relative advantage provides a proven way to stretch budgets further, build stronger connections, and deliver meaningful business outcomes—whatever the market conditions.
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To put relative advantage into practice, advertisers need the right mix of competitive analysis, consumer insights, and marketing expertise to uncover the spaces competitors leave open and fill them strategically. Basis’ media consulting and activation team specializes in uncovering these gaps and turning them into growth. Connect with us to learn more about how our team turns goals into results.
Economic uncertainty is putting renewed pressure on CMOs to prove the value of marketing investment.
With CEO confidence in the economy plummeting amidst tariffs and trade headwinds, and most marketing budgets facing tighter scrutiny than last year as a result, every investment is being evaluated for its contribution to business outcomes. In this context, CMOs aiming to strengthen C-suite buy-in must clearly demonstrate their team’s impact on revenue, craft stories with metrics that resonate with other executives, and prioritize building trust with their peers.
When uncertainty rises, marketing is often among the first functions to face cuts. In fact, only 10% of SMB owners say that marketing spending would be protected during a recession.
“To gain executive buy-in during times like these, leaders must demonstrate marketing’s immediate impact on business needs,” says Katie McAdams, Basis’ CMO. That means drawing clear connections between spend and revenue outcomes—such as new pipeline created, expansion within existing accounts, or improved retention that protects recurring revenue. Framing marketing in financial terms makes it harder for other C-suite execs to treat it as discretionary and easier to position it as a key engine of growth.
To illustrate marketing’s role as a growth engine, CMOs must leverage the numbers that resonate most with their peers. Leaders often manage a wide range of metrics, but that doesn’t mean they all should be shared with other executives. Instead, CMOs should focus on crafting stories around choice metrics that connect directly to the company’s strategic and financial priorities. Clean, unified reporting makes it easier to discover these metrics and clearly link marketing efforts to business outcomes.
“The key is to be ruthless in shaping your story around what’s driving results right now,” says McAdams.
During economic volatility, executives are often laser-focused on ROI and revenue impact. While long-term brand investments remain critical, they won’t always resonate in C-suite discussions. Prioritizing metrics that are closely tied to revenue—like acquisition cost and contract value—helps CMOs tell a sharper story about impact.
Alignment and trust are critical at all times, but even more so during uncertainty. CMOs build credibility when peers see them making tradeoffs for the good of the business, sharing ownership of outcomes, and working side by side with sales, finance, and product. “When peers see you thinking about the whole company, rather than just your own function, it builds credibility fast,” says McAdams.
When leaders are aligned, decisions happen faster and with less friction. That clarity fosters confidence and positions marketing as a trusted partner when the business faces tough choices.
Economic turbulence often amplifies the scrutiny on marketing, but it also creates an opening for CMOs to reset the narrative. By positioning marketing as a growth engine, leading with the metrics that matter most, and building trust across the business, marketing leaders can earn stronger buy-in and support with their C-suite peers.
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Want a deeper dive into how CMOs can strengthen alignment and secure support during budget season? Check out How Marketing Leaders Can Earn Executive Buy-In During Economic Turbulence, where Basis’ CMO Katie McAdams breaks down key strategies to help marketing leaders navigate uncertainty with confidence.
Heading into Q4, marketing leaders are bracing for budget conversations that demand clear connections between marketing activity and business performance.
These discussions are always challenging, but this year they’re made even more complex by a turbulent economic environment. On one hand, tariffs haven’t yet slowed ad spending as much as many feared they would. On the other, many of those tariffs took effect only recently, so their full impact is yet to be seen.
Amidst this uncertainty, marketing budgets are under the microscope. One recent survey found that cutting marketing or ad spending would be the first action the majority of small- to medium-sized business owners would take in a recession, while CMOs at large organizations have seen average budget reductions of 8% during past downturns, with some losing more than 20%.
As Basis’ CMO, I’ve seen how the dynamics of budget season change when leaders already understand marketing’s role in driving business results. Taking the time to build trust and establish common ground ahead of time helps shift the conversation from defending spend to planning together. That foundation becomes even more critical when economic pressures are high—but it’s only the starting point. The leaders who successfully navigate budget season during economic turbulence build on that trust with cross-functional alignment, intentionality around metrics, and requests connected to specific business priorities.
In my experience, budget season is a lot easier when trust with C-suite peers is already in place. The relationships that make a difference when budgets are being scrutinized don’t happen overnight: They’re built through steady communication and by showing you can be counted on when decisions get tough.
That trust also comes from a willingness to make difficult choices when the situation calls for it. When peers see you thinking about the whole company, rather than just your own function, it builds credibility fast. For example, offering proactive cuts to marketing spend in the right moments can add to that trust bank, signaling that you’re a partner in solving problems rather than solely focused on advocating for your own team.
The reality is that many organizations struggle with this kind of trust building, especially at the leadership level. Ninety-three percent of business executives agree that building and maintaining trust improves the bottom line, but only 44% say they trust their C-suite peers to a great extent. This gap shows why taking practical steps to build trust matters so much.
If trust isn’t there yet, budget season can still serve as an opportunity to start building it. Look for ways to acknowledge shared challenges, invite feedback on your plans, and connect your requests to outcomes that benefit multiple teams. Even small steps toward alignment now can pave the way for stronger relationships in the future.
Trust is only the starting point, though. Once you’ve built it, the focus shifts to demonstrating a unified approach in how marketing operates alongside other functions.
No leadership team wants to hear that sales is suffering while marketing is delivering strong results. The business doesn’t care which function is “winning”—what matters is whether the company as a whole is hitting its goals.
In the same way, a disjointed story between marketing and sales can undermine credibility fast. It can also hurt business outcomes: 73% of teams who strongly agree their sales and marketing teams cooperate effectively saw revenue increases year over year, compared to just 43% of teams lacking that cooperation.
Nurturing this kind of alignment doesn’t happen exclusively in the boardroom. It’s built when leaders bring peers into planning cycles, invite feedback, and adapt accordingly. This reduces surprises and builds support for your asks. When stakeholders have a hand in shaping plans, it’s a lot easier to earn their buy-in.
For example, it’s helpful to have shared metrics and cross-functional ownership of revenue outcomes, as well as frequent check-ins. That’s where having access to unified, actionable data gives leaders an advantage: It provides a consistent view of what’s working, which they can share with other leaders to align everyone on the same outcomes.
When cross-departmental alignment is strong, it builds trust, drives stronger results in the market, and helps leadership teams weather even the toughest economic climates together.
During economic turbulence, the story you tell with metrics matters almost as much as the results themselves. But if the data behind that story isn’t reliable, it can weaken your case before you even begin. This is another instance where having unified, clean data is key, as it ensures everyone is working from the same foundation.
Beyond having that clarity, it’s also critical that, as a marketing leader, you prioritize the metrics that are most impactful to the business. In volatile times, leaders are often laser-focused on near-term ROI and results that translate into actual revenue. But that doesn’t mean marketing should stop investing in longer-term brand health, especially since brands that maintain both brand and performance investment see stronger returns. Overinvesting in performance can cut revenue growth by as much as 20% to 50%, while a balanced approach can boost revenue returns by 90%. Still, when budgets are tight, marketing leaders will be well-served to read the room and emphasize the metrics that show how marketing is winning new business, driving contract value, and delivering tangible impact on revenue.
The key is to be ruthless in shaping your story around what’s driving results right now. Keep your talking points strategic, high-level, and obsessively connected to business value. Some of the metrics your team works with daily may help guide internal decisions, but they don’t always resonate with key decision makers.
However, even the most compelling metrics need the right business context to turn data into budget approval.
Metrics tell part of the story, but bigger investment decisions require a broader frame. In a tight environment, leaders need to see that major asks are tied to concrete business drivers—like competitive shifts, revenue opportunities, or product priorities that demand action. With that context, sales, finance, and marketing are far more likely to align around greater investment. Without it, performance results alone rarely justify additional spend.
In my experience, these conversations are easier when you’ve already made decisions to cut or shift budget in one area so you can reinvest in another. That signals you’re making tradeoffs for the good of the business, not just advocating for marketing. Over time, this approach builds trust, which makes it easier for peers to support you when the moment for a bigger budget request comes. When marketing leaders master this combination of context and credibility, budget conversations shift from justification to joint planning.
Economic volatility puts pressure on every leader. To gain executive buy-in during times like these, leaders must demonstrate marketing’s immediate impact on business needs. That comes from consistent alignment, honest communication, and a clear link between marketing activity and business outcomes.
Ultimately, this approach doesn’t just win budget conversations—it establishes marketing as a strategic force in navigating uncertainty and driving what’s next.
Few advertising platforms have weathered as much turbulence—or captured as many headlines—as TikTok.
Since its swift rise in popularity, the app has been the target of multiple US ban attempts, faced government hearings over national security concerns, and become ground zero for debates over youth safety and mis- and disinformation.
At the same time, TikTok has in many ways reshaped digital advertising, driving the rise of short-form video, ushering in the era of “messy realness”, and giving brands an unmatched gateway to younger audiences.
Today, TikTok finds itself at perhaps its most dramatic turning point yet: With a thrice-delayed ban set to take effect on September 17, TikTok parent company ByteDance is reportedly creating a new version of the app specifically for US users, in anticipation of a potential sale. For advertisers, this development raises significant questions about how their campaigns and media strategies will be impacted. Here’s what marketers need to know as the platform enters this pivotal moment.
Reporting on the new US-specific TikTok app, reportedly codenamed “M2”, first surfaced in July via The Information. The outlet noted that the app could launch as soon as September 5, with current users required to migrate over from the old app—likely during a grace period where both versions remain accessible. According to the report, it’s still unclear how much the US app will differ from the current version, and whether users would be restricted to viewing content from US creators.
This limited reporting leaves advertisers with a variety of weighty questions. During the grace period when both versions are live, will TikTok ads appear in one app or both? Will brand profiles migrate automatically, and will existing followings be preserved? How much will user volume decrease if audiences are required to download a new app, and how much will those users actually enjoy the updated experience?
From an advertising perspective, a new app would likely mean retraining algorithms from scratch, resetting user behavior data, and disrupting campaigns—all of which would likely have an impact on performance.
Another key point is that the Chinese government has been adamant that it will not allow TikTok’s algorithm to be sold to the US. That algorithm is the “secret sauce” behind the app’s highly personalized For You Page, and what makes TikTok so uniquely engaging. If the algorithm is off the table, the sale amounts to little more than the TikTok brand.
While a sale of TikTok’s US operations seems inevitable, the ban has already been delayed multiple times and could easily be pushed back again. With so much uncertainty in play, advertisers must approach their TikTok investments with strategies that help safeguard against potential disruptions from the transition to the new app.
For now, TikTok continues to deliver results, with engagement numbers that make it hard to ignore—especially heading into the holiday season. While advertisers should continue investing in the platform and maximize performance while they can, long-term planning is far less certain. Beyond mid-2026, it’s risky to build campaigns around TikTok until the future of the US app becomes clearer. The same caution applies to influencer marketing: creators who exist almost exclusively on TikTok may not be the safest long-term bet. Instead, advertisers should prioritize partnerships with influencers who have an established presence across multiple platforms, ensuring reach and relevance even if TikTok’s trajectory changes.
From a paid perspective, advertisers should put equal—if not greater—energy into Instagram, where Reels closely mirrors TikTok’s format, as well as towards other platforms with strong short-form video offerings like Facebook and YouTube. This diversification will help guard against disruption and keep campaigns performing no matter what happens with TikTok. At the same time, from an organic perspective, it’s hard to justify heavy investment in content specialized for TikTok given the platform’s uncertain future.
TikTok remains a powerful channel today, but its long-term stability is anything but certain. By leaning into short-term opportunities while building a broader, more resilient social strategy, advertisers can protect themselves from disruption and position their campaigns for success no matter what comes next.
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Want to learn more about TikTok’s meteoric rise in popularity, how it’s changed the marketing and advertising landscape, and its unique connection to Gen Z? Check out TikTok by the Numbers: Stats and Facts for Digital Advertisers for all of the above, plus more.
In this episode, adtech consultant Peter Crofut (formerly with Wurl) joins host Noor Naseer to unpack audience discovery and other evolutions in the world of connected TV.
From avoiding mismatched ad moments to creating emotionally resonant connections, Peter highlights the benefits of going beyond premium audiences by focusing on premium moments, too. He also shares how FAST channels are reshaping perceptions of premium content and how AI is unlocking new levels of contextual targeting. He and host Noor Naseer discuss challenges around measurement, attribution, and privacy, as well as the roles of innovation and interactivity in shaping the future of CTV advertising.
