80% Of Marketing Leaders Are Shifting Budgets To Social Media

The research shows companies are most aggressively cutting television advertising investments. 34% of marketers are moving funds from TV to organic social media content. Traditional SEO is facing similar pressure – 32% of companies are pulling budget from it in favor of social platforms.

Where is the Money Going?

The investment split is fairly clear. 87% of leaders plan to increase spending on paid social media, while 80% want to invest more in influencer marketing and organic content.

Email marketing and paid search are also facing cuts. 32% of companies are shifting money from email campaigns to organic social media, while paid search is losing the most to paid social campaigns – 33% of budgets are moving in that direction.

Interestingly, out-of-home advertising and media relations are losing about a quarter to a third of their budgets across all reallocation categories.

Source: Sproutsocial

New Roles Emerge In The Job Market

Budget transformation is bringing changes to hiring strategies. Three-quarters of marketing leaders plan to increase headcount in social media teams, though in B2B this drops to half.

The top 5 most sought-after positions show where marketing is heading:

1. SOSEO (Social Search Engine Optimization)
2. Social customer service & support
3. Paid social
4. Influencer marketing
5. Social listening & social analytics

Surprisingly, content creation isn’t at the top of hiring priorities, even though many leaders believe their brands need to post more. The emphasis is shifting to specialisation and analytics.

What This Means For Businesses

More than half of brands already have a strategy for social search, and another 43% are experimenting with it. This responds to changing user behaviour, as people increasingly search for information directly on platforms like TikTok or Instagram instead of Google.

An interesting trend is the increase in spending on agencies and freelancers – 71% of leaders report they’ve increased spending on external providers since adopting AI. The implementation of new technologies paradoxically leads to a greater need for human resources, not less.

For e-commerce, this means one thing: just posting more content isn’t enough. The key is a strategic approach – better alignment with audience intent and delivering quality content. Volume is no longer the main metric you should be tracking.