The news: As AI slop, influencer content, and an abundance of ads push Gen Zers into private messaging spaces, brands have a new channel for contact.

• 86% of US social media users are comfortable receiving messages from brands within apps like Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, per a Snap and MAGNA survey.
• In fact, 52% of Gen Zers prefer private DMs over public commenting when interacting with creators or companies, per Zebracat.

Digging in: Chats are on their way to surpass feeds for social engagement—more than half (53.5%) of US Gen Zers use social media for direct messaging, per data from our Organic Social Strategies That Work report.

While that may reduce visibility for public ads, it creates more opportunities for marketers to engage with privacy, authenticity, and control: Mass, public social advertising can be limited by banner fatigue, ad blockers, and pressure to surface in feed algorithms.

What it means: As users retreat into these private digital spaces, the marketing playbook must prepare to meet them there.

That may require new efforts, such as:

• Rebalancing budgets. Shift spending toward chat-based, DM-first activations.
• Building new capabilities. Develop conversational marketing templates and message-designed campaigns.
• Integrations. Connect chat teams with CRM, customer data, and loyalty systems.
• Finding what matters. Identify which engagement metrics best illustrate outcomes, such as response rate, open rate, or in-chat conversion.

Opportunities could include utility-first messages like promos, reminders, and personalized recommendations. Conversational hooks, like polls or quizzes, could help cement brand names in users’ minds.

The risks: While DM spaces offer a direct, more personalized channel to reach users, they aren’t without challenges.

• Message fatigue. Even with opt-ins, excessive outreach could cause recipients to feel spammed or overly targeted.
• Channel overload. Too many brands in a user’s DMs will turn into noise.
• Operational hurdles. Reaching massive user bases through DMs could create challenges around managing message threads and following up on questions in a timely manner.

What brands should do: Start small with a few chat-based campaigns to track what resonates and which KPIs—such as engagement rate, retention lift, and brand awareness—are most illustrative of impacts.

Develop a consistent tone and voice in DM outreach that feels human, friendly, and reflective of brand identity.

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