National Trends in Social Media Food Marketing Expenditures: 2020-2021

This study leverages advertising industry data to quantify social media advertising expenditures and advertising impressions of the food and beverage industry on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram from January 2019 to August 2021.

This is a cross-sectional analysis of Pathmatics data for Facebook (n=33 months), Twitter/X (n=29 months), and Instagram (n=18 months). Primary outcomes were monthly trends expenditures of food/beverage advertising and the number of views and expenditures of food/beverage advertising by platform (e.g., TV, online, mobile, print). Primary outcomes was measured by monthly expenditures by (1) social media company, (2) brand, and (3) before COVID-19 versus the first year of the pandemic.

Between April 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, adult social media users viewed approximately 335 billion food/beverage advertising on social media, including 94.4 billion food advertising on Facebook, 50.6 billion on Twitter/X, and 190.6 billion on Instagram. The 10 most advertised food/beverage brands spent approximately $833 million, $259 million, and $1.7 billion promoting advertising on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram. Total impressions increased by 105%, and expenditures increased by 182% across all 3 platforms during this time period. Comparing pre- with post-COVID-19 periods on Facebook indicated a significant difference in trends in the number of impressions (p for interaction<0.001) and total expenditures (p for interaction<0.001).

These data reveal that the food/beverage industry spends at least $2.8 billion on social media advertising, which generate billions of views for their products online. Determining adults' exposure to social media food advertising is critical for understanding the upstream factors that shape the risk for diet-related diseases.