Ad Spending Slashed, User Base Still Growing? Temu's U.S. Ad Spend Plummets While Monthly Active Users Show Steady Increase

【Ebrun Exclusive】On June 11, third-party data agencies pointed out that Temu's advertising expenditure in the U.S. market is undergoing a sharp contraction, with its spending on multiple mainstream social platforms experiencing a cliff-like decline. However, user data for the same period has demonstrated considerable resilience—from January to May 2026, Temu's monthly active users in the U.S. still recorded a 21% year-on-year increase.

This contrast reflects a profound strategic shift for Temu in the U.S.: moving from acquiring customers at any cost in the past to focusing more on efficiency and retention.

Data from Sensor Tower shows that this Chinese e-commerce giant slashed its U.S. ad spending on almost all major social media platforms in 2026.

The most drastic change occurred on platform X: in the first five months of 2025, Temu was the largest single advertiser on that platform, but by the same period this year, its ranking had plummeted to 51st, with ad spending reduced by an eight-figure amount, a staggering 95% year-on-year drop.

This is not an isolated case. From January to May 2026, Temu's U.S. ad spending on YouTube and TikTok both fell by 74% year-on-year, dropped by 46% on Snapchat, and decreased by 10% on Instagram. In contrast, during the same period in 2025, Temu maintained tens of millions of dollars in spending on X, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, and reached millions of dollars on YouTube.

From the structural changes in the advertising budget, the shift in strategic focus can be seen more clearly.

In the first five months of this year, platform X's share of Temu's total U.S. ad budget dropped from 8% in the same period of 2025 to less than 1%, YouTube fell from 3% to 1%, TikTok decreased from 6% to 2%, and Snapchat declined from 8% to 5%.

Analysts noted that the contraction and reallocation of the budget coincide with the timeline of U.S. tariff policy adjustments and the termination of the "de minimis" rule. Previously, imported goods valued under $800 were exempt from tariffs and comprehensive customs inspections. The cancellation of this rule has directly increased Temu's fulfillment costs.

An analyst from eMarketer pointed out that Temu's U.S. strategy has shifted from pursuing top-of-funnel brand exposure and customer acquisition at all costs to a direction more focused on efficiency and user retention.

However, not all platforms felt the chill; Pinterest became an exception in this round of adjustments.

From January to May 2026, Temu's U.S. ad spending on Pinterest increased by 66% year-on-year, reaching a seven-figure scale. Currently, Pinterest accounts for 12% of Temu's total U.S. ad budget, double its share from the same period last year.

There is clear business logic behind this growth: compared to platforms leaning towards entertainment and social attributes, users of Pinterest—often dubbed the "American version of Xiaohongshu"—often actively search for and save products with stronger purchase intent, creating a shopping scenario closer to the bottom of the conversion funnel, which can more directly drive transactions.

If we look at Temu's overall advertising landscape, we find that while cutting experimental spending, resources are being highly concentrated towards the most stable core channels.

Statistics from Sensor Tower indicate that in the first five months of 2026, 75% of Temu's advertising budget in the U.S. market flowed to platforms under Meta, with Facebook alone taking 59% of the share, and Instagram accounting for 16%.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the significant cuts in ad spending, Temu's user base remains solid.

Monitoring by Apptopia shows that from January to May 2026, Temu's monthly downloads in the U.S. steadily remained between 5.5 million and 6.8 million times, a level largely consistent with the stabilization and recovery phase after the tariff impact and the termination of the de minimis rule. Sensor Tower also confirmed that during this period, the platform's monthly active users in the U.S. increased by 21% year-on-year.

In fact, Temu's advertising moves in the U.S. this year are largely a continuation of the basic strategy adopted after the 2025 tariff impact.

An earlier report from Sensor Tower detailed the characteristics of Temu's U.S. ad spending from April to December 2025. The results showed that although the platform gradually restored some advertising investment after the tariff war eased, the overall level remained far below that before the tariffs were implemented: by December 2025, Temu's share of total shopping ad spending in the U.S. was about 1%, significantly lower than the 2% before the tariffs were imposed.

At the same time, the advertising channel structure became more imbalanced: in the seven months before the tariffs were implemented, Meta platforms accounted for 65% of its U.S. ad spending; after the tariffs were implemented, this proportion rose to 78%—which also aligns closely with the latest 2026 data.

Amid widespread budget compression, the only channel that bucked the trend was mobile app advertising: in 2025, investment in this channel grew by 170%, accounting for 5% of the post-tariff ad mix.

Meanwhile, some of the marketing funds withdrawn from the U.S. market are continuously flowing to European markets with more predictable policy environments.

Data shows that from May to December 2025, Temu's ad spending increased by 84% in the Netherlands, 36% in France, 32% in Italy, and 28% in the UK. Market observers widely believe that this trend is likely continuing in 2026. Temu is reshaping its post-tariff growth map with a global advertising strategy of "contracting in one area while expanding in another."

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