B2B digital ad spending growth is accelerating in 2026. Although mobile growth is slowing from its 2025 pace, mobile and video will still outpace overall B2B digital spending. Display’s share is expanding, while search remains important as AI changes how buyers research and validate vendors.

AI is rewriting the shopping journey, and marketers have to follow it. That means watching how brands show up in large language models (LLMs), and how they engage customers arriving through AI-driven searches. This is the “intelligence revolution.” “The intelligence age is gaining steam,” said Stephanie Paterik, vice president of insights at EMARKETER, in her keynote presentation at this week's Future of Digital Summit. “One billion weekly ChatGPT users worldwide is a number that OpenAI hit just this month. Sixty-nine percent of CEOs around the world tell us that AI is changing their business, not just how they send an email or craft, you know, a report, but how they are fundamentally operating.”

Lower CPCs and solid CVRs make the platform a cost-efficient complement to Google search.

AI is gaining influence over what consumers discover and consider long before it commands a meaningful share of the digital economy. But existing advantages in reaching consumers, earning trust, and driving transactions still matter.

This FAQ covers Meta's ad business scale, where the inventory is growing, and how advertisers should plan.

Retail media networks (RMNs) have built out social and creator offerings, but advertisers have not widely adopted them. To attract spend, RMNs must prove that their offer of better targeting and measurement outweighs the added cost and complexity.

Marketers need stronger thumbnails and branding as passive exposure declines.

Facebook turns to video, commerce, and creators as users pull back: Marketers should reassess its media role and experiment beyond legacy tactics.

The deal could set stricter expectations for age checks and outside oversight across social media and tech platforms.

Facebook’s massive reach still attracts ad dollars even as its usage growth stalls. Commerce, video, and automated advertising offer fresh opportunities, but it has weak appeal among creators and younger users.

This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their digital ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.​

This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their social media ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.​

Where Americans spend their time and where advertisers spend their money have come apart, and social media is the widest gap. Social platforms, particularly Meta, capture a disproportionate share of the nearly $500 billion US advertising market. "Over the last 12 months, we've seen a flurry of [media advertising] activity from outside the retail sector," said our analyst Ethan Cramer-Flood on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers."

ChatGPT and Gemini have emerged as the clear leaders in the genAI platform race. Their advantage in awareness, usage, and paid adoption is widening the gap with rivals and shaping where marketers should focus their attention.

TikTok’s next challenge is convincing its users that the platform is safe for payments.

The latest data reveals where digital markets are headed as genAI adoption scales toward 3 billion users worldwide and new leaders emerge in advertising, retail media, and ecommerce.

Three of the least likely scenarios in social media would also be the most disruptive: a regulatory ban on addictive feed design, a Facebook revival, and an AI chatbot building a $100 billion ad business. None of them is likely. Each one exposes a tension already at work, from how regulators treat engagement mechanics to how much advertising a chatbot can actually carry. "If the EU were to ban infinite scrolling, it seems pretty clear that that would significantly curtail the amount of time people spend watching these kinds of videos," said our analyst Max Willens on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers." Willens and two other analysts walked through three "what if" predictions on the episode.

Last November, we identified 11 trends we expected to shape the business landscape in 2026. Our Trends 2026 update reveals where expectations are holding, where surprises have emerged, and what businesses should watch through year-end.

UK advertisers aren’t just chasing attention, they’re looking for measurable outcomes. Some channels thus attract oversized ad investments, while others remain undervalued. That’s not to say spending is perfectly aligned with time spent with media.

70% of US social buyers have made a purchase on TikTok in the past 12 months, more than on any other social platform, according to an April survey from Bazaarvoice and EMARKETER.