Every year about this time, statistics are published on the state of social media. Over 1,500 marketers worldwide about what they’re doing with social media. And every year, the herd moves collectively in the same direction…

This year? They’re all stampeding toward Instagram and TikTok. Reddit’s had a 63% surge in usage. Everyone’s excited about the new, the fresh, the platforms that feel like they’re going somewhere.

And Facebook? Facebook has officially been dumped. It’s now 2026’s least-loved platform with around 30% of marketers actively reducing their efforts there. The collective breakup is happening in real time.

There’s just one small problem with this mass exodus… The data doesn’t support it.

Facebook’s ad reach actually grew 5.7% year-on-year. Its potential ad audience? A casual 2.35 billion people. And 53% of consumers still use it to research brands before buying.

So let me get this straight. A platform where the audience is growing, the reach is increasing, and more than half the users are actively shopping around… and businesses are leaving?

Something doesn’t add up here. Either 30% of marketers know something the data doesn’t. Or 30% of marketers are making a decision that has nothing to do with what actually works.

So in this episode, I unpack why marketers are really leaving Facebook, which of those reasons are legitimate and which are just noise, and why this exodus might be the biggest opportunity you’ll see this year.

Because I think there’s a real danger in following the crowd here. The marketing industry has a tendency to move as a herd — everyone chasing the same platforms, the same tactics, the same trends. And when the herd moves, it often creates opportunity for those willing to go the other direction.