What you need to know:

• According to an IAB survey of marketers and agencies in the past two weeks, 21% of respondents say they have paused all their ad spend; 57% have decreased some of their spend.
• 15% say they have increased or maintained spend
• Nearly a third indicate they're delaying their spend to a later date
• Social and paid search were least impacted among digital channels
• In other analysis from We Are Social, Facebook is seeing increases of up to 50% in messaging across all platforms - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. 
• We Are Social says while traffic overall on social media is up, engagement for brands is decreasing slightly.

Down but not out

The local impact of COVID-19 on digital marketing has triggered a 21% freeze to all spend as brands continue to tighten their belt, according to a survey of 78 media agency executives and senior marketers.

Over the past month 86% of brands have changed their digital ad investment and more than half are reviewing their budget levels daily.

The report comes at the same time as analyis from social media data firm Shareablee show a 49% rise in March of news posts from premium publishers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram over the same time last year.

We Are Social's MD Suzie Shaw says the cost of social media is decreasing across both reach and clicks while engagement  in video on Facebook and Instagram – including live video – is increasing.

Additional data from the IAB survey shows of those 57% of brands that have decreased spend, 31% report they're delaying activity, while 25% are "completely withdrawing". 

Brand and performance spending have been hit equally according to the IAB but 20% say performance and tactical marketing has seen the primary impact. Brand activity has seen the primary impact from budget cuts by 11% of IAB respondents.  

Cost of social media decreasing

Like the IAB study, We Are Social's MD Suzie Shaw says social is one of the least impacted channels as demand for content grows rapidly.

She says a number of brands have paused bigger paid advertising campaigns and shifted budgets towards more organic content activities and community management to maintain audience engagement.

While there's an overall increase in traffic on social media "engagement for brands is decreasing slightly," says Shaw. "But engagement specifically in video on Facebook and Instagram – including live video – is increasing.

"The good news for brands is that the cost of social media is decreasing relative to both reach and clicks, making it a really good buy for brands."

News and Media content booms on social

According to Shareblee the "Media & Entertainment" category is up 29% in social media engagement for March and up 54% so far in 2020. 

While Instagram remains news light - most activity is still aspirational and lifestyle-skewed - Facebook represents 86% of engagement in the news category. 

TV show news (made up of premium publishers such as Nine, ABC News, Seven etc.) represent 40% of total engagement for the media and entertainment category, but up only 4% on 2019. 

News by the numbers in March:

TV Shows - News Posts are up 49% compared to March 2019:

• Facebook up 68.77%
• Twitter up 32.57%
• Instagram up 12.43%

TV Shows - Total Engagement is up 43% year-on-year:

• Facebook is up 38%
• Twitter is up 14%
• Instagram is up 153%

Data from Shareablee