Global Ad Spend Forecast: Q3 2026.
WARC's latest quarterly outlook raises its view of the 2026 global ad market to more than $1.3 trillion. Social, search and retail media lead growth, AI is the main driver, and three platform owners now take close to 60% of spend outside China.
By WARC Media · Oct 7, 2026
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WARC's latest quarterly outlook raises its view of the 2026 global ad market to more than $1.3 trillion. Social, search and retail media lead growth, AI is the main driver, and three platform owners now take close to 60% of spend outside China.
Key findings
- WARC expects global ad investment to rise 11.9% in 2026 to about $1.34 trillion, after 10% growth in both 2024 and 2025.
- Social media is the fastest-growing channel, up 21.3% to $394.6bn, and is on track to pass $500bn by 2028.
- Search is forecast to grow 14.2% to $295.7bn, and retail media 14.3% to $202.1bn.
- Alphabet, Amazon and Meta together take 59.7% of global ad spend outside China ($659.6bn), a share projected to reach 61.5% by 2028.
- Growth is expected to slow to 8.4% in 2027 ($1.46trn) and 7.9% in 2028 ($1.57trn). Tech and electronics is the fastest-growing advertiser category (+20.7%).
Why it matters
Budget holders can use these channel growth rates to judge whether their social, search and retail media mix keeps pace with where the market is heading.
About this report
Published by WARC Media, 2026-10-07. Paid report. Get the full report from WARC Media