50 Social Media Marketing Statistics for 2026

The 50 social media marketing statistics that matter in 2026

Social media now reaches 5.66 billion user identities worldwide. People spend 18 hours and 36 minutes per week on social platforms. 41% of Gen Z go to social media first when they need information — not Google. Google’s AI Overviews are correlating with a 58% drop in click-through rates for top-ranking pages. Global social ad spending hit $277 billion in 2025. And 94% of marketers plan to use AI for content creation in 2026.

Those are 6 of the 50 statistics below. Here’s the full picture.

Key takeaways

• Social media is mainstream media. 5.66 billion users spending 18+ hours per week. Your customers aren’t “on social” — they live there.
• Social is replacing search. 41% of Gen Z start on social, not Google. 76% of all consumers say social content influenced a recent purchase.
• Google is sending fewer clicks. AI Overviews correlate with 58% lower CTR for the top result. Organic search traffic is getting harder to earn.
• AI is a new discovery layer. ChatGPT and Gemini have 1.5 billion+ combined weekly/monthly users. More content surface area means more chances to be found.
• Businesses are going all-in. $277 billion in social ad spend. 94% of marketers using AI for content. Meta automating ads entirely by end of 2026.

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Every year, someone publishes a list of social media statistics that’s already outdated by the time you read it. Half the numbers are from 2023. A quarter are “projected” with no source. And the rest are buried behind paywalls.

This is not that list.

Every stat below comes from the latest data going into 2026 — DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report, Sprout Social’s Q2 2025 survey, Ahrefs, Similarweb, HubSpot, WARC, and Reuters. Every number is sourced. Every number is current.

Fair warning, though: most of these sources sell social media or marketing tools. DataReportal, Sprout Social, HubSpot, Similarweb — they all benefit when social media looks massive, measurable, and worth your money. I’m using their numbers because they’re the best data available and nobody else is tracking this stuff at scale. The directional trends are almost certainly right. The exact percentages? Hold them loosely. Nobody’s publishing a report that says “social media isn’t that important, don’t buy our software.”

If you run a business, manage a brand, or make marketing decisions, these 50 statistics tell you where social media is heading — even if the precise numbers deserve a raised eyebrow.

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Social media reach and growth

These numbers come from DataReportal, which aggregates data from platform disclosures and third-party research. One important caveat upfront: they measure “user identities,” not unique humans. One person with Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn accounts counts as four identities. Keep that in mind as the numbers roll in.

1. 5.66 billion people have social media user identities globally as of October 2025. (DataReportal)

2. Social media added 259 million new user identities in the past year — a 4.87% annual growth rate. (DataReportal)

3. That growth rate equals 7.8 new social media users every second. (DataReportal)

4. 93.8% of the world’s internet users (all ages) now use social media every month. (DataReportal)

5. The typical social media user actively uses 6.75 different platforms per month. (DataReportal)

6. Average time spent on social media: 18 hours and 36 minutes per week — more than one full waking day out of every seven. (DataReportal)

7. The world spends 15 billion hours per day consuming social media content. That’s the equivalent of 1.7 million years of human existence — every single day. (DataReportal)

Read that again. 1.7 million years of human attention. Every day. Whether that’s an incredible business opportunity or a sign of civilizational decline is a question I’ll leave to the philosophers. Probably both.

8. More than 6 billion people use the internet globally. Internet penetration stands at 73.2%. (We Are Social)

What this means for your business: If you’re not posting consistently on social media, you’re invisible to a population that spends more time on these platforms than they spend eating, exercising, or commuting — combined. And with the typical user bouncing between nearly 7 platforms a month, showing up on just one isn’t enough. This is why AI social media automation has moved from nice-to-have to table stakes for businesses that want to stay visible.

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Platform scale: where your customers are

Here’s where each platform stands in terms of raw audience size. These are platform-reported numbers, which means they’re the numbers the platforms want advertisers to see. They’re probably close to right — nobody has better data — but remember who’s doing the counting and why.

9. Facebook monthly active users: 3.07 billion. (DataReportal)

10. WhatsApp monthly active users: 3.0 billion. (DataReportal)

11. Instagram monthly active users: 3.0 billion. (DataReportal)

12. YouTube’s potential advertising reach: 2.58 billion. (DataReportal)

13. TikTok ads can reach 1.99 billion adults (18+) every month. (DataReportal)

14. Snapchat monthly active users: 932 million. (DataReportal)

15. Pinterest monthly active users: 578 million. (DataReportal)

16. There are now 7 social platforms with more than 1 billion monthly active users and 16 platforms with more than 500 million. (DataReportal)

What this means for your business: Facebook and Instagram alone cover over 6 billion monthly users between them. Your customers aren’t somewhere on social media — they’re everywhere on social media. The question isn’t whether to post. It’s how to post consistently across multiple platforms without losing your mind or your weekends. That’s the problem AI social media tools were built to solve.

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Social media is the new search engine

People are searching for products, services, and local businesses on social media instead of Google. This data comes from Sprout Social’s Q2 2025 Pulse Survey of 2,280 users across the US, UK, and Australia. Sprout Social sells social media management software, so they have every incentive to publish data showing social media influences purchases. That said — the trend matches what I see in my own behavior and with our clients. I search for restaurants on Instagram before I Google them. Most people I know do the same.

17. When looking for information, 41% of Gen Z go to social media platforms first — ahead of traditional search engines. (Sprout Social)

18. Only 32% of Gen Z start their search with traditional search engines like Google. (Sprout Social)

19. Across all age groups, 37% prefer going to social media first for product reviews and recommendations. (Sprout Social)

20. 35% of consumers prefer social media first for finding local restaurants and activities. (Sprout Social)

21. 76% of consumers say social media content influenced a purchase in the past 6 months. (Sprout Social)

22. For Gen Z specifically, 90% say social media influenced a purchase in the past 6 months. (Sprout Social)

23. For Millennials, that number is 84%. (Sprout Social)

24. 51% of consumers plan to spend more time on community platforms like Reddit in the next 6 months — rising to 63% for Gen Z and Millennials. (Sprout Social)

What this means for your business: 76% of consumers say social content influenced a purchase. Your social feed is a storefront. If you’re not showing up consistently with content that answers questions, showcases your work, and builds trust, someone else is. And that someone else is getting the call.

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Gen Z search behavior: TikTok, AI, and the death of “just Google it”

I’m 47. I still type URLs directly into the browser bar. But even I’ve noticed my search habits shifting over the past few years. For Gen Z, the shift is much more dramatic. Note: much of this data comes from WARC research conducted in partnership with TikTok, which has obvious incentive to make TikTok look essential. The trend is real, though — even if the exact percentages deserve scrutiny.

25. 48% of Gen Z now search more frequently on social and video platforms than they did a year ago. (WARC)

26. 86% of Gen Z internet users search on TikTok at least once per week. (WARC)

27. Among weekly US search users, 72% search at least once a day across all platforms. (WARC)

28. Weekly US searchers use social and video platforms for search more than twice as often as AI platforms — 30% versus 14%. (WARC)

29. 60% of Gen Z search on the leading AI platform (ChatGPT) at least once per week. (WARC)

30. 34% of Gen Z use AI chatbots as a primary search tool. (Search Engine Land)

31. 79% of Americans say they trust AI search engines. (Search Engine Land)

32. 35% of TikTok users say they’re inspired to search based on content they see on the platform — meaning your social content can trigger search behavior that leads back to your business. (WARC)

What this means for your business: The discovery journey is splintering. Your next customer might find you on TikTok, verify you on Instagram, and check reviews on Reddit — all before they ever touch Google. Posting on one platform isn’t enough. You need to be on multiple platforms consistently, which is exactly why businesses are turning to AI-powered scheduling and publishing to stay present everywhere without burning out.

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Google is sending fewer clicks to your website

This section has the most credible data in the entire post. Ahrefs and Seer Interactive are SEO analysis firms — they don’t sell social media tools, they have no stake in making social look good. They’re just measuring what Google is doing to organic search traffic. And what they’re measuring is brutal.

33. The share of online adults who used a search engine in the past month fell to 80.3% — the lowest ever recorded in that survey series. (We Are Social)

34. Google still accounts for roughly 90% of all search engine referrals to third-party websites. (We Are Social)

35. Google’s AI search summaries now reach more than 2 billion active users per month. (We Are Social)

36. Pages that trigger AI Overviews see a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking result compared to pages without AI Overviews. (Ahrefs)

37. Organic click-through rates on informational queries with AI Overviews dropped from 1.76% to 0.61%. (Seer Interactive via Search Engine Land)

38. Paid click-through rates on queries with AI Overviews fell from 19.7% to 6.34%. (Seer Interactive via Search Engine Land)

39. Here’s the upside: brands that get cited in AI Overviews see 35% more organic clicks than they would otherwise. (Seer Interactive via Search Engine Land)

40. Those same cited brands see 91% more paid clicks. (Seer Interactive via Search Engine Land)

What this means for your business: Organic search traffic is getting harder to earn. Google is keeping more people on its own pages. That makes your owned social media presence — the content you control, on platforms where people are already spending 18+ hours a week — more valuable than ever. Social content is the one distribution channel that doesn’t depend on Google’s algorithms deciding whether to send you traffic. For a deeper look at the math behind building a consistent presence, read our ROI analysis of social media automation.

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AI is reshaping how people find information

This is where it gets interesting. Forget the hype cycle — AI platforms are sending real, measurable traffic to real websites, and the growth numbers are unlike anything I’ve seen in digital marketing.

41. AI platforms drove 1.13 billion referral visits to websites in June 2025 alone. (Similarweb)

42. That’s a 357% increase in AI-driven referral visits compared to June 2024. (Similarweb)

43. Generative AI platforms now average 7 billion monthly web visits, up 76% year-over-year. (Similarweb)

44. GenAI referral traffic grew to 2 billion visits — an increase of 778% year-over-year. (Similarweb)

45. ChatGPT has surpassed 800 million weekly active users. (Reuters)

46. Google’s Gemini app exceeded 750 million monthly active users by end of Q4 2025. (Reuters)

What this means for your business: When ChatGPT and Gemini have over 1.5 billion combined users between them, these aren’t experiments — they’re mainstream. AI models pull from the web to answer questions, and the brands with the most content out there have the best chance of being cited and surfaced. Consistent social media posting increases your surface area of discoverable content across every channel — search, social, and AI. The more you publish, the more places you exist.

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Businesses are betting big on social + AI

This is where the money is going. Whether the statistics above are precisely right or just directionally right, businesses are voting with their wallets — $277 billion worth of votes.

47. Global social media ad spend is projected at $277 billion in 2025, up 13.6% year-over-year. (We Are Social)

48. Social media advertising now accounts for 32.1% of all digital ad spend. (We Are Social)

49. 94% of marketers plan to use AI in their content creation workflows in 2026. (HubSpot)

50. Meta aims to fully automate ad creation and targeting with AI by end of 2026. Facebook and Instagram combined reach 3.43 billion unique users. (Reuters)

What this means for your business: The direction is unmistakable. Businesses are spending $277 billion on social ads because it works. And 94% of marketers are using AI because the old way — manually creating every post, manually scheduling, manually analyzing — doesn’t scale. When even Meta is automating ad creation with AI, the writing is on the wall: the future of social media marketing runs on automation. The benefits of AI social media automation aren’t theoretical anymore. They’re how the market is moving.

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What these 50 statistics tell you

Here’s the story these numbers tell, stripped down:

1. Social media is where your customers live. 5.66 billion users. 18+ hours per week. It’s the dominant channel.

2. Social is replacing search for discovery. 41% of Gen Z start on social, not Google. 76% of all consumers say social influenced a purchase. Your social feed is your new homepage.

3. Google is keeping more traffic for itself. AI Overviews are crushing click-through rates. The SEO playbook that worked in 2020 is delivering diminishing returns.

4. AI is a new discovery layer — and it rewards volume. Over 1.5 billion people use ChatGPT and Gemini. These models surface content from brands that publish consistently and widely.

5. Businesses are going all-in on social + AI. $277 billion in ad spend. 94% using AI for content. Meta automating ads entirely. This train has left the station.

The common thread across all 50 statistics: consistency wins. The businesses that post daily across multiple platforms capture more attention, more discovery, and more revenue than those posting when they “find time.”

The problem is that posting daily across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X takes 20+ hours a week if you’re doing it manually. That’s not sustainable for any business that doesn’t have a dedicated social media team.

That’s where AI automation comes in. Not as a shortcut — as the only realistic way to show up everywhere your customers are looking, every day, without sacrificing the rest of your business.

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The numbers might be wrong. The direction isn’t.

I’ve spent this entire post telling you to be skeptical of statistics — who produced them, what they sell, how they measured. I mean it. “5.66 billion user identities” definitely overcounts actual humans. Sprout Social’s survey of 2,280 people doesn’t speak for the planet. And HubSpot polling marketers about whether they’ll use AI is like polling fishermen about whether they like boats.

But the direction is unmistakable. Social is where people spend their attention. Google is sending fewer organic clicks. AI is creating new discovery channels. Businesses are spending $277 billion on social ads because something is working.

You don’t need these 50 statistics to be precisely right to know that showing up consistently on social media matters more in 2026 than it did in 2025. And it’ll matter more in 2027 than it does now.

The hard part is doing it. Posting daily across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X takes 20+ hours a week if you’re doing it by hand. That’s why businesses are automating with AI — not because they read a statistics post and got inspired, but because they ran out of hours in the day.

That’s the real statistic nobody tracks: how many hours you spend on social media versus how many hours you spend running your business. Apaya exists to fix that ratio.

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Sources

Every statistic in this article is sourced from the following reports and publications:

• DataReportal — Social Media Users (Digital 2026 dataset, October 2025)
• We Are Social — Digital 2026 Global Overview Report
• Sprout Social — Q2 2025 Pulse Survey (2,280 respondents across US, UK, and Australia)
• WARC — How Search Habits Are Shifting to Social (research with TikTok and Richard Shotton)
• Search Engine Land — Gen Z AI Search Behavior Survey (2,000 respondents, US and Germany)
• Search Engine Land — AI Overviews CTR Impact Study (Seer Interactive data)
• Ahrefs — AI Overviews Reduce Clicks (December 2025 update)
• Similarweb — AI Referral Traffic Winners and GenAI Stats
• HubSpot — Marketing Statistics
• Reuters — Gemini Growth, ChatGPT Users, Meta AI Ads

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If you’re tired of being one of the businesses that posts “when you find time,” you might like my book, because I spent 300 pages explaining why busywork is the enemy of actual work — and manually scheduling social media posts at midnight is the definition of busywork.