According to a report conducted by Marin Software of over 500 B2B and B2C companies, advertisers are weary of the impact of the Google and Facebook duopoly on their businesses in 2018.

Referring to how these two online giants keep their user data within their own platforms (which Facebook is particularly guilty of), businesses fear how Google and Facebook prevents fully optimizing users’ experience, due to the nature of these “walled gardens” of data and user information.

Somewhat ironically, this hasn’t impacted how these businesses advertise on the platforms. Paid advertising on social particularly has seen an uptick in recent months, edging out paid advertising on Search and Display advertising on Google, according to the Marin report. Nearly 90% of businesses who partook in the survey – covering the travel, automobile, retail and finance sectors – said that they would be investing in paid social in 2018. The full feedback from the report then asked “What paid digital advertising channels does your company currently use?” below:

1. 90% – Paid social
2. 78% – YouTube / Google Display
3. 70% – Mobile In-App
4. 58% – Paid Search (SEM)
5. 49% – SMS/MMS
6. 46% – Other Display

Why should you care?

If advertising on social platforms felt like an afterthought to other advertising platforms, think again. Paid social advertising is becoming an increasingly profitable and competitive landscape, and with 90% of these companies saying that they’ll be investing in paid social advertising this year, it’s all the more important that you consider the same for your company’s online advertising spend – before the competition gets too strong.