This year, Meta is projected to surpass Google in global digital ad revenue for the first time ever.1 Social media advertising in the U.S. is on track to exceed $121 billion,2 audio has become one of the fastest-growing formats, and TikTok is rebounding after a turbulent 2025. The platforms running the internet are shifting. The question is whether your media mix is shifting with them.
According to Ovative Group’s 2026 EMR Power Rankings—a ranking of the most effective paid media channels from data across their retail brand portfolio—Meta Performance, Google Shopping, Audio Streaming, and TikTok have each crossed from emerging to essential.
The brands winning aren’t treating them as four separate channel bets; they’re treating them as one consumer ecosystem. The ones pulling ahead aren’t just buying better on each channel. They’re building a system where each platform makes the others more effective.
TikTok: Past Experimental, Not Yet Essential for Most
Most brands still treat TikTok as a test-and-learn line item. The consumer behavior on the platform has moved well past that. Nearly 44% of TikTok users report making a purchase after seeing a product on the platform,3 42% of Gen Z use it as their primary product discovery tool,4 and TikTok Shop hit $15.82 billion in U.S. sales in 2025.4 The demand is there. The hesitation is internal.
Two things keep brands from fully committing. The first is content. TikTok demands social-first creative, not repurposed TV spots or display assets. Brands without that infrastructure can’t compete on the platform’s native terms. The second is measurement. TikTok’s attribution is less mature than Meta’s, making it harder to connect activity to revenue with confidence. For teams that need clear ROAS justification before scaling, that gap creates hesitation.
But the bigger problem is how brands measure TikTok in the first place. “Full-funnel TikTok programs tend to see stronger store demand capture and future media value,” says Mara, Director of Paid Social at Ovative. Forcing it to compete against Meta on ecommerce ROAS means it will always look like it’s losing and get cut before it’s had time to do what it’s actually good at. A mature TikTok strategy sets distinct objectives, invests in creator pipelines, and builds measurement that can see what last-click attribution misses.
Where to start: Build social-first creative before increasing spend. Establish in-store and brand lift metrics alongside ROAS, and give the channel enough runway to show what it actually does.
Meta: The Proven Tools Are Already Here
While TikTok builds toward future value, Meta is where brands drive immediate, incremental ecommerce revenue, and most are still leaving money on the table. Social platforms now account for more than 60% of product discovery, surpassing Google, and 81% of consumers say social media has prompted an impulse purchase multiple times a year.4 The intent is there. The question is whether your campaigns are built to capture it.
“There are proven Advantage+ products that drive incremental revenue that brands can be leaning into today,” says Mara, pointing to Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns and Catalog Enhancements. These use Meta’s machine learning to work toward highest-value customers, and brands not running them are leaving measurable revenue behind. Meta will keep innovating, but the gap most brands need to close isn’t about future products. It’s about activating what already works.
“With creative being the new targeting,” Mara adds, “both platforms will work toward consumers most likely to act on your message.” The biggest unlock isn’t a new tool. It’s consistent, quality creative fed into systems already built to convert. Content quantity and quality determines how far your investment goes on Meta, and most brands are underfueling the machine.
Where to start: Turn on ASC and Catalog Enhancements if you haven’t already. Then invest in creative volume because the system learns faster and performs better when it has more to work with.
Audio: The Channel Your Competitors Are Still Sleeping On
Audio Streaming jumped from emerging to a top-three channel overall, and it ranks first among Brick and Mortar Movers, signaling it’s driving real store behavior, not just upper-funnel awareness.
“As programmatic and self-serve capabilities have matured, the barrier to entry is lower, making it easier for brands to test into formats like podcast host reads,” explains Lauren, Director of Video and Programmatic Media at Ovative. Audio owns moments other channels can’t reach: commuting, exercising, cooking. Fifty-five percent of Americans are monthly podcast listeners,5 67% have purchased based on a host recommendation,6 and Americans find podcasts 23 times more trustworthy than social media.5 That credibility advantage is structural, and no social feed can replicate it.
“Audio works best when a brand respects its distinct role: building credibility, emotional connection, and top-of-mind awareness in mindset-driven moments,” Lauren says. Context matters as much as reach, and measurement needs to be smarter than last-click or you’ll consistently undervalue what the channel is doing.
Where to start: Add audio to your next planning cycle. Start with podcast host reads, set brand lift and store visit measurement from day one, and don’t evaluate it on last-click metrics.
Google Shopping: The Efficiency Leak No One Talks About
Google Shopping ranks second overall, and transactional searches grew 19% year over year as AI-assisted shopping tools accelerated purchase behavior.7 That high-intent traffic makes waste from poor campaign structure all the more costly.
“When using PMAX, it is vital to continue monitoring channel-level performance to ensure spend is not going toward low-ROAS or low-incrementality placements,” says Chris, Sr. Director of Paid Search at Ovative. The second leak is branded search inflation. PMAX doesn’t automatically protect against inflated CPCs on branded terms. Isolating that traffic in Standard Shopping campaigns keeps CPC control intact.
The bigger shift is measuring Shopping through an enterprise revenue lens rather than pure ROAS. Conversion Value Rules let you bid more aggressively for new customers and lapsed buyers, while Product Value Adjustments focus spend on categories that drive lifetime value, not just high-volume, low-margin conversions.
Where to start: Pull channel-level PMAX performance and check where spend is going. Move significant branded traffic to Standard Shopping. Then add Conversion Value Rules to shift budget toward new customers and high-lifetime value products.
From Buying to Orchestrating: The Real Competitive Edge
All four channels can be run in isolation. The brands compounding growth are building a system where each makes the others more effective.
“Most brands running paid media across multiple platforms aren’t orchestrating. They’re just buying,” says Maya, Director of Media Strategy at Ovative. “Each platform gets its own budget, its own team, its own performance target. This is how you end up spending efficiently and growing slowly.”
Orchestration changes the logic at three levels:
- Start with the consumer, not the channel
- Use one creative strategy expressed differently across platforms
- Match your measurement to what the system is actually doing
“Enterprise revenue and incrementality need to replace last-click ROAS as the primary signal,” says Yoana, Manager of Media Strategy at Ovative. “Ask not which platform performed best, but which combination moved consumers most effectively.”
The four channels running the internet aren’t a checklist. They’re a system. The brands winning have stopped running each piece in isolation and started building the whole.
Taking the First Step
At Ovative, we work with enterprise brands every day to close the gap between buying media and orchestrating it. Want to know more about the channels driving enterprise revenue, in-store revenue and traffic, customer growth, and even brand equity? Read our latest release of the 2026 EMR Power Rankings, our data-backed analysis of which channels are driving real enterprise revenue and how the mix is shifting. If you want to talk through what it means for your media strategy, reach out to our team.
Sources: 1) eMarketer, 2) AI Digital, 3) Goat Agency, 4) Sprout Social, 5) iHeartMedia, 6) CMSWire, 7) Amra & Elma
