The news: Engagement and reach are now top priorities for social marketers as brand awareness sinks to the bottom of the list.

• Last year, 76% of marketers named brand awareness their No. 1 priority; this year, that number plummeted to 22%, per PhotoShelter’s The State of Social Media Marketing report.
• 63% named boosting engagement as the new No. 1 goal, followed by increasing reach (50%), boosting followers (32%), and driving leads (30%) and sales and revenues (23%).

What it means: The sharp pivot from brand-building to performance indicators suggests marketers are under growing pressure to prove ROI in fast-moving social environments, even at the expense of longer-term brand health.

• Easily measurable outcomes like follower acquisition are taking precedence over goals that are difficult to quantify, like awareness, affinity, and trust. Metrics such as impressions, views, and clicks can provide immediate data.
• The 54-point drop in brand awareness’s importance likely isn’t only about ROI pressure, though: Algorithmic changes and shorter content cycles on major platforms are pushing marketers to shift their measurement focus.

Why it matters: Deprioritizing brand-building could weaken customer acquisition because most shoppers purchase from brands they’re already familiar with—84% of global consumer purchases are driven by preexisting brand bias, per WPP Media.

Focusing too narrowly on engagement risks a weaker pipeline of future customers, potentially leading to higher acquisition costs and lower brand loyalty down the line.

Different strokes: Social marketers’ declining emphasis on awareness differs from podcast advertisers’ focus. Over half (56%) of US podcast ad spending went toward brand awareness campaigns in Q3 2025, per Magellan AI.

• Podcast environments offer long-form storytelling, purchasing influence from host recommendations, and reduced ad clutter, making them ideal to build familiarity and trust.
• Meanwhile, social is skewing toward mid- and lower-funnel measurable actions, with a focus on amplification over affinity and recall.

The contrast highlights media formats’ differing roles: social for measurable engagement, podcasts for long-term branding.

What’s next for brands: Don’t trade establishing an identity and awareness in consumers’ minds for the easier task of monitoring content performance. To balance both objectives, brands should:

• Build dual-track strategies. Pair always-on brand campaigns with short-term engagement campaigns.
• Measure brand lift. Use creative testing and sentiment analysis to get more accessible brand insights.
• Optimize for both attention and actions. Expand KPIs to include completion rates, saves, shares, and average watch time.