2Q25 Ad Interview Series: CN Agency B

We are beginning to release our advertising industry research, with the first group of experts including two North American agency specialists, two Chinese agency specialists, and one European agency specialist.

The fifth expert comes from a Chinese agency managing over $100M in ad budget. Approximately 55% of their budget comes from e-commerce, which helps us better understand how US-China tariffs affect US advertising and product pricing.

This note contains numerous details. These include Chinese Short Drama advertisers conducting large-scale campaigns in the US, which made positive contributions to Q2 2025 advertising. It also covers META AMM testing results, the specific impact of tariffs on Chinese DTC advertisers, AppLovin's Q2 2025 ad spending patterns, and TikTok's advertising budget returning to growth.

META

Ad Growth

• The expert's META advertising grew 14% YoY in 2024, with 11% YoY growth in Q4 2024.

• In early March interviews, the expert estimated Q1-Q4 2025 YoY growth at 25%/24%/22%/25%, with full-year growth of 24%.

• By late April, due to tariff impacts, the expert significantly lowered expectations to 25%/11%/0%/0% for Q1-Q4 2025, with full-year growth of 8%.