For many small and medium-sized businesses, social media advertising is the standard: quick to set up, measurable, plannable. That works and will keep working. At the same time, more and more advertisers are noticing that a single channel has its limits: costs are rising, attention in the feed is getting scarcer, and a growing share of the budget flows into contacts that barely get noticed.
This article takes a sober look at both channels. It shows what user behavior in the feed means for your advertising, how costs are developing, and what streaming advertising on the television does differently in terms of media quality and reach. In the end there is no either-or recommendation, just a clear picture of how both channels become stronger together.
How attention in the feed works today
The social media feed is built for scrolling through, not for pausing. That is not a flaw of the platforms, it is their principle, and it has consequences for advertising.
A 2025 study by market research firm Clutch found that 93% of consumers actively skip advertising wherever they can. 55% swipe away as soon as possible, another 37% simply ignore ads. An academic eye-tracking study (Frontiers in Psychology, 2025) used gaze tracking to show that sponsored posts get significantly less viewing time and fewer eye contacts than editorial content, even when the ad is designed to look like a normal post. As soon as users recognize the commercial nature, they mentally switch off. Experts call this "banner blindness", the trained blindness towards anything that looks like advertising.
This is not an argument against social media, but an honest assessment: in the feed, your advertising competes with photos from friends, with videos, and with the next swipe. Part of your budget pays for impressions that never really get noticed.
The cost question: the feed is getting more expensive
On top of that comes the price trend. A look at Meta's own financial report shows the trend plainly: in the 2025 annual report (SEC filing, Form 10-K), Meta discloses that the average price per ad rose 9% in 2025 compared with the previous year. In the first quarter of 2026, Meta reported a further global increase of 12%.
The reason is simple auction logic: more and more advertisers are competing for a user base that is barely growing anymore. More demand with limited supply means rising prices. For you concretely this means: you pay a little more year after year to reach the same people. That is manageable as long as it is your only channel, but it makes the question of a complement more interesting over time.
Streaming advertising: the difference lies in media quality
This is where streaming advertising on the television comes in, referred to in the industry as Connected TV or CTV. The decisive difference is not just the bigger screen, but the quality in which your advertising actually arrives. Three metrics make this tangible:
Viewability: was the ad actually displayed? On the television, the spot fills the entire screen. There is no half-visible banner at the edge, no scrolling past. That is why the viewability of CTV advertising is close to 100%, higher than any other digital channel (source: independent measurement providers such as DoubleVerify and IAS, whose standards are accredited by the Media Rating Council).
View-through / completion rate: was the ad watched to the end? Streaming spots are non-skippable. The result: according to the Innovid Global Benchmarks, CTV spots are watched fully to the end around 94 to 95% of the time, a 15-second spot reaches 94.5%, a 30-second spot 94.1%. Video on mobile devices and on the web falls far short of that. Your complete message, including the brand and call to action at the end, actually gets through.
Audibility: was the ad also heard? Social media videos run silently a large share of the time, users scroll without sound. On the television, the sound is practically always on. Your ad is thus not only seen, but also heard, one more channel for your message.
The reason for these values lies in the situation: anyone who sits down in front of the television in the evening has consciously made time for content and leans back. That is a different kind of attention than the quick thumb in the feed. Both have their place, but they achieve different things.
The underestimated bonus: co-viewing
There is another effect that a personal screen simply cannot offer by its nature: co-viewing. One person watches a smartphone, on average more people watch the television.
On average around 1.5 people sit in front of the TV set: couples on the sofa, families, shared flats. What gets billed with streaming advertising is the impression on the device, you reach the additional viewers at no extra cost. A euro of ad budget on the television therefore reaches, on average, more people than on a private phone screen.
What social media still does well
To keep the picture fair: social media is strong for certain tasks. For fast, click-heavy direct campaigns, for very narrow niche audiences, for products with an immediate online purchase option, and for fine-grained testing of messages, the feed remains a useful tool. Direct measurability all the way to the click is also a genuine strength.
And to be honest about measurement in streaming: unlike the immediate click on social media, impact measurement on TV relies more on reach and completion data than on a direct click path. Streaming advertising works more like classic brand advertising: it builds awareness and trust rather than attributing every contact immediately to a sale. Anyone who thinks purely in immediate clicks measures the TV effect too narrowly.
The real strength: the combination
The most interesting point comes last. Social media and streaming do not actually compete for the same effect, they complement each other.
Social and search advertising mainly capture demand that already exists: people who are searching or scrolling anyway. Streaming advertising on the big screen creates demand before anyone searches. It reaches people in a relaxed moment in the living room and ensures your brand is present when someone later searches, clicks or buys. Research by the IAB shows that a large share of streaming viewers research further online after seeing a TV ad. In other words: the television fills the funnel that social and search then draw from.
For SMEs this means in practice: streaming advertising does not replace your social campaigns, it makes them more effective. Anyone who combines both reaches the audience first on the big screen with full attention, then meets them again in the feed, where the brand is no longer a stranger. Two channels reinforcing each other instead of competing for the same budget.
Conclusion
Social media advertising remains a valuable channel, but as a sole solution it hits limits: rising costs and a feed where attention is scarce. Streaming advertising on the television scores on media quality: near-complete viewability, very high completion rates, sound, and the co-viewing bonus on top. The smartest path for most SMEs is therefore not to switch, but to add.
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FAQ
Is social media advertising still worthwhile? Yes. For fast direct campaigns, narrow niche audiences and immediate purchases, the feed is a strong tool. The limits show when it is your only channel: studies show that a large share of feed advertising gets swiped past, and costs rise year after year.
Why is advertising in the feed noticed less strongly? The feed is built for scrolling through. Eye-tracking studies show that sponsored posts get significantly less viewing time than editorial content. A 2025 Clutch study found that 93% of consumers actively skip advertising wherever they can.
What does media quality mean for streaming advertising? Three metrics: viewability (was the ad actually displayed, close to 100% on CTV), completion rate (was it watched to the end, around 94 to 95% on CTV) and audibility (was it heard with sound, practically always on TV). Together they mean your message arrives full screen, in full, and audibly.
What is co-viewing? On average around 1.5 people sit in front of the TV, not just one like with a smartphone. What gets billed is the impression on the device, the additional viewers you reach at no extra cost.
Should I replace social media with streaming? No, the channels complement each other. Social and search capture existing demand, streaming creates it and builds brand awareness. The combination works best: first gain attention on the big screen, then get recognized again in the feed.