Social media growth strategies to boost DAUs

Advertiser demand is moving from “test-and-learn” to “must-buy” in creator-led media. IAB reports US creator economy ad spend was projected to reach $37 billion in 2025, a 26% year-over-year increase, with nearly half (48%) of ad buyers considering creators a “must-buy.”¹ Deloitte’s State of Social Research 2025 reports that creators topped social media marketing budget priorities at 24% of yearly spend.²

For advertisers, the “platform unlock” is making creator-led buying feel like performance media: standardized campaign objectives, outcome-based measurement, and scalable workflows. To drive sustained investment, platforms must operationalize creator commerce with clear buying pathways, interoperable measurement frameworks, third-party verification, and transparent pricing. Incorporating creator marketplaces as native capabilities within ad managers, enabling closed-loop attribution, and offering brand-suitability controls can reduce friction and increase confidence. When platforms lower execution complexity and raise performance visibility, they shift creator partnerships from bespoke activations to scalable media investments. 

Advertisers are deepening financial commitment to creator-led commerce. CreatorIQ’s Influencer marketing trends report found that 55% of organizations increased influencer marketing investment year over year, with one in four brands investing $1 million or more.³ Creator partnerships are shifting from campaign experiments to recurring budget lines. As investments scale, fragmentation across affiliate programs, paid media, social commerce, and creator marketplaces becomes a material efficiency constraint.

Revenue expansion is an infrastructure challenge. Advertisers need an integrated approach that unifies creator activation, paid media, performance attribution, and commerce into a single, measurable system. To reduce friction and increase budget defensibility, platforms can embed creator marketplaces within ad buying tools, enable conversion tracking, and support native storefront and partnership integrations. 

Put another way, platforms must move from creator campaigns to creator commerce ecosystems. By consolidating monetization pathways and proving incremental revenue impact, platforms can convert growing advertiser interest into sustained, multi-stream investment.

Regulatory change is shaping how advertisers target, measure, and validate social spend. In the EU, the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires very large platforms to maintain “a publicly available repository of advertisements.”⁴

For advertisers, compliance maturity unlocks confidence with clearer transparency, stronger controls, and robust documentation—all of which help reduce risk, particularly for regulated brands. Platforms that operationalize these standards through auditable repositories and privacy-safe measurement make it easier for advertisers to remain active.

In summary, compliance has become a competitive differentiator. By embedding transparency dashboards into ad managers, offering proactive policy guidance, and investing in privacy-enhancing technologies, platforms can lower legal and reputational risk. When regulatory clarity is built into campaign workflows, it helps advertisers commit to long-term budgets. In a tightening policy environment, the platforms that simplify compliance will be the ones that capture sustained investment.

Trust is not philosophical for advertisers—it’s financial. Three out of four advertisers are concerned about funding ad fraud and disinformation, and 72% of advertisers report that corporate responsibility and brand values play a bigger role in marketing decisions.⁵ Media companies operating in conflict with those values risk losing revenue when budgets tighten.

When advertisers lack confidence in transparency or suitability controls, spending becomes cautious. Conversely, trusted environments unlock longer commitments and broader activation. 

Platforms should institutionalize trust as a core product feature: embed third-party verification into campaigns, provide real-time suitability controls, publish transparent enforcement reporting, and elevate quality and delivery metrics in dashboards. Platforms that make these trust-building moves more visible will be better able to protect and expand advertiser budgets.