The trends reshaping search and the ROI that justifies moving now

Part 1 showed that consumers operate in two search modes. Part 2 proved that social search doesn't just capture demand, it creates it and does so more efficiently than search at finding new customers. This final piece answers the question every CMO and media lead is asking: Does the full business case justify shifting budget?

The short answer: yes. Here are the four trends that prove it and the incrementality data that seals it.

1. The search budget is expanding beyond the search bar

Google's share of US search ad spending will fall below 50% in 2026, down from 67.1% a decade ago. Advertisers will spend USD 100B+ on non-Google search ads by 2028.¹

Yet most brand budgets still mirror a world in which Google owned two-thirds of the market. 92% of consumers use social platforms for product info vs 79% for search engines.² If your investment doesn't reflect that, you're over-indexed on demand capture and under-indexed on demand creation.

2. Short-form video is the new search result

As we showed in Part 2, reels are the no. 1 format that consumers encounter and find most helpful during the shopping journey.

On Meta technologies, visual content isn't an add-on to a text results page. It is the experience. The brands treating reels as searchable assets, not just awareness plays, are the ones winning the discovery moment.

3. AI is extending the journey, not ending it

This is the most misunderstood trend in marketing right now. The fear is that AI will answer every question before consumers reach your content. The reality²:

• 49% already use AI assistants for product discovery
• 70% expect to increase AI use for shopping in the next six months
• 71% still click through after seeing an AI summary

AI surfaces options. Social provides the proof. Shopping mode on Meta AI combines AI-powered retrieval with the visual, social context that only Meta technologies' provide, and it draws from your product catalogue. That makes catalogue accuracy a discoverability strategy, not just operational hygiene.

4. The incrementality data says shift now

Consumer preference is one thing. Proven business outcomes are another. Measured, an independent incrementality measurement company, analysed over 10,000 campaigns across 200+ North American advertisers in 2025. No platform-reported metrics. No last-click attribution. Geo-based test-vs-control experiments measuring what Meta technologies actually caused.

The findings³:

• 64% of Meta technologies' incremental conversions are from new-to-brand customers, net-new buyers that search alone wasn't reaching
• 2.3x higher iROAS vs search in driving new customer acquisition
• 46% higher efficiency for brands spending USD 50M+ in media

What does that mean for you? The gap between where most search budgets sit and where incremental value actually lives is measurable. Meta isn't just where consumers discover. It's where net-new growth lives, and it's probably more efficient than search at finding your next customer.

What to do now

Rebalance based on marginal efficiency. iROAS for new customer acquisition on Meta technologies is 2.3x higher than search³. Among brands at USD 50M+ in spend, the efficiency advantage is 46%^3. The question isn't whether to shift. It's how much headroom exists. Run incrementality tests to quantify it.

Treat your catalogue as a search asset. Meta AI pulls from your product catalogue. Accuracy, imagery and completeness aren't hygiene. They're your discoverability strategy.

Invest in visual proof and social validation. Creator content, UGC, product-in-context. Measure saves, shares and downstream conversion, not just clicks.

Measure what matters. Only geo-tested incrementality reveals true causal impact. Build it into your measurement framework as the standard, not the exception.

The question isn't whether your investment reflects where consumers are. The question is how much headroom you're leaving on the table.

Search is a behaviour, and Meta technologies are where that behaviour drives growth.

Read the series:

• Part 1: Why social search and traditional search aren't competing – they coexist
• Part 2: How to optimise content for social search on Meta technologies
• Explore the full social search narrative.

_{Sources: 1 – eMarketer, April 2026; 2 – "Beyond the Search Bar" by Kantar (Meta technologies-commissioned online study of 500 consumers aged 18 or older in US, Brazil, Germany and India), Mar 2026. 3 –} Measured_{, "Driving New Customer Acquisition: An Incrementality Analysis of Meta Technologies Platform Performance", 2025 (200+ North American advertisers, 10,000+ campaigns, geo-tested).}