Digiday+ Research: YouTube usage drops as fewer brands put a large amount of marketing spend toward the platform

By Julia Tabisz • March 12, 2025 •

Ivy Liu

This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →

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It’s been just over two years since YouTube started a revenue share program for Shorts. Last year saw a growth in brands’ usage of YouTube, but this year usage has dropped off. At the same time, more brands are spending just a little on marketing on YouTube while a lot fewer are spending a lot.

This is according to Digiday+ Research surveys conducted every six months among brand and retailer professionals.

For creators specifically, it turns out that payouts from YouTube for short-form content are dwarfed by the ad revenue they can get from long-form videos. A group of creators recently told Digiday that their RPMs (revenue earned per 1,000 views) for YouTube Shorts were consistently beneath $0.20, compared with average RPMs of between $3 and $6 for their long-form content.

It’s a discrepancy that is likely being felt by brands, as well. Digiday’s surveys found that, after rising in 2024, brands’ and retailers’ use of YouTube dropped in 2025. In Q1 of this year, 63% of brand and retailer pros told Digiday that their companies currently use YouTube. That’s a notable drop from the 71% who said the same six months prior in Q3 2024, after rising from 67% in Q1 2024.

It’s possible that brands’ feelings toward YouTube as a driver of conversions and branding contributed to their drop in usage of the platform. Long story short: YouTube doesn’t really do much for brands when it comes to conversions and branding.

Thirteen percent of brands and retailers told Digiday in Q1 2025 that YouTube is the best social platform for branding — a very slight increase from the 12% who said the same a year ago. Believe it or not, this puts YouTube in second place among the platforms included in Digiday’s survey when it comes to branding, ahead of both TikTok and Facebook. But it’s a very distant second place to Instagram, which was chosen as the best platform for branding by 64% of brand and retailer pros.

Just 1% of respondents to Digiday’s Q1 2025 survey said YouTube is the best social platform for driving conversions, which is a notable drop from the 8% who said the same in Q1 2024.

Digiday’s surveys found that brands’ drop in YouTube usage coincides with a drop in marketing spend. Fewer brands are putting a large amount of their marketing budgets toward YouTube, while more are putting just a small amount toward the platform. At the same time, more brands are spending nothing at all on YouTube marketing.

For the last year, the percentage of brands and retailers putting a large or very large portion of their marketing budgets toward YouTube has been trending downward. A year ago, 17% of brand and retailer pros told Digiday that they spent a large or very large amount on YouTube marketing. That percentage fell to 14% six months ago, before falling significantly to just 4% as of Q1 of this year.

Meanwhile, the percentages of brands spending just a little on YouTube marketing and those spending nothing at all on the platform have been trending upward. In Q1 2025, 59% of brands and retailers said they put a very small or small portion of their marketing budgets toward YouTube, up from 54% in Q3 2024 and 48% in Q1 2024. And nearly a quarter of brands and retailers (24%) said at the beginning of this year that they spend none of their marketing budgets on YouTube, up from 16% six months ago and 15% a year ago.

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Digiday+ Research: YouTube usage drops as fewer brands put a large amount of marketing spend toward the platform

Brands’ usage of YouTube has dropped off, while more brands are spending just a little on YouTube marketing and fewer are spending a lot.