2026 Q1 is done. Here’s what the data is telling us.
Brands under budget pressure cut awareness spend first this quarter. That decision showed up in platform results fast. Meta held its ground. Pinterest absorbed cuts. TikTok surprised most people.
Here’s where each social platform stands and what you should do about it.
Meta: Still the Right Bet
Meta’s Q1 story is consistency. It’s exactly why it stays at the top of every budget conversation.
CPMs were down year-over-year through most of Q1. That stands out when nearly every other platform is moving in the opposite direction. The reason is supply: time spent on Meta keeps growing, ad load is increasing, and Reels is absorbing more placements at a lower clearing price. You’re getting more reach for your dollar right now.
The gap between Meta’s ad tech and other social platforms’ ad tech keeps widening. Conversion API (CAPI) is the clearest separator between accounts that perform well and accounts that don’t. Brands with clean CAPI setup see better delivery and more reliable attribution. If your CAPI isn’t dialed in yet, that’s your priority.
What’s Worth Paying Attention To
- Partnership Ads are working. We’re seeing it in our own accounts, and the industry data backs it up. Lower cost per acquisition (CPA), lower cost per click, higher conversion rate (CVR) compared to standard formats. If you have creator or brand partnerships, this format belongs in your rotation now.
- Meta is rolling out Brand Perception scoring. Brands are scored and ranked in tiers based on post-purchase surveys. Lower-tier brands pay more in auction. The rollout is expected before the end of Q2. You want to know where your brand lands before it affects your CPMs.
- In-housing with Meta AI tools is proving expensive for many brands. Some brands are cutting agency management and shifting campaign execution to Meta’s agentic ads tools, only to struggle with performance while burning through budget. Reading signals, diagnosing issues, and optimizing campaigns still require expertise and experience. That gap is not closing as quickly as Meta’s pitch suggests.
Q2 Takeaway: Meta may not have the most exciting changes, but it remains the most dependable budget bet. It still performs extremely well, so keep it well-funded.
Pinterest: Works for the Right Brands, But Scale Is Still the Problem
Performance+ campaigns continue to deliver. Upper funnel results are solid when your audience fit is strong. Beauty, home, food, fashion, lifestyle; these are the categories where Pinterest users are already in discovery mode. If you’re running active P+ campaigns in those verticals, performance is holding up.
The problem is scale. Most advertisers hit a ceiling with their CPA targets and can’t push spend past it. That’s not a creative issue or a strategy issue. It’s a platform inventory constraint.
What’s Putting Pressure on the Platform
When brands tightened budgets in Q1, upper funnel spend got cut first. A large share of advertisers still view Pinterest as an awareness platform, even when the campaign objective is lower funnel. That perception makes it an easy budget line to reduce when margins tighten. That’s what happened across retail, beauty, and luxury this quarter.
TikTok is winning the Tier-2 share battle now. A year ago, Pinterest and TikTok were in the same budget conversations. That’s shifted. TikTok is becoming a priority channel. Pinterest is sliding toward “nice to have.”
What Could Change Things
Pinterest has an app-install ad product in alpha with MMP connections in place. Early results are middling–not a failure but not a breakthrough either. If the product ships properly in Q3 or Q4, it will bring in a whole new category of mobile app advertisers who currently have no reason to run Pinterest. That matters for the platform’s growth.
Pinterest’s agency support is genuinely strong. We’ve seen great value from their representatives, creative insights, and the new formal partnership program. However, it is frustrating that despite such a strong relationship, the ad platform itself still struggles to scale.
Q2 Takeaway: Pinterest belongs in your mix if the audience fit is real and you’re running Performance+ with solid creative. If it’s been flat for multiple quarters, a new strategy won’t fix a platform-level scale problem.
TikTok: More Confidence, More Committed Spend
TikTok’s Q1 story is the most interesting one, and it goes in a better direction than most people expected.
Agency confidence improved noticeably this quarter. The sale resolved the biggest uncertainty, but TikTok also started selling harder. They’re building more agency partnerships, offering measurement funding and ad credits to push commitment—and it’s working.
More importantly, TikTok is getting separated from the rest of the Tier-2 pack. When brands cut awareness budgets in Q1, Snapchat took the biggest hits. Pinterest got cut too. TikTok largely didn’t. More accounts are moving it from “test” to “core.”
Third-party measurement is validating the halo effect. Brands spending seriously on TikTok are seeing lift in lower-funnel efficiency across other channels and measurable impact on Amazon sales. That’s the kind of signal that holds up in a CFO conversation.
What to Keep in Mind
- Creative is still the entry fee. The brands winning on TikTok treat content production as an ongoing operation, not a quarterly drop. If you can’t consistently feed the algorithm with fresh, native-feeling creative, your results won’t justify the ad spend. We broke down the operational side of this in our post on Creative Velocity. The same principles apply here.
- The platform is stable. The turbulence from the ownership transition has settled. You can plan with confidence.
- TikTok is co-funding measurement. They’re now offering to fund third-party attribution for agency partners. That takes one of the biggest objections off the table for brands that needed attribution proof before committing budget.
Q2 Takeaway: If you have the creative infrastructure and the right audience fit, TikTok needs a real budget commitment. The window to get ahead of competitors who are still waiting won’t stay open for long.
What’s Actually Happening to Budgets
This is not a panic moment in the ad market. Budgets are not getting slashed.
What’s happening is targeted. Brands under margin pressure are cutting awareness and upper funnel spend first. Performance-based spend is holding because it ties directly to revenue. Platforms perceived as awareness channels are absorbing the cuts. Platforms that can prove lower-funnel results are not.
One thing worth noting on the search side: Google Search CPCs hit record highs in late 2025 and are still elevated. When lower-funnel search gets more expensive, efficient social becomes more attractive by comparison. That’s a real tailwind for Meta right now.
The brands that navigated Q1 well stayed disciplined. Meta for performance, Pinterest where the audience fit justifies it, and TikTok as a genuine priority.
Key Takeaways for Q2 and Beyond
- Keep Meta well-resourced. The platform’s performance advantage is growing. Treating it as a set-it-and-forget-it channel leaves money on the table.
- Sort out your creative pipeline. Meta and TikTok reward volume and freshness. The brands that can produce consistently are the ones that scale.
- Be honest about Pinterest. If the audience fit is real and it’s performing, keep going.
- Keep your lower funnel spend intact. Consumer sentiment is mixed right now. Not as bad as headlines suggest, but not strong. Brands that protect performance while trimming awareness will come out ahead.
The platforms that make it easiest to reach the right people and measure results keep winning. Right now, that’s Meta. For the right brands, TikTok is earning a real seat at the table.
For brands that want sharper strategy, cleaner optimization, and stronger day-to-day execution, our paid social advertising management team can help turn these platform shifts into better performance.
Ready to talk through your channel mix? Schedule a free review and we’ll take a look together.
