139 Advertising Statistics October 2026

Advertising statistics for 2026 show an industry that is growing faster than the economy around it while the people it targets keep pulling away. Worldwide ad spend is forecast to reach $1.06 trillion this year, after passing $1 trillion in 2025, a year earlier than predicted (Dentsu, May 2026). In the same months, the audience has found ways out: ad blockers, subscriptions, assistants that answer without a click.

The page covers ad spend by region and medium, what the large platforms and ad tech companies earned, how television, radio, outdoor and print are holding up, what people think of ads, how much money fraud and unsafe placements waste, and how privacy rules, competition cases and AI are changing targeting. Each figure links to the company, regulator or research team that produced it and carries the date of its data. Vendor research is labelled as vendor research, and company-reported results are labelled as company-reported.

How much is spent on advertising worldwide, and where is it growing fastest?

Ad money is still rising faster than the economies it sells into, and nearly all of the growth is digital. All regions are growing, at different speeds.

How large is global ad spend in 2026?

Large enough to pass the $1 trillion mark, with digital taking more than two thirds of it.

• Dentsu expects global ad spend to grow 5.0% in 2026 across the 56 markets it tracks, against 3.1% growth in the world economy forecast by the IMF (Dentsu, May 2026).
• Digital accounts for 69% of that spend, Dentsu says (Dentsu, May 2026).
• WPP Media projects advertising that runs inside content, such as video, audio and publishing, to earn $720.2 billion in 2026, with its share of total ad revenue set to fall by 2031 (WPP Media, Jun 2026).
• WPP Media says global ad revenue is on course for its highest share of GDP since 1999, passing the dot-com peak of 2000 (WPP Media, Jun 2026).
• US media buyers surveyed by IAB expect ad spend to grow 9.5% in 2026, after 5.7% in 2025 (IAB, Jan 2026).
• Without the midterm elections, the Olympics and the World Cup, those buyers see 2026 growth of 7.1% to 7.8% (IAB, Jan 2026).

Which media are growing fastest and slowest?

Connected TV, retail media and video lead, linear TV is flat and search is slowing.

• Connected TV is forecast to grow 11.5% in 2026 and digital video 8.7% (Dentsu, May 2026).
• Linear TV is forecast to stay flat at 0.0% growth in 2026 (Dentsu, May 2026).
• Retail media is forecast to grow 12.3% in 2026 and 11.4% in 2027, which Dentsu reads as a move toward commerce-led media (Dentsu, May 2026).
• Search growth moderates to 3.4% in 2026 as AI, retail and social search compete with traditional search (Dentsu, May 2026).
• US buyers expect commerce media to grow 12.1% in 2026, nearly 30% faster than the overall ad market (IAB, Jan 2026).

For what search clicks cost, see PPC statistics.

How big is the European digital ad market?

Big and still growing at double digits, with video, social and retail media doing most of the work.

• Video advertising grew 19.6% to €34.0 billion in 2025, and for the first time accounts for more than half of display investment (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Social advertising grew 19.2% to €35.5 billion, led by social video, which grew 25.7% (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Retail media grew 16.7% to €13.3 billion and passed 10% of European digital ad spend for the first time (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Retail search is now 17.8% of all search ad revenue, up from 16.3% in 2024, and grew nearly three times as fast as standard search (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Search holds 35.2% of digital ad spend and social 27.1%, up from 25.1% in 2024 (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Programmatic display spend grew 10.9% in 2025, while non-programmatic display grew 1.5% (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).
• Digital grew 17.0 percentage points faster than traditional media in 2025, against 13.7 points in 2024, and its share of the measured ad market reached 70% (IAB Europe, Jul 2026).

How is Japan's ad market changing?

It is setting records, and the growth sits in video and online shopping rather than in the media that built the market.

• Total advertising expenditure in Japan grew 5.1% in 2025 to 8,062.3 billion yen, the fourth record year in a row (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).
• Internet media costs grew 11.8% to 3,309.3 billion yen, and production costs for internet ads rose 4.0% to 492.2 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).
• Video advertising tied to television media grew 23.3% to 80.5 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).
• Ads on merchandise e-commerce platforms grew 12.5% to 244.4 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).
• Traditional media advertising (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) fell 1.6% to 2,298.0 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).
• Advertising expenditure equalled 1.22% of Japan's nominal GDP in 2025 (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).

Which platforms and ad tech companies are gaining or losing ad revenue?

Quarterly filings are the cleanest read on the market, and the second quarter of 2026 split it in two. Platforms with their own audiences and data grew by double digits, while the open web and the ad tech that serves it grew slowly or shrank.

How fast are the large social platforms growing?

Fast, and Meta shows why: it shows more ads and charges more for each.

• Ad impressions across Meta's apps grew 14% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 (Meta, Jul 2026).
• The average price per ad rose 12% (Meta, Jul 2026).
• By user location, Meta's total revenue grew 32% in the US and Canada and 24% in Europe in the quarter, despite the pressure from EU rules (Meta Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• Meta's revenue grew 19% in Asia-Pacific and 36% in the rest of the world (Meta Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• Reddit's advertising revenue grew 64% to $762 million, driven by pricing and impressions (Reddit, Jul 2026).
• Pinterest's revenue grew 18% to $1,180 million (Pinterest, Aug 2026).
• Snap's revenue grew 19% to $1,599 million (Snap, Aug 2026).

How are streaming, shopping and in-app ads performing?

Ads sold next to purchases and viewing are growing, while advertising for local services is not.

• Roku's advertising revenue grew 25% to $673 million, and its advertising gross margin rose to 62.4% (Roku, Aug 2026).
• eBay's first-party advertising revenue grew 25% to $570 million (eBay, Aug 2026).
• Instacart's advertising and other revenue grew 16% to $297 million, equal to 2.9% of gross transaction value (Instacart, Aug 2026).
• AppLovin's revenue grew 53% to $1,924 million in the quarter (AppLovin, Aug 2026).
• Yelp's advertising revenue fell 3% year over year, and revenue from services advertisers was flat at $241 million (Yelp, Aug 2026).
• Advertising revenue from restaurants, retail and other businesses fell 10% at Yelp, on fewer ad clicks and lower cost per click (Yelp, Aug 2026).

For video ad spend in the US and UK, see video marketing statistics.

How are ad tech and verification companies doing?

Growth is concentrated in connected TV, while search-style and open-web ad tech lost ground.

• The Trade Desk's revenue grew 3% to $715 million, against 19% growth in the second quarter of 2025 (The Trade Desk, Aug 2026).
• Magnite's connected TV contribution ex-TAC grew 36% to $97.1 million, against 2% growth for DV+, its other reporting line (Magnite, Aug 2026).
• Criteo's revenue fell 11% to $428 million, and its contribution ex-TAC fell 13% (Criteo, Aug 2026).
• Criteo's media spend was $1.1 billion in the quarter, up 9% at constant currency (Criteo, Aug 2026).
• Taboola's revenue grew 2.4% to $476.8 million, while its gross profit after traffic costs grew 11.8% (Taboola, Aug 2026).
• DoubleVerify's revenue grew 3% to $193.8 million (DoubleVerify, Aug 2026).

Are television, radio, outdoor and print ads still growing?

They are growing when something special happens: a World Cup, an election, a new streaming tier. Take out the events and the underlying trend in linear TV, radio and print is down.

How are TV networks and streamers selling ads?

Big live events lifted the networks in the second quarter of 2026, and streaming ad revenue grew where supply is still tight.

• Comcast's domestic advertising revenue rose 55.0% to $2,163 million in the second quarter of 2026, and 23.5% to $1,723 million excluding the FIFA World Cup (Comcast, Jul 2026).
• Fox's advertising revenue rose 78% in its quarter to June 2026, mainly from the World Cup broadcast and growth at its Tubi streaming service (Fox Corporation, Aug 2026).
• Disney's Entertainment advertising revenue fell 1% to $1,625 million in its fiscal third quarter, with rates down 4% and impressions up 1% (Disney, Aug 2026).
• Disney's subscription video ad revenue rose 3%, which it called a softer demand environment against growing supply (Disney, Aug 2026).
• Paramount's TV Media advertising revenue fell 14%, including about eight points from lapping last year's NCAA Final Four and Championship games (Paramount Skydance, Aug 2026).
• Ad revenue at Paramount+ grew more than 30% in the quarter (Paramount Skydance, Aug 2026).
• Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming advertising revenue grew 8% excluding currency effects, on more subscribers to its ad-lite plans (Warner Bros. Discovery, Aug 2026).
• E.W. Scripps took a $1.1 billion non-cash impairment on its networks business, citing a weak national advertising market among other pressures (E.W. Scripps, Aug 2026).

How much does an election year add to local TV?

A lot, and it hides weak core demand. Stations booked record political money while the rest of their advertising slipped.

• AdImpact's forecast for the 2023-2024 cycle was $10.7 billion and the actual total was $11.2 billion, so its projections have landed within 5%; its earlier forecast for 2025-2026 was $10.8 billion (AdImpact, Jun 2026).
• Gray Media booked $83 million of political advertising in the second quarter of 2026, against $9 million a year earlier and $90 million in the 2022 cycle (Gray Media, Aug 2026).
• Gray's core advertising revenue fell 1% to $357 million (Gray Media, Aug 2026).
• Sinclair raised its 2026 political guidance from at least $333 million to at least $375 million (Sinclair, Aug 2026).
• Scripps' local stations booked a quarterly record of $28 million in political revenue, while their core advertising fell 8.7% to $125 million (E.W. Scripps, Aug 2026).
• Charter's advertising sales rose 12.3% to $416 million on political spending, but fell 4.6% without it (Charter Communications, Jul 2026).

How are radio, audio and outdoor ads holding up?

Broadcast radio is shrinking, digital audio and billboards are growing, and the outdoor companies say programmatic buying is lifting yield.

• iHeartMedia's podcast revenue grew 21% to $162 million, while its broadcast-led Multiplatform Group revenue fell 2% to $536 million (iHeartMedia, Aug 2026).
• Spotify's ad-supported revenue rose 1% to €446 million, and fell to 9% of total revenue from 10% (Spotify, Aug 2026).
• Spotify's automated sales channels added €75 million while its direct channel lost €66 million (Spotify, Aug 2026).
• Townsquare Media's digital advertising grew 11.0%, while its broadcast advertising fell 5.5% (Townsquare Media, Aug 2026).
• Outfront Media's billboard revenue grew 8.0% to $379.4 million, on higher revenue per display, including from programmatic sales (Outfront Media, Aug 2026).
• Lamar's net revenues grew 6.5% to $616.7 million (Lamar Advertising, Aug 2026).
• Digital revenue at Clear Channel Outdoor's airport business grew 15.6% to $73.4 million (Clear Channel Outdoor, Aug 2026).
• In Japan, outdoor advertising grew 5.3% to 304.2 billion yen and transit advertising 8.6% to 173.6 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).

What is happening to print and direct mail?

Print is shrinking, direct mail is shrinking more slowly in the US than in Japan, and publishers are leaning on digital.

• The New York Times' print advertising revenue fell 11.1% to $35.2 million, while its digital advertising rose 20.7% to $114.0 million (The New York Times Company, Aug 2026).
• Dow Jones grew digital advertising 10% in its quarter to June 2026 while print fell 6%, and digital is now 69% of its advertising, up from 65% (News Corp, Aug 2026).
• Digital revenues were 47.4% of USA TODAY Co.'s $536.3 million total in the second quarter (USA TODAY Co., Aug 2026).
• The US Postal Service delivered 56.8 billion pieces of marketing mail in fiscal 2025 (USPS, May 2026).
• In Japan, newspaper advertising fell 8.2% to 313.6 billion yen and direct mail 5.4% to 270.8 billion yen (Dentsu Japan, Mar 2026).

Which ads work, and what do people think of them?

People complain about ads a little less than last year, and still say they are the most frustrating part of being online. Ads that combine formats or earn a smile perform better, so effectiveness depends on craft as much as on the channel.

How do consumers feel about being advertised to?

Frustrated. Ads outrank security and privacy as the top annoyance online, and many people say they would buy less because of them.

• 73% of US desktop users called online ads frustrating, ahead of lack of security at 65% and lack of privacy at 64%, and 79% of mobile users did, in a poll run for vendor eyeo (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).
• 89% of those surveyed wished there were limits on the number or disruptiveness of ads, yet 84% believed a fair balance between ads and free content is possible (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).
• Mobile gaming ads were the most commonly cited frustrating ad type, at 25%, and asked to pick one in-game ad type, 55% chose automatic video ads (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).
• 61% said they were less likely to buy a product when repeated ads interrupted their viewing (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).
• 43% were very or extremely likely to switch browsers for stronger ad blocking, and 85% counting those who were somewhat likely (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).
• Gallup finds advertising practitioners among eight professions whose ethics ratings from US adults are statistically close to record lows (Gallup, Jan 2026).
• Kantar finds campaigns land around seven times harder with receptive audiences (Kantar, Oct 2026).

Which formats and channel mixes lift recall?

Combinations, humour and honesty. The evidence is a mix of controlled tests and survey answers, so it shows direction and promises nothing.

• Overall awareness rose 12 points against a control group in the Nielsen and Katz test, and reached 32% for people exposed to both formats, against 16% for the control group (Nielsen and Katz Digital, Sep 2026).
• 56% of US weekly podcast listeners said an ad that makes them laugh makes them much more likely to pay attention (Edison Research, Jun 2026).
• 52% said the same of an honest and transparent ad (Edison Research, Jun 2026).
• 51% said it of an ad that is unique and different (Edison Research, Jun 2026).
• European marketers rate out-of-home as the most effective traditional channel, at 51% (Nielsen, Jul 2025).

Where do marketers place their trust and budgets?

Marketers are cutting in some regions, doubting their own media mix everywhere and trusting measurement over reach.

• 60% of European marketers said they were reducing ad spend in 2025, the highest of any region and above the 54% global average (Nielsen, Jul 2025).
• Only 23% of European marketers measure digital and traditional media together, the lowest share of any region (Nielsen, Jul 2025).
• Four in ten marketers doubt they are getting the basics of the media mix right, such as integrating channels and tailoring creative (Kantar, Oct 2026).
• Eight in ten consumers are exposed to ads on Google, which tops Kantar's global ranking of media brands by consumer preference and reach (Kantar, Oct 2026).
• AI assistants rank 20th out of 27 as an advertising channel on Kantar's ad equity measure (Kantar, Oct 2026).

How many people block ads, and what do fraud and unsafe placements cost?

Ad blocking is no longer a niche habit, and the industry's own fraud and safety numbers show how much of the system depends on trusted channels.

How many people use ad blockers?

More than a billion, and growth now comes from phones in lower-income countries.

• Mobile ad-blocking users grew 27% since 2023 to an estimated 629 million, while desktop users fell 4% to 448 million (eyeo, May 2026).
• Ad-blocking users in low- and middle-income countries grew 23% since 2023, offsetting a 14% decline in higher-income countries (eyeo, May 2026).
• Acceptable Ads, a standard for non-intrusive ad formats, has more than 400 million users, and 96% of them have it enabled (eyeo, May 2026).
• eyeo's country table puts the 2025 ad-block rate at 33% in the US and 27% in the UK (eyeo, May 2026).
• The same table shows 41% in Indonesia and 15% in Japan (eyeo, May 2026).
• 73% of ad-block users say they would be at least somewhat likely to create an account or log in for written content, against 62% of non-users (eyeo, May 2026).
• Forced banner ads cut ad-block users' time on a page by 10% to 20% (eyeo, May 2026).

How much money does invalid traffic waste?

Less than it would without industry programmes, but still a lot. Industry bodies measure fraud inside the channels they certify, so these numbers are best read as floors.

• Without anti-fraud programmes, Europe's invalid traffic rate would have been about 10.36% in 2023, a potential loss of about €5 billion (TAG Europe, Jun 2025).
• Actual invalid traffic losses were €1.558 billion, 69% lower than the unfiltered figure (TAG Europe, Jun 2025).
• In channels with TAG protections, which carried 76% of European ad spend, losses were €368 million, 1% of spend (TAG Europe, Jun 2025).
• Extending the same standards to the remaining 24% of spend could save a further €1.075 billion a year (TAG Europe, Jun 2025).
• Invalid traffic stayed under 1% in TAG Certified Channels in the US for the fourth year running (TAG US, Oct 2024).
• TAG and The 614 Group estimate US industry programmes saved advertisers $10.8 billion in 2023 (TAG US, Oct 2024).
• The volume of impressions in TAG Certified Channels grew 114-fold between 2017 and 2024, from 6.5 billion to 745 billion (TAG US, Oct 2024).

How safe are the sites where ads run?

Mostly safe in certified channels, and much less safe on a few kinds of inventory.

• Mobile web display carries 45% of impressions but 72% of made-for-advertising cases and 55% of brand suitability failures, vendor Integral Ad Science finds (Integral Ad Science, Jul 2026).
• Video beat display on viewability by 11.8 percentage points (Integral Ad Science, Jul 2026).
• 99.1% of ad spend occurs in low-risk environments, according to TAG's 2025 impact report (TAG Impact Report, Feb 2026).
• TAG's malvertising threat exchange increased sharing of high-value intelligence by 82% in a year (TAG Impact Report, Feb 2026).
• TAG had more than 434 member companies by early 2026 (TAG Impact Report, Feb 2026).
• Nielsen agreed to buy DoubleVerify, the verification firm, for an enterprise value of about $2.15 billion, or $13.60 a share (Nielsen and DoubleVerify, Aug 2026).

How do regulators, privacy rules and AI change ad targeting?

Rules and lawsuits are rewriting what ad platforms may collect and who may sell the ads, while AI is taking over buying and creative. Both change how much each ad costs and who gets paid for it.

How do regulators police ads?

More and more by machine. The UK regulator scans ads at a scale no complaints system could reach.

• The ASA and CAP got 22,383 ads amended or removed in 2025 (ASA and CAP, Apr 2026).
• Nearly 60 million online ads were scanned by the ASA's AI-driven Active Ad Monitoring system (ASA and CAP, Apr 2026).
• The ASA resolved more than 40,000 complaints, overwhelmingly from the public (ASA and CAP, Apr 2026).
• Around 57% of influencer ads complied with disclosure rules, up from 35% in 2021, though 34% of reviewed posts had no disclosure at all (ASA and CAP, Apr 2026).
• 96% of online alcohol ads appeared compliant, but 48% of alcohol-free ads assessed raised potential compliance issues (ASA and CAP, Apr 2026).
• The European Commission fined X €120 million in December 2025 for breaches of the Digital Services Act that included an ad repository too poor to be searched by researchers (European Commission, Dec 2025).

How have privacy rules and competition cases changed targeting?

They have changed the products platforms are allowed to sell, and the courts have not finished.

• Meta launched less personalized ads in the EU in November 2024 and has since changed them again, and it warns that further changes could mean a significant impact to its European business and revenue (Meta Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• As of Alphabet's July 2026 filing, a US court had not issued a final judgment in the Google ad tech remedies case after closing arguments in November 2025, and Google says the Justice Department's proposal of structural remedies could materially harm its business (Alphabet Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• Teads sued Google and Alphabet for damages in August 2026, citing the April 2025 ruling that Google unlawfully monopolised publisher ad servers and ad exchanges (Teads, Aug 2026).
• Google paid $5.2 billion in July 2026 for the Android fine after the European Court of Justice denied its appeal, making the decision final (Alphabet Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• A US final judgment in the Google search case in December 2025 requires the company to share certain search data with competitors, and both sides have appealed (Alphabet Form 10-Q, Jul 2026).
• 81% of US adults polled for eyeo were concerned about devices recording browsing history for targeted ads (eyeo, May 2026).
• 77% of those polled in 2024 were concerned about devices monitoring their conversations for targeting (eyeo and The Harris Poll, Nov 2024).

How is AI changing ad buying and the web that ads pay for?

It is taking over the buying, and platforms report better results from it. At the same time, AI answers are taking visits away from the publishers who sell ad space.

• Dentsu forecasts that 75% of ad spend will be algorithm driven by 2028, meaning algorithms are significantly involved in the buying decision (Dentsu, May 2026).
• Snap says its AI-powered campaign tools are improving results: app advertisers' cost per install fell 8%, cost per purchase fell 18% and purchase volume rose 128%, company-reported (Snap prepared remarks, Aug 2026).
• Snap's Dynamic Product Ads revenue grew 43% (Snap prepared remarks, Aug 2026).
• Reddit says machine-learning upgrades lifted click-through rates by more than 40% year over year, company-reported (Reddit, Jul 2026).
• Reddit says enhanced models increased six-second video view-through rates by 130% and completion rates by 71% (Reddit, Jul 2026).
• Orders placed with Instacart's pilot AI assistant are on average larger than its $115 average order value (Instacart, Aug 2026).

For how AI tools are used inside marketing teams, see AI marketing statistics.

Methodology and Sources

Every number on this page links to the organisation that produced it: company filings and earnings releases (Meta, Alphabet, Disney, Comcast and others), regulators (the European Commission, the UK ASA and CAP), industry bodies (IAB, IAB Europe, TAG), the US Postal Service, forecasters (Dentsu, WPP Media, AdImpact) and research firms that ran the study (Kantar, Nielsen, Gallup, Edison Research). Vendor studies are labelled where they appear: eyeo (which makes ad-blocking software) and Integral Ad Science (which sells ad verification). Platform results on AI campaign tools are company-reported. The eyeo and Harris Poll consumer survey dates from August 2024 and is the oldest source used. Forecasts name their forecaster, and forecasts from different firms differ because they define advertising differently. No figure was taken from a statistics roundup. Each URL was opened and the number checked on the page or in the report itself. The page is reviewed monthly and the update date at the top changes only when figures have been re-checked.

Sources

• Dentsu
• Dentsu Japan
• IAB Europe
• Meta
• Netflix
• Warner Bros. Discovery
• AdImpact
• Nielsen and Katz Digital
• Kantar
• eyeo
• TAG Europe
• Meta Form 10-Q
• People Inc.
• WPP Media
• WPP Media
• IAB
• Reddit
• Pinterest
• Snap
• Roku
• eBay
• Instacart
• AppLovin
• Yelp
• The Trade Desk
• Magnite
• Criteo
• Taboola
• DoubleVerify
• Comcast
• Fox Corporation
• Disney
• Paramount Skydance
• E.W. Scripps
• Gray Media
• Sinclair
• Charter Communications
• iHeartMedia
• Spotify
• Townsquare Media
• Outfront Media
• Lamar Advertising
• Clear Channel Outdoor
• The New York Times Company
• News Corp
• USA TODAY Co.
• USPS
• eyeo and The Harris Poll
• Gallup
• Edison Research
• Nielsen
• TAG US
• Integral Ad Science
• TAG Impact Report
• Nielsen and DoubleVerify
• ASA and CAP
• European Commission
• Alphabet Form 10-Q
• Teads
• Snap prepared remarks

Glossary

• CTV: connected TV, television delivered over the internet to a TV set.
• Ex-TAC: after traffic acquisition costs, what an ad tech company keeps after paying publishers.
• DMA: the EU Digital Markets Act, which sets rules for the largest online platforms.
• DSA: the EU Digital Services Act, which sets transparency duties for online platforms.
• IVT: invalid traffic, ad views or clicks from bots, fraud or accidental activity.
• MFA: made-for-advertising sites, built mainly to carry ads rather than useful content.
• Programmatic: ad space bought and sold automatically in real-time auctions.
• Retail media: ads sold by retailers on their own sites, apps or data.
• Acceptable Ads: a standard for non-intrusive ad formats that some ad blockers allow through.
• Political advertising: ads bought by candidates, parties and campaign groups, which peak in election years.
• ASA and CAP: the UK Advertising Standards Authority and the Committee of Advertising Practice, the UK's ad regulators.