How much did brands increase their media investment last year? Keen Decision Systems reports the number at 2.5%. When consumers see ads on their favorite media, they react. AudienceSCAN reports that 41% of consumers took action in the last 30 days after seeing an ad on streaming TV.

What ROI can brands expect from their media investment?

The latest Keen Decisions Systems study takes their clients’ strategies into consideration. Brands have many ways to promote themselves to their target audiences. They can invest in trade advertising with their dealers. Media advertising serves as another way to connect with potential customers. And some brands turn to consumer promotions.

The strategies taken by advertisers reveals mindset and opportunity. Last year, brands reinvested an additional 6.7% in their trade channels. But for consumer promotions, they only invested 0.5% more.

The ROI on trade advertising amounted to 1.5. The return on consumer promotions yielded about the same ROI.

However, media gave marketers a much better return: 1.9. For every dollar invested, they recorded revenue of $1.90. That’s a great data point to share with accounts when selling your media space.

How smaller brands compete

The size of the brand mattered in the Keen study, and analysts reported on those trends. Smaller brands emphasize using media to reach their target markets. Considered challengers, these marketers know they need to make an impression.

They are willing to do so by increasing their ad spending. Brands with less than $100M in revenue boosted their media investments by 12.8% last year.

How did media investments break out?

In the Keen study, paid search took the largest share of ad spending at 25%. But other formats captured solid spending in this study:

• Display 15%
• Linear TV 19%
• Streaming video 17%
• Social media 17%
• Other 5%

In this cohort, over the past three years, the budget allocated to social media has dropped slightly.  But the amount shifted to display advertising has increased.

How does the social media investment perform?

Brands report solid outcomes from their social investment. In fact, an overall ROI of over just above 2 bodes well for the format. However, analysts caution that some of the high ROI for social is linked to less expensive inventory.

Meta continues to capture most of the social media investment. It’s at 60% for this group.

Is audio undervalued?

Digital accounts for 65% of the marketer investment in audio. And terrestrial radio accounted for 15%. Terrestrial’s portion has been contracting as a percent of the total. However, the silver lining to that cloud is pointed out by analysts. The return of $4 for every dollar spent is an indication that competition for those spots is decreasing.

If your accounts target the radio-​listening audience, this is an opportunity for them. According to AudienceSCAN data, powered by AdMall, business verticals with top responders to radio ads include:

• Auto glass repair shops
• Medical clinics
• Home builders

More about streaming video

During the past three years, the marketers in the Keen study increased their CTV ad spending. By 2025, the streaming video category broke out as online video (41%) and CTV/​OTT (59%). Brands experienced an ROI of $1.90 for every dollar spent on CTV.  But online video gave an even better return of $2.0.

Around 30.8% of U.S. adults watching online videos between 1 and 3 hours daily, reports AudienceSCAN. These adults create a solid target audience for marketers. And media sellers looking for creative way to pitch a campaign to business owners should check out AdMall and its AI-​based idea generator tool.

How should marketers allocate budgets across the sales funnel?

All accounts, including yours, struggle with how to spread their media budgets across the sales funnel. Keen analysts note that smaller marketers tend to spend 54% on top of funnel activities and 46% on bottom of the funnel.

The time of year also matters. In the last quarter of the year, smaller brands focused on bottom of funnel activities to attract the all-​important holiday-​related spending.

It’s worth noting, in 2025, that across the funnel, media investments delivered nearly identical ROI of around $1.90.

Media formats and funnel focus

Between 2022 and 2025, linear TV spending decreased from 45% to 35%. Both social (24%) and streaming video (29%) increased.

For bottom of funnel marketing, search accounted for 60% in 2025. Display (27%) and social (9%) were the other main categories to capture advertising dollars.

Streaming and linear TV work well to increase general awareness of a brand and product. And search and display can drive conversions at the bottom of the funnel.

Conclusion

Marketers can connect with their target audiences at multiple points in the purchase funnel. With so many data points coming at them, it can be a challenge to make the right decision. When media sellers shows marketers where the media investment has the biggest impact, they are on their way to closing the deal.

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