Ad spending will surge in 2026 as AI-driven gains and a packed events calendar offset mounting economic strain. Social will lead the way as Meta overtakes Google in net revenues and the wider ad industry closes in on the half-trillion-dollar milestone.

Snapchat’s young audience and distinct ad products keep it relevant, even as usage slips and regulatory pressure builds. Marketers should use it with strategies built for messaging, creators, and commerce.

Social platforms want a bigger role in search ad budgets, but user habits lag behind. As search expands beyond traditional engines, these platforms must turn occasional behavior into intent-driven activity to grab ad dollars.

Social media is emerging as a key growth channel for retail media networks (RMNs) as they expand beyond their owned properties.

Pinterest's new Promote a Pin turns posts into ads via mobile, pairing AI tips with real-time data to ease entry.

US adults will spend slightly more time on social networks this year, but social’s share of digital media time is slipping as streaming video surges.

Our exclusive survey data examines the path to purchase across six markets in Latin America as digital marketplaces, social commerce, and AI reshape shopping behavior.

Reddit has surged in recent years, fueled in part by Google search referrals. But the platform’s unique attributes mean marketers must take a more bespoke, labor-intensive approach.

Snapchat+ hits 25 million subscribers as its ad growth stalls.

Media habits keep evolving as digital gains ground faster than traditional declines. Video is absorbing more attention, screens are doing more of the work, and the central battle is for a share of limited consumer time.

Automation is now table stakes in social advertising. Platforms are pushing AI-driven campaigns at scale. But advertisers still demand control, transparency, and brand safety—and it’s all reshaping how performance media gets bought.

This FAQ examines how shoppable media works, where consumers engage with it, and how marketers should evaluate these emerging formats.

37.2% of US adults say they're most likely to shop via Instagram, making it the top social commerce platform, ahead of TikTok (30.5%), according to a September 2025 survey from Power Digital Marketing.

Pinterest’s AI pivot looks defensive: Workforce cuts aim to fund automation, but investors remain unconvinced that AI investment alone will restore growth momentum.

For the past several years, commerce media has been defined by proliferation: New networks, new formats, new acronyms. As the category heads into 2026, industry leaders agree that growth alone is no longer the story. What matters now is connection: Across channels, across data, and across the full customer journey.

Pinterest shifts to yield; its leadership change reinforces focus on performance, commerce, and higher ARPU.

This FAQ explains how data clean rooms have become essential infrastructure for retail media, enabling privacy-safe data collaboration, closed-loop measurement, and proof of performance as ad spend grows and marketers demand greater accountability.

OpenAI seeks real consumer intent, and a potential Pinterest acquisition would give OpenAI first-party shopping signals and native ad infrastructure to rival Google and Meta.

In a year marked by platform volatility, AI acceleration, tariff shocks, and shifting consumer behavior, marketers searched for clarity across EMARKETER’s most-read topics. The top 10 themes reflect where advertiser attention truly moved in 2025. These trends captured the forces reshaping performance, discovery, and measurement: AI-driven optimization, creator-centric social ecosystems, commerce-led advertising, and CTV’s rise as the new premium video default. Together, they tell the story of a market recalibrating around efficiency, accountability, and cultural relevance as marketers prepared their 2026 strategies.

"The retail media landscape is only becoming more crowded, but Target's guest insights are often cited as a key differentiator," said our analyst Sarah Marzano during EMARKETER's recent Commerce Media Summit.