Report: Social media becoming a direct path to purchase
October 15, 2026



DoubleVerify (DV), the software platform, has released its 2026 Global Insights Report, Scroll, Stop and Shop: Walled Garden Trends. The report examines how social and walled garden platforms are evolving into full-funnel channels, offering advertisers insights into how consumers engage, research and purchase and how marketers can respond. The report draws on global surveys of 22,000 consumers and 2,020 marketers, conducted by Sapio Research, along with additional DV data.

“The findings show that social’s role in the purchase journey looks different in EMEA than in other regions,” said Stuart Flint, SVP, Managing Director, EMEA at DV. “That makes understanding local consumer behaviour especially important as advertisers determine which formats, platforms and approaches will have the greatest impact.”


Consumer behaviour shows social media playing a growing role in how people discover, research and purchase products.

Key consumer findings include:

Social media is becoming a direct path to purchase. Roughly 1 in 4 consumers globally (26 per cent) use social media to research products, and 1 in 4 (25 per cent) have purchased through social media in the past year. Nearly 4 in 10 (38 per cent) say seeing an ad on social media can encourage them to purchase from a brand. LatAm consumers are the most likely to use social media for product research (36 per cent), followed by APAC (30 per cent), EMEA (21 per cent), and North America (20 per cent).

Short-form video drives consumer action. Nearly 4 in 10 consumers globally (38 per cent) say short-form video ads, including Reels, TikToks and Shorts, can prompt them to click or purchase, making it the top ad format measured. That compares with 31 per cent for ads before or during long-form video and 25 per cent for social feed ads. Short-form video is especially effective in LatAm (49 per cent) and APAC (47 per cent), compared with EMEA (29 per cent) and North America (27 per cent).

Influencers are mainstream purchase drivers. Nearly half of consumers globally say micro-influencers (47 per cent), macro-influencers (48 per cent) and mega-influencers (49 per cent per cent) influence their purchase decisions. Mega-influencers (1 million+ followers) have the most influence of the three tiers measured. Their impact is strongest in LatAm and APAC (58 per cent each), compared with EMEA (40 per cent), and North America (39 per cent).

Consumers are skeptical of AI-generated influencers. In one of the largest global studies to date examining consumer sentiment toward AI influencers, DV found that nearly 4 in 10 consumers (37 per cent) respond negatively to brands using AI-generated influencers, compared with fewer than 1 in 3 (29 per cent) who respond positively. Consumers are 10 percentage points more likely to respond positively when human influencers create content with help from AI (39 per cent) than when the influencer itself is AI-generated (29 per cent).

As social becomes a bigger driver of consumer behaviour, marketers face growing pressure to justify their investments.

Reaching the right audience remains their biggest challenge: 4 in 10 social advertisers (40 per cent) cite reaching their target audience as a top challenge, although that figure fell 12 per cent year over year, the largest decline measured. Calculating ROAS/ROI ranks second (36 per cent), followed by keeping up with content trends (35 per cent), brand suitability and content alignment (34 per cent), and managing campaigns across multiple channels (33 per cent). Brand suitability is a bigger concern in APAC (40 per cent) than in EMEA (29 per cent).

“The global trend is clear, but how consumers engage with social varies significantly by market,” added Flint. “In EMEA, consumers are more measured in how social influences their purchasing behavior, reinforcing the need for advertisers to understand what resonates with audiences in individual markets.”