The Paid Social Marketer | 1 in 3 Young People Now Shop on Social Media Each Week

The Paid Social Marketer

This week, here’s what’s happening across paid socials:
- Snap’s 4% ad-growth sparks an AI spending spree.
- One-third of Gen Z now shops on social media. each week.
- Influencer rates jump as 2025 budgets swell.
- X Hints At 'Sleeker,' Pricier AI-Driven Ad Formats
- DTC brands are turning social into a full-funnel engine.

🌟 Editor’s Pick - Incrementality Over Instincts

Stop Chasing Conversions - Start Measuring Real Growth
The path to measurement maturity isn’t about tracking every conversion - it’s about understanding what’s truly incremental.

That’s the focus of Fospha’s new Meta whitepaper, created in partnership with six leading eCommerce brands. The findings reveal what happens when marketers move beyond Last Click - and start building systems that reflect how growth actually happens.

Highlights include:

• Why Last Click dramatically undervalues upper-funnel marketing

• Predictive modeling uncovering up to 80% more revenue potential in Meta

• How brands found the confidence to reallocate budget and scale new channels

• How combining incrementality testing with always-on measurement completes the measurement puzzle - delivering a holistic, reliable view of marketing impact

As Andy King, Head of Performance Marketing at NBrown, put it:

“It was really insightful to see how much Meta’s impact was being underestimated by Last Click. Fospha’s data gave us a clearer picture of its true value, in the context of our other channels, highlighting opportunities we hadn’t fully recognized before.”

👉 Download Fospha’s Meta Whitepaper to see how leading brands are redefining measurement for 2025.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

EARNINGS & STRATEGY
Snap Focuses On AI As Advertising Revenue Slows
Snap’s Q2 ad revenue grew just 4% as auction glitches and macro pressure cooled demand. Management is betting on AI-driven Smart Campaigns to lift bid prices and SMB spend, signaling an automation arms race across social platforms.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Social Commerce Surges As 1 In 3 Young People Now Shop On Social Media Every Week
Exploding Topics data shows 34% of US 18-34-year-olds make weekly in-feed purchases, led by TikTok Shop and Instagram Checkout. The discovery-first model is shifting budgets toward native storefronts and influencer-led merchandising.

PLATFORM POLICY
X Hints At 'Sleeker,' Pricier AI-Driven Ad Formats
X is banning most hashtags, URLs and excess emojis, then using Grok to assign every promotion an “aesthetic score” that will influence cost. The rulebook forces creative rewrites and could spike CPMs for brands that can’t hit the new visual bar.

⚡QUICK READS

Influencer Pricing: The Cost Of Influencers In 2025: Average creator rates are climbing as 89% of marketers raised influencer budgets from 2023-24 — lock in long-term deals before Q4 price creep. (More)

Direct To Consumer Marketing: Elevating Your Strategy With Social Media: Sprout data: 89% of consumers say social content shapes buying decisions, pressing DTC brands to treat social as awareness-to-support infrastructure. (More)

Social Ads (2024) Guide: Business of Apps maps emerging ad formats — playable, story and carousel — giving app marketers new levers to diversify spend beyond Meta/TikTok.(More)

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the DTC eCommerce division