As governments and social media platforms introduce tighter rules around how young people use digital platforms, businesses that rely heavily on paid social media advertising are being urged to reconsider how they attract and retain customers.
The UK Government has announced plans to prevent social media platforms from offering their services to children under 16, with the new rules expected to come into force from spring 2027.
Further protections are also planned for 16 and 17-year-olds, including personalised recommender feeds being switched off by default. The changes could affect the content and advertising that young people are served online.
While the immediate impact will be felt by social media platforms and businesses marketing to younger audiences, Thomas Phillips, marketing expert and founder of DTC SEO Agency, said the development highlights a much broader risk for businesses of all sizes.
He warned that brands have become increasingly dependent on platforms such as Meta and TikTok to generate demand, despite having limited control over who those platforms allow them to reach.
“Businesses shouldn’t look at these changes and assume they’re irrelevant simply because they don’t market to teenagers. The bigger issue is how quickly the rules around reaching an audience can change. A business can spend years building a successful acquisition strategy around Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, but ultimately the platform controls the audience. They decide what targeting is available, what advertisers can do and how much it costs to reach those people. One policy or regulatory change can suddenly make part of that audience much harder to reach.”
Paid Social Advertising Means Renting Access to Customers
Paid social advertising has become central to the growth strategies of many ecommerce businesses, allowing brands to place products directly in front of consumers based on their interests, demographics and online behaviour.
Phillips said paid advertising remains an important marketing channel, but businesses become vulnerable when too much of their growth depends on continued access to a single platform.
“The easiest way to think about paid social is that you’re renting access to an audience. While you’re paying and the platform allows you to target those people, it can be an incredibly effective way of growing a business. But you don’t own that relationship. If targeting rules change, advertising costs rise or regulations restrict who can be reached, your business has to adapt to somebody else’s decision. That becomes a serious commercial risk when one platform is responsible for a large percentage of your new customers.”
Phillips said businesses should consider what would happen if their most successful paid customer acquisition channel suddenly became significantly more expensive or restrictive.
“Every business that spends heavily on paid social should ask itself one question: if this platform changed its rules tomorrow, where would our next customer come from?” he said. “If there isn’t a clear answer, the business is too dependent on that channel.”
From Pushing Adverts to Being Found Through Search
One way businesses can reduce their dependence on paid social advertising is by investing more heavily in channels that capture existing customer demand, including organic search and SEO.
Phillips said this is where the difference between “push” and “pull” marketing becomes increasingly important.
“Paid social is predominantly push marketing. You’re identifying somebody who fits your target audience and putting your product in front of them. Search works differently. The customer comes to you. Someone searching Google for a product, recommendation, comparison or answer has already demonstrated intent. The demand exists before the business appears. Your job is to make sure you’re the company they find when they’re looking.”
For ecommerce brands, this can mean appearing in search results throughout the customer journey – from consumers researching a problem to those actively comparing products or preparing to make a purchase.
“There’s a big difference between interrupting somebody’s feed with a product and being there when they’ve actively gone looking for it,” Phillips said. “Both have value, but businesses need both. If your entire marketing strategy relies on repeatedly paying platforms to put your brand in front of people, you’re constantly having to buy that attention.”
Marketing Diversification Is Becoming a Business Necessity
Phillips cautioned that businesses should not respond to the changing social media landscape by simply moving their entire marketing budget from paid advertising into SEO.
Instead, he said the lesson from increasing platform regulation is the need to create multiple independent routes through which customers can discover and return to a brand.
These can include organic search, paid media, email marketing, direct traffic, digital PR, social communities and increasing the number of consumers searching directly for the brand.
“Diversification doesn’t mean abandoning paid social. Meta and TikTok can still be incredibly effective marketing channels. It means making sure they aren’t your only effective marketing channels. The healthiest businesses aren’t relying on one algorithm, one advertising account or one platform to keep sending them customers.”
For businesses, this means treating digital marketing as a broader ecosystem rather than relying on a single platform or advertising strategy for growth.
Building Digital Assets Businesses Can Control
The changing regulatory environment should also encourage brands to place greater value on marketing assets and audiences they have more control over, Phillips said.
“Your website is an asset. Your email database is an asset. The content you’ve created is an asset. The reputation you’ve built through PR is an asset. People knowing your brand well enough to search for it directly is an asset. Those things don’t make a business immune to changes in Google, social media or consumer behaviour, but together they make it much less exposed to one company changing the rules.”
This is particularly important for businesses that have experienced rapid growth through paid social media advertising but have not invested as heavily in other customer acquisition channels.
“A business can have brilliant Meta campaigns, a strong return on ad spend and growing revenue while still having a major weakness in its marketing strategy,” Phillips said. “If most of that growth disappears the moment the advertising stops, you’re not building enough demand elsewhere. Businesses should be using the success of paid campaigns to help build their brand, organic visibility and owned audiences at the same time.”
Today’s Restrictions Could Point to Tomorrow’s Changes
Phillips said the biggest mistake businesses could make would be to dismiss the latest restrictions simply because their own target audience falls outside the affected age groups.
“The important thing isn’t necessarily who is affected by this particular change. It’s what it tells businesses about where digital marketing is heading. Governments are looking much more closely at privacy, targeting, algorithms and how platforms influence their users. Platforms themselves are constantly changing their advertising products and policies. The brands that understand that and diversify now won’t have to panic every time another platform changes its rules.”
For businesses, the message is ultimately about reducing dependence on third-party platforms and building a more resilient digital marketing strategy.
Paid social can continue to play an important role in customer acquisition, but combining it with SEO, organic search, email marketing, digital PR, direct traffic and strong brand recognition can give businesses more routes to their customers.
