Founders Bet on Social Media, Brand Owners Say Google Works: 2026 Survey Data
Ask a new clothing brand founder how they will find their first customers, and the answer is usually Instagram or TikTok. Ask brand owners who already sell what works best, and Google Search comes out on top. That gap is one of the clearest results of our 2026 Clothing Brand Survey.
In this article we zoom in on the marketing questions. We compare what 59 brand owners say works, what 37 founders plan to use and where 38 shoppers actually found a new brand. The numbers are interim results, collected up to 12 November 2026.
The Gap at a Glance
We asked each group about marketing channels in its own way. Brand owners named the channel with the highest return on investment. Founders named the channel they expect to drive their launch. Shoppers named the place where they last discovered a new clothing brand.
| Channel | Founders who plan to use it (n=37) | Owners with best ROI (n=59) | Shoppers who last found a brand there (n=38) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | 5% | 19% | 26% |
| Instagram (organic) | 30% | 17% | 13% |
| TikTok (organic) | 22% | 7% | 0% |
Three things stand out. Founders hardly plan to use Google, while owners and shoppers both point to it. Organic Instagram scores well in all three groups. TikTok is popular with founders, but much less so with owners, and no shopper named it.
What Brand Owners Say Works
Google Search was the channel brand owners named most often (19%), just ahead of organic Instagram (17%). Every other named channel stayed at 7% or lower. About a fifth of owners picked “Other”, so the top two are not the full story.
Among Profitable Brands
The pattern holds among the brands that make money. Of the 34 owners who said their brand is structurally profitable, 10 named Google Search and 10 named organic Instagram. Only 1 named organic TikTok. Among the 19 owners who earn more than €1,000 per month, Google Search and organic Instagram were tied again, at 6 each.
Among Established Brands
We also looked at the 34 brands that have been live for more than a year. Here, 7 named organic Instagram and 6 named Google Search. None of them named TikTok, organic or paid.
Notably, 10 of the 11 owners who named Google Search sell mainly through their own webshop. That makes sense, because search traffic needs a website to land on. Our guide to SEO for clothing brands explains how to build that foundation.
What New Founders Plan to Use
Founders who are about to launch have a very different plan. Organic Instagram (30%) and organic TikTok (22%) together account for more than half of all answers. Google Search was chosen by only 2 of the 37 founders.
| Expected main launch channel (n=37) | Founders | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram (organic) | 11 | 30% |
| TikTok (organic) | 8 | 22% |
| Pop-up shops and local events | 4 | 11% |
| Google Search | 2 | 5% |
| Instagram Ads | 2 | 5% |
| TikTok Ads | 2 | 5% |
| Influencers and creators | 2 | 5% |
| Other channels | 6 | 16% |
Age plays a role here. Of the 14 founders aged 18 to 24, 6 chose organic TikTok. Both founders who chose Google Search were 55 or older. Social media is a sensible place to start on a small budget, and our guide to organic social media marketing shows how to make it work. Still, it should not be the only plan.
Where Shoppers Actually Find New Brands
Shoppers give the most direct answer. We asked them where they last discovered a clothing brand that was new to them. Google Search came first with 26%, followed by organic Instagram with 13%. Instagram Ads, influencers and friends each reached 8%.
TikTok was one of the answer options, both organic and paid. Yet none of the 38 shoppers picked it. With a group this small, that does not mean nobody finds brands on TikTok. It does mean TikTok was not where this group last found one.
TikTok: Popular With Founders, Rare Among Established Brands
The TikTok numbers deserve a closer look. Only 4 brand owners named organic TikTok as their best channel. All 4 launched less than 6 months ago, and 3 of them had not made a sale yet. Among brands older than a year, nobody named TikTok.
That does not prove TikTok cannot work for clothing brands. It is young and fast moving, and the brands using it in our survey are young too. However, it does suggest that TikTok is a bet rather than a proven route for small brands. If you want to try it, our TikTok guide for clothing brands covers the basics.
Why Search Gets Overlooked
Our survey does not ask founders why they skip Google, so the following is our reading of the numbers. Search is slow. It often takes months before a page ranks, and a founder who wants to launch within 3 months (57% of our founders) wants faster results.
Search is also less visible. Social media shows likes and views right away, while search traffic grows quietly in the background. Yet that is exactly why it keeps working for brands that started early. Google’s own SEO Starter Guide is a good free place to start.
What This Means for Your Launch Plan
- Use social media for the launch. Organic Instagram scores well with owners, founders and shoppers alike.
- Start search early. Write pages that answer what your customers search for before they know your brand. It pays off months later, when your launch posts are long gone.
- Treat TikTok as a test. In our survey, no brand older than a year named it as its best channel.
- Own your traffic. Most owners who named Google sell through their own webshop, where search visitors can land and buy.
For a full overview of channels and what each one costs, read our guide on how to promote a clothing brand. Planning your first drop? Then how to launch a clothing brand is the next step.
More From the 2026 Survey
This article is part of the 2026 Clothing Brand Survey. More results from the same survey:
- How long it takes a clothing brand to become profitable
- What makes shoppers trust a new clothing brand
- Advice from brand owners for new founders
About This Data
These numbers come from the 2026 Clothing Brand Survey, an anonymous online survey on our site. Respondents chose to take part themselves, so the results are not representative of the whole fashion industry. Several groups in this article are small, so read the numbers as a direction rather than a rule. You can find the methodology, every table and the full questionnaire in the main 2026 results, and every edition on the Clothing Brand Survey page.
Frequently Asked Questions about Marketing Channels for Clothing Brands
In our 2026 Clothing Brand Survey, brand owners most often named Google Search (19%) and organic Instagram (17%) as the channel with the highest return on investment. Among profitable brands, both were named 10 times.
Rarely. Only 2 of the 37 founders in our survey planned to use Google Search as their main launch channel. More than half chose organic Instagram or TikTok.
It can, but our survey shows it is not yet a proven route. The 4 owners who named organic TikTok as their best channel all launched less than 6 months ago, and none of the 34 brands older than a year named it.
In our survey, 26% of shoppers last discovered a new clothing brand through Google Search and 13% through organic Instagram. None of them named TikTok.
