Advertising market in 2025: Instagram becomes the cash machine for Meta ! Discover how the platform could generate over $32 billion and capture half of the social networking giant's advertising revenues.
Meta and Instagram: the duo that will dominate the advertising market in 2025
Since its acquisition by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion, Instagram has continued to evolve and establish itself as an essential pillar of the digital landscape. What was once a simple sharing application is now a veritable cash machine, generating billions of dollars in advertising revenues. The advertising market in 2025 should be marked by the increasing dominance of Instagram, to the point where the application could account for over 50 % of Meta's advertising revenues in the US. This meteoric rise can be explained by changing user habits and increasingly aggressive monetization strategies.
Instagram, Meta's advertising engine
According to projections by research firm Emarketer, the advertising market in 2025 will be largely dominated by video and social platforms. Instagramthanks to the growth of its Reels format, rivals TikTok and YouTube Shorts by capturing an increasingly engaged audience. Today, nearly 66 % of time spent on Instagram is dedicated to video viewing, in particular via Reels and Storiestwo formats in which advertising is integrated naturally and repeatedly.
In 2022, Instagram generated about 30 % of Meta's advertising revenues. But by 2025, the platform could reach 32 billion dollars in revenues, representing growth of almost 25 %. With this growth, Instagram will become Meta's leading advertising revenue driver, surpassing even Facebook.
Why does Instagram attract so many advertisers?
The advertising success ofInstagram is based on several strategic elements:
| Key factors | Impact on advertising |
|---|---|
| Engaging video formats | Reels and Stories boost engagement and content consumption |
| Advanced AI integration | A powerful algorithm that optimizes advertising recommendations |
| Ubiquitous advertising | More and more sponsored formats and immersive advertising |
| Young, active audience | High appeal for brands targeting the 18-34 age group |
Meta has bet on a more aggressive monetizationby integrating ads directly into short videos and Stories. In addition, theartificial intelligence from Meta optimizes content recommendations, increasing time spent on the platform. Result: users are consuming more ads, and advertisers are investing heavily on Instagram.
A future boosted by a potential TikTok ban
Instagram's success could be amplified by a major event: a ban on TikTok in the United States. If this were to happen in 2025, advertisers should reallocate their advertising budgets, and Instagram could capture a significant share of advertising spend for TikTok. According to Emarketer, if TikTok disappears from the US market, Instagram could absorb over 20 % of reallocated advertising budgetsfurther consolidating its dominance over the advertising market in 2025.
In parallel, YouTube Shorts could also benefit from this redistribution of investment, but Instagram already boasts a well-established advertising ecosystem and partnerships with brands.
Instagram: a cash machine that outstrips Facebook
Until recently, Facebook was Meta's cash cow, generating the majority of the group's advertising revenues. But in 2025, the trend reverses : Instagram is in the process of overtake Facebook in terms of profitability.
By 2024, the main sources of advertising revenue forInstagram The breakdown was as follows:
| Functionality | Share of advertising revenues |
|---|---|
| Feed (classic publications) | 53,7 % |
| Stories | 24,6 % |
| Reels | Strong growth |
With the rise of short videos and increasingly sophisticated monetization, the share of Reels is set to explode in 2025, attracting ever more advertisers.
The advertising market in 2025: Meta ready to crush the competition
While Google and Amazon are also giants in the advertising market in 2025, Meta goes all out on Instagram to continue growing. Thanks to ever more powerful recommendation algorithms and an ultra-engaged audience, Instagram has established itself as the Meta group's most powerful advertising lever.
With advertising growth of 25 % per yeareffective monetization and advertising market in 2025 Instagram is well on its way to dominating the digital world.
The question now is whether this explosion of advertising on Instagram or whether Meta will manage to maintain a balance between profitability and user experience. How much time do you spend on Instagram each day?