Social Ad Spend Climbs 12%, Reddit and Others Report Audience Gains

Reddit, LinkedIn and YouTube have reported significant gains in their UK advertising audiences, according to a new report released today.

​Digital 2026: The United Kingdom, from We Are Social, the socially-led creative agency, and Meltwater, a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence, is a 165 page deep dive that covers the entire UK digital ecosystem; from social media to ecommerce, mobile to smart devices, and more.

According to the report, there are 68.1 million individuals using the internet and 55.5 million social media user identities in the UK. Social media users spend 16h 13m weekly on social channels, using an average of 6.2 platforms each month - lower than the global average of 18h 36m and 6.75 platforms.

Social key for brand discovery, and ad spend rises

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Almost half (49.3%) of UK adult internet users say they use social media to find information about products, and over a third (38.7%) use social channels to learn about brands and find their content. The importance of social media in the digital ecosystem is reflected in the growth in advertising spend - an increase of 12.6% year-on-year to $12.8bn (£9.77bn) , accounting for 24.6% of total digital advertising spend. Influencer advertising spend is also up 12%, to $1.31bn (£1bn).

Major social platforms report audience growth

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Reddit - known as ‘the front page of the internet’ - has shown a solid performance when it comes to the growth of its ad audience, reporting a 4.6% increase on the previous quarter - the strongest of all major platforms featured in the report. LinkedIn with 2.1% (1 million) and YouTube with 2% (1.1 million) make up the top three. Instagram, TikTok, Snap and Facebook all reported gains, however, X’s ad audience reach fell by a significant -6.7% (-1.36 million) on the previous quarter.

YouTube captures nation’s attention

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YouTube is capturing the UK’s attention, with an average session on the platform lasting 10m 20s, followed by TikTok (7m 39s) and Reddit (4m16s). When it comes to how often people are opening their social apps, Snapchat enters the top three: WhatsApp (17.5 times per day), Snapchat (11.6) and Instagram (11.1).

Other key metrics from Digital 2026: The United Kingdom include:

• TikTok is top when it comes to daily time spent using social apps on Android devices, with 1h14m, followed by YouTube (1h), and Instagram (46m).
  
• The country’s ‘favourite’ social platform continues to be WhatsApp, followed by Facebook and Instagram.
  
• Facebook dominates web traffic referrals from social media with 69.04% share - a 15% increase y-o-y
  
• 21.8% of adult internet users use ChatGPT each month, and 18.5% use image search (eg Google lens, Pinterest lens)
  
• Digital ad spend is up 8.1% ($3.91 bn), with digital accounting for 82% of 2025 ad spend
  

​Lucy Doubleday, UK managing director, We Are Social, commented, “Social media continues to shape the way people in the UK connect, discover brands, and make purchasing decisions. It’s encouraging to see social ad spend climbing, but success on social isn’t just about having deep pockets, it’s about cultural relevance. With platforms like Reddit making gains, brands need to have an even deeper understanding of how to operate in the complex social media ecosystem; understanding the nuances results in creative opportunities that make an outsized impact. The smartest brands see social as a strategic heartbeat, not a tick box.”