For years, TV has been the go-to for brand building at scale. And we wonât deny that TV still has its place⌠sometimes. But if you're still sinking the majority of your budget into linear, unmeasurable reach⌠you're not just missing a trick, youâre missing your audience.
Because while TV CPMs have exploded by 87% since 2020, Meta CPMs have quietly dropped by 18%â.
So why are brands still defaulting to TV?
Comfort.Â
Familiarity.Â
A (false) sense of scale?
But what if just 10% of your TV budget went to Meta?
Say youâre investing ÂŁ5M in TV. Reallocating just 10% of that to Meta could reach 4.4M unique users at best-practice frequency, across a six-week campaignâ. And that reach wouldnât be theoretical. It would be:
- Trackable
- Optimisable
- Tailored to real human behaviour in real time
Thatâs the difference. Social media doesnât just reach people. It tells you whoâs engaging, whatâs resonating, and where to go next.
Still think socialâs just a support act?
The University of Oxfordâs âNo Silver Bulletâ study, the largest academic investigation into brand-building effectiveness, found the most effective media mix is TV, Meta and YouTubeâ. Not just one. Not two. All three. But used strategically. Weâve long seen where the attentionâs heading. Itâs why we brought Be a Bear into the Spin fold, the YouTube and audience strategy specialists who help us go bigger, broader, and sharper across channels. Because in 2025, full-funnel doesnât mean âa bit of everything.â It means knowing how to make each channel work harder.Â
And when Meta owns the four most-used daily apps in the UK (đ Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp), the opportunity to amplify ATL impact and extend reach is unmatched.
And hereâs the kickerâŚ
Social doesnât just scale your ATL. It adds lift:
- Greater unaided awareness
- Higher consideration
- Lower cost per acquisition
Weâre talking social-first adaptation, where we translate ATL creative into a high-performance suite of assets designed to scale, test, and convert. Itâs how we helped Brothers Cider exceed their reach targets with 12 modular assets from one TVC. Itâs how we helped Peopleâs Postcode Lottery turn a brand shoot into a DR sign-up engine on Meta.
So what makes social more measurable?
Unlike TV, social doesnât rely on panels or extrapolation. You get live, platform-native performance data across every asset, audience, and placement.
Hereâs what that looks like in practice:
- Creative-level breakdowns: See which specific edits, hooks, or formats are performing across Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.
- Funnel-stage metrics: Track not just awareness, but how assets influence consideration, intent, and conversion, mapped to real user journeys.
- Custom conversions & pixel data: Set up granular, first-party tracking to understand true ROI beyond surface metrics.
- Holdout testing: Run incrementality studies to isolate impact - what would have happened without paid social?
- Creative scoring & fatigue tracking: Know when an assetâs burning out before your performance drops.
Through SpaRk, our ad creative solution, we use this data to iterate in real time. We test modular creative, scale what works, and retire what doesnât. Itâs performance and brand-building, working together.
And hereâs the stat that says it all: 56% of action outcomes on Meta are driven by creative aloneâ.Â
TL;DR: If you're still debating âTV or socialâ... youâre asking the wrong question.
The right one?
âHow much of your TV budget could work harder on social?
Weâre here to help you find out.