The news: US advertising, marketing, and data spending is projected to reach $664.2 billion in 2026, up 9.4% YoY, per Winterberry.

• Growth is aided by near-term catalysts, including the World Cup, Winter Olympics, and US midterm elections, which Winterberry estimates will add more than $10 billion in incremental spend.
• Digital continues to take share from offline channels: Online marketing rose from 56.4% of total spend in 2022 to 65.1% in 2025, while linear TV, radio, print, and direct mail each declined more than 3% YoY, according to Winterberry.

How our forecasts compare: EMARKETER forecasts show digital ad spending still rising in absolute dollars through 2029 (up 7.9% in 2026), but with steadily slowing growth rates across formats such as programmatic display (up 12.5%, down from 13.6% last year) and social (up 15.6%, down from 18.4% last year).