Earned & Paid
Companies · Tech

Meta

Advertiser Ad platformMETA

Meta spent $2.09B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2025, up 1.5% on the year before and +33% since 2019. That's 1.0% of revenue, less than in 2019: the business outgrew its marketing.

$2.09Bmarketing spend, FY2025
+1.5%vs the year before
1.0%of revenue (-1.2 pts vs 2019)

Marketing spend by year

2012: $67M2013: $117M132014: $135M2015: $281M152016: $310M2017: $324M172018: $1.10B2019: $1.57B192020: $2.26B2021: $2.99B212022: $2.65B2023: $2.02B232024: $2.06B2025: $2.09B251.0%

Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.

Advertising, by quarter

2023Q3: $33.6B2023Q4: $38.7B2024Q1: $35.6B2024 Q12024Q2: $38.3B2024Q3: $39.9B2024Q4: $46.8B2025Q1: $41.4B2025 Q12025Q2: $46.6B2025Q3: $50.1B2025Q4: $58.1B2026Q1: $55.0B2026 Q12026Q2: $59.4B2026 Q2

From each 10-Q and 10-K; fourth quarters are the full year minus nine months.

Revenue and margin

2014: $12.5B2015: $17.9B152016: $27.6B2017: $40.7B172018: $55.8B2019: $70.7B192020: $86.0B2021: $118B212022: $117B2023: $135B232024: $165B2025: $201B2541.4%

Bars: revenue, $B (10-K). Line: operating margin.

What they told investors

“We're also leveraging AI to empower businesses to more easily manage their campaigns, develop ad creative and engage with their customers.”Susan Li · 2026 Q2 · transcript

Say vs do

We found no statement about the size of Meta's marketing budget on its earnings calls or in its 10-Ks, so here is its record against its peers.

What they said

No statement about the size of its marketing budget.

What they did

YearMarketing spendChangeShare of revenue
FY2025$2.09B+1.5%1.0%
FY2024$2.06B+2.0%1.2%
FY2023$2.02B-23.8%1.5%
FY2022$2.65B-11.4%2.3%
FY2021$2.99B+32.3%2.5%
FY2020$2.26B+43.9%2.6%

Against its peers. Compared with the 3 other Tech advertisers we track (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet): since 2019 its marketing spend went +33% (peer median +58%); its share of revenue moved -1.2 pts (median -1.1); last year +1.5% (median +28.6%).

In interviews, its leaders made 107 statements about marketing: 1 argued for investing in brand and 0 for cutting.

How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.

What they say about media

The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Experiential & events 4× since 2019Creative campaigns 2× since 2021AI in marketing 1× since 2026Paid social 1× since 2021Organic social & content 1× since 2021

What they see in the market

What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Paid social 141× since 2019AI in marketing 33× since 2019Measurement 24× since 2019Creative campaigns 23× since 2019Programmatic & display 12× since 2019Affiliate & lead gen 8× since 2020CRM, loyalty & first-party data 8× since 2020Influencers & creators 7× since 2019Experiential & events 3× since 2021Paid search 2× since 2022

In the news

Peers

AppleMicrosoftAlphabet