Australian brands are pouring money into social advertising faster than the rest of the digital ad market can keep up, according to the latest Digital 2027 Australia report from Meltwater and We Are Social.
Social ad spend is projected to hit US$6.15 billion (roughly A$8.76 billion) in 2026, up 16.5% year-on-year. That’s three times the growth rate of digital advertising overall, which grew just 5.5% over the same period. Social now accounts for more than 36% of Australia’s total digital ad spend.
Australia now has 22.6 million social media user identities, up 7.6% year-on-year and equivalent to roughly 83% of the population. Australians spend an average of 16 hours and 52 minutes a week on social platforms, split between 9 hours 16 minutes watching online video and 7 hours 35 minutes on social media itself, well ahead of the 7 hours 8 minutes spent watching linear TV. Streaming follows the same pattern: 78.8% of Australians watch streaming content weekly, and 45.5% pay for a subscription, the fourth-highest rate globally.
Spending more, connecting less
Australia now ranks third globally for social ad spend per user, at US$272 (around A$387) a year, more than four times the global average. Almost three in ten Australian internet users run ad blockers, and only one in ten feels genuinely represented in the advertising they see.
Suzie Shaw, APAC CEO at We Are Social, says the budget shift reflects where attention has actually gone. “The numbers in this year’s report make one thing undeniable: social is no longer a supporting channel, it is the primary channel of consumer attention and brand discovery in Australia,” she says. “So simply scaling budget isn’t enough. With high ad-blocker usage and low consumer feelings of representation, the real advantage belongs to brands that invest in culturally resonant, platform-native creative that drives genuine engagement.”
Where the attention actually is
Facebook remains the platform Australians say they use most, with 26% naming it their top choice, double the global average, and it drives more than three-quarters of all social referral traffic to other sites. Engagement tells a different story: Instagram users spend an average of 1 hour 47 minutes a day on the app, opening it more than 18 times daily, with TikTok close behind at 1 hour 45 minutes and over 13 daily sessions.
YouTube has the broadest reach of any platform for advertisers, at 22.6 million users (more than 93% of Australian adults), ahead of Facebook (17.8 million) and Instagram (15.7 million).
AI is becoming a discovery channel too
Generative AI is starting to influence how Australians find brands in the first place. More than seven in ten Australians have used generative AI in the past month, with 46% using it to search for information, 16% specifically to research brands or purchases, and 8% saying they’ve discovered a new brand or product through AI. Trust still lags behind usage, only one in four Australians say they feel comfortable using AI tools at all.
Ross Candido, VP ANZ at Meltwater, argues this changes what reputation means for a brand. “Reputation is no longer just how a brand is perceived. It’s the data AI uses to decide whether it gets recommended at all,” he says. “That makes AI visibility a core part of reputation management. Brands need to connect what’s being said in media and social with how AI tools represent them, so they can spot gaps, correct the narrative and build credibility.”
Resources and practical steps for Australian businesses
The Australian Government’s Digital Solutions program, run through business.gov.au, is currently in its third funding round, backed by more than $25 million, aimed at helping small businesses adopt digital tools and AI. It offers up to five hours of free one-on-one coaching with an expert adviser, plus free workshops and webinars on digital marketing, e-commerce and cybersecurity, available at business.gov.au/digitalsolutions.
Business.gov.au also runs free sessions on this exact topic, including “Digital Smarts: AI, ChatGPT and marketing made simple” and a broader session introducing at least five free AI tools, both listed under Events and Training on the site. The National AI Centre, run through ai.gov.au, hosts SmallBiz events covering AI and digital transformation for SME owners, alongside broader guidance on responsible AI adoption.
Getting recommended by an AI tool starts with similar discipline to getting found by a search engine, with a sharper focus on direct, extractable answers. That means writing real FAQ and buying-guide content that answers the specific questions a customer might type into ChatGPT or Gemini, delivery times, sizing, compatibility, returns, in plain sentences an AI system can lift and cite. It means using clear, descriptive headings rather than clever ones, since AI systems read “Shipping and Returns” more reliably than a vague or branded heading covering the same content. Specs, policies and pricing need to sit as real text rather than inside a product image or scanned PDF, which AI tools largely can’t read. A Google Business Profile and any directory listings should stay accurate and current, since several AI shopping and recommendation tools draw directly on that structured data. And it’s worth simply asking an AI tool what it already knows about your business, a quick way to see what gaps exist in your digital footprint.
Candido’s framing is a useful way to think about this: reputation, in his telling, “is no longer just how a brand is perceived. It’s the data AI uses to decide whether it gets recommended at all.” For a small business with limited marketing resources, treating website content, not just ad spend, as part of a discoverability strategy is likely to matter more over the next few years.