Key takeaways

• Privacy changes and platform algorithms have created a "signal-poor" environment, requiring brands to master dark social tracking.

• Creator whitelisting has emerged as a dominant strategy, allowing brands to leverage authentic voices while maintaining control over paid distribution.

• The distinction between influencer marketing and paid social is disappearing, with successful campaigns now integrating creator content directly into paid strategies.

• Platform selection should prioritize audience behavior over trending networks.

Why paid social is even more expensive in 2025

Over the last quarter century, we've seen social platforms transform from organic community gathering centers to sophisticated advertising engines. Algorithmic changes have long reduced the impact of unpaid brand content. Visibility must be bought through ads and paid outreach. 

Take Apple's privacy updates, for instance. These new restrictions have significantly complicated tracking and reshaped how brands can target audiences. Instead of relying on cross-platform data, marketers now navigate in a "signal-poor" landscape.

Within this crowded space, costs tell the story. CPMs across Meta, TikTok, and other social channels have risen over 5.3% from Q1 2022—Q1 2025, with TikTok seeing the highest cost increase at 15.6%. 

But there is a silver lining. Despite rising costs, paid social continues to outperform traditional advertising channels for both targeted reach and outcome measurability.

Paid social has achieved incredible precision in its ability to accurately segment and target specific audience groups. While the cost of entry has increased, the tools for reaching exactly who you want have never been more sophisticated.

Understanding the dark social revolution for growth leaders

Many people think of dark social as the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing, except it's happening in private messaging apps, emails, and direct messages. According to Brandwatch, over 80% of content sharing now occurs through these private channels, invisible to conventional analytics tools.

The migration toward private communication has created new growth opportunities. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram DMs are now fertile ground for brands to engage customers—away from the noise of public feeds. These personal, private interactions carry more weight. 

Forward-thinking brands have recognized this shift and are adapting. Instead of broadcasting generic messages, they are creating assets specifically designed for private sharing, including unique discount codes, personalized shopping links, and exclusive content bundles that feel more like private recommendations than advertisements.

But tracking these private conversations still presents unique challenges. Some leading brands have implemented sophisticated UTM parameters, custom short links, and building attribution models that capture the impact of these previously invisible referrals.

Measuring success in dark social environments

Traditional last-click attribution models don't work. They didn't work a decade ago when marketers had to put up with them, but at least then, the last-click would usually nod toward a PPC ad or paid social post of some sort. 

Now, when meaningful conversations happen behind closed digital doors, businesses need a multi-touch attribution systems that can capture dark engagement platforms. 

In response, innovative brands are deploying platform-specific QR codes, custom landing pages, and other unique entry points in order to see which private channels are driving traffic, and measuring the quality of each traffic source. 

Some have even developed specialized tools through platforms like Branch and AppsFlyer to peek behind the curtain of previously untraceable customer journeys.

From brand-centric to creator-led advertising

In the battle for attention, traditional brand-created content is losing ground. Creator-led content is significantly outperforming brand content. Nearly 70% of consumers state they trust friend or influencer recommendations (including UGC) over a brand's messaging. 

Audiences (particularly young Millennials and Gen Z) have developed an almost allergic reaction to obvious brand messaging. Meanwhile, creator content benefits from pre-existing trust relationships in resonant communities. The content of nano-influencers, with their hyper-targeted followings, performs especially well. 

The big players have taken notice. TikTok's and Instagram's recommendation engines now actively favor content from individual creators over brand-produced material. This new algorithmic preference is a broader social media shift. 

In response, traditional barriers between influencer marketing and paid social are crumbling. Successful paid campaigns no longer treat creator partnerships as a separate initiative, but brands are integrating influencers into their broader paid strategy. 

Creator whitelisting as a game-changing strategy for 2025

Creator whitelisting marks a breakthrough shift in how brands approach paid social. Instead of merely partnering with creators, brands can now "rent" their social identity for ad distribution, creating sponsored content that appears to come directly from the creator rather than the brand.

The impact of this approach is striking. When executed properly, whitelisted ads bypass the usual skepticism toward branded messaging, leveraging the creator's established credibility with their audience. 

Numbers back this story: whitelisted ads typically achieve 30-50% lower cost-per-acquisition compared to traditional brand ads.

Major platforms have embraced this trend, rolling out native tools to streamline the process. Meta's Branded Content Ads, TikTok's Spark Ads, and LinkedIn's Thought Leader Ads now offer straightforward mechanisms for permission-based advertising that maintains authenticity while meeting brand standards.

To achieve successful whitelisting, brands need the right creators, clear contractual agreements about usage rights, and a delicate balance between brand control and creator authenticity.

Selecting the right creators for your whitelisting strategy

When working with creator partnerships, bigger is not always better. The most successful collaborations stem from careful alignment between the creator's existing audience and your ideal customer profile. This means prioritizing your audience demographics over high follower counts. 

Micro-creators, with followings between 10,000 and 50,000, often deliver significantly higher conversion rates as their audiences tend to be more engaged. Micro-creators bring a level of trust that macro-creators with massive followings cannot match.

Before signing any partnership agreements, examine how potential creators discuss similar products in their space. Nothing falls quite as flat as forced enthusiasm. Authentic interest in your industry will consistently outperform insincere hype. 

Deviant Digital has developed a rigorous vetting process that includes analyzing sentiment in creator comment sections, running small paid campaigns as proof of concept, and ensuring both audience fit and performance potential before scaling up investment.

Investing your social budget wisely in 2025

Despite rising costs, Meta platforms continue to anchor successful B2C strategies. Their unmatched audience scale, sophisticated targeting capabilities, and direct response advertising can still outperform other platforms.

Meanwhile, TikTok has shattered its initial reputation as just another Gen Z platform. Its immersive video format now drives higher brand recall—even across diverse age groups—than any competitor platform. TikTok’s trajectory offers a masterclass in how quickly social channels can mature and expand their audience reach. In fact, 46.7% of marketers consider TikTok its most important influencer marketing channel. 

For B2B marketers, LinkedIn's premium environment may deliver the best ROI. The white-collar, social community commands higher CPMs, but it delivers exceptional results for complex sales cycles. The platform's expanded Conversation Ads and Thought Leader formats create meaningful vehicles to engage with decision-makers.

Giant retailers are also getting in the game with their own retail media networks. Brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart have created social-like advertising opportunities with the added advantage of direct integration into purchasing environments.

Instead of chasing every new platform that emerges, smart brands let audience behavior guide their platform selection. Regular testing of emerging platforms helps identify new opportunities before competition drives up costs.

Winning creative formats for 2025

Lo-fi authenticity now reigns supreme. User-generated content (UGC) continues to outshine professionally produced assets, with smartphone videos driving 40% more views than polished brand content across most industries.

The dominance of video shows a fundamental shift in how consumers consume content. Platforms have restructured their algorithms to prioritize immersive, full-screen experiences, and users are responding with unprecedented levels of engagement. 

Interactive elements 

Interactive elements are winning customers. Polls, quizzes, and shoppable hotspots are key for audience interaction, offering an immersive experience rather than mere decorative elements. Meta's interactive ads, for instance, show higher completion rates than standard video formats.

Pattern interruption techniques 

To combat the endless scroll ("doomscrolling") phenomenon, pattern interruption techniques have become invaluable. Unexpected visual cues, sounds, or concepts that break the monotony of social feeds consistently outperform traditional approaches.

15-second reels 

Doomscrolling behaviors have, in part, refined the art of short-form storytelling. Data shows that viewer retention drops dramatically after 15 seconds, regardless of content quality. This has pushed creators to master the art of delivering complete narratives within a tight 15-second window.

Budget allocation frameworks that drive results

70/20/10 

The 70/20/10 framework has proven remarkably resilient in 2025's dynamic social landscape. To maintain stability while creating space for innovation, brands allocate 70% of budget to proven performers, 20% to scaling promising tactics, and 10% to experimental approaches.

Minimal viable daily spend 

Success in paid social requires both strategic spending and gathering meaningful data. Brands should strive for a minimum viable daily spend to ensure each platform has sufficient budget to generate meaningful (statistically significant) performance data before making any scaling decisions. 

Performance ratcheting 

Performance ratcheting is another solid approach. With this approach, campaign budgets automatically increase if specific performance thresholds are met. This allows teams to maximize ad spend on what’s working, but without the need for constant manual oversight.

Essential metrics to track in a signal-poor environment

Across fragmented digital channels, blended ROAS has replaced platform-specific metrics as the gold standard for measuring advertising effectiveness. This approach combines data across all channels for a more accurate picture of campaign performance.

When validating the true impact of social advertising, many brands now rely on incrementality testing. When test and control groups are compared, marketing teams can determine what would have happened without a specific campaign. 

Traditional engagement metrics have also evolved to provide better insights into content quality. Scroll depth, watch time, and interaction rate offer more meaningful indicators of content effectiveness than simple impressions or click-through rates. Successful brands have also started tracking their first-party data collection metrics alongside the usual KPIs. This approach measures how effectively paid social contributes to building owned audience assets such as email lists, SMS subscribers, and loyalty program members.

Building a full-funnel paid social strategy

The most effective paid social strategies mirror the natural progression of customer relationships. Top-of-funnel campaigns require patience and a broader perspective. Instead of chasing immediate conversions, these initiatives should focus on reach and engagement, using storytelling to introduce your brand to potential customers.

When it comes to mid-funnel retargeting, specificity becomes crucial. This is where carousel ads and longer-form videos shine, allowing deeper exploration of product features and addressing common objections head-on.

The bottom of the funnel is where creator whitelisting and testimonial content prove their worth. These tactics provide social proof at the moment of decision.

Transform your social media into a revenue engine

The rapid pace of change in paid social shows no signs of slowing as we move into 2026. Marketing teams are rethinking their game, including when and where to deploy AI tools, freelancers, and other solutions to bolster their paid outreach. 

Partnerships with experts who stay ahead of platform changes, emerging best practices, and innovative technologies are more valuable than ever.

Ready to unlock more growth? Talk to Paid Social experts!