US companies spent a record $294.6 billion on digital advertising in 2025, up 13.9%, and the IAB now forecasts 12.3% growth in total US ad spend for 2026. Marketing budgets at large companies sit at 7.8% of revenue in 2026, with 31.4% of those budgets going to paid media and 15.3% going to AI.
US Companies Spending on Digital Marketing 2026 – Introduction
How much do US companies spend on digital marketing? The best answer comes from two sets of numbers. The IAB and PwC count what advertisers paid to platforms and publishers: $294.6 billion in 2025, the highest total in the 30-year history of their report. Gartner and The CMO Survey count what companies set aside inside their own budgets: about 7.8% to 9.0% of revenue for all marketing.
The two views fit together. Total ad revenue keeps rising because social, video and commerce media take more of each dollar. Company budgets stay flat because finance teams hold marketing to a fixed share of sales. Each figure carries a date and a named source. Where a number is a forecast, the text says so, and where two sources disagree, the text shows both. This report sets out both sides with dated 2026 figures: ad revenue by quarter and channel, budget share of revenue, where the money goes inside the budget, and what advertisers plan to do next.
Interesting Facts – Digital Marketing Spendings 2026
Budget rates, percent
Marketing budget, % of revenue (Gartner) | ████████ 7.8
Marketing budget, % of revenue (CMO Survey)| █████████ 9.0
Budget share going to AI | ███████████████ 15.3
Budget share in martech | ███████████████████ 19.4
Budget share in paid media | ███████████████████████████████ 31.4
| Fact | 2026 Data |
|---|---|
| US digital ad revenue, 2025 | $294.6 billion, up 13.9% |
| IAB 2026 US ad spend forecast | 12.3% growth, raised from 9.5% in January |
| Social ad revenue, 2025 | $117.7 billion |
| Search ad revenue, 2025 | $114.2 billion |
| Programmatic ad spend, 2025 | $162.4 billion |
| Creator ad spend | $37 billion in 2025; $44 billion projected for 2026 |
| Marketing budget, Gartner | 7.8% of company revenue |
| Marketing budget, The CMO Survey | 9.0% of company revenue |
| Budget share to AI | 15.3% on average |
| Marketing leaders ready to scale AI | 30% |
| Top buyer goal for media spend | Customer acquisition, cited by 63% |
| Buyers changing AI-era measurement | 86% within 12 months |
| Top buyer challenge | Adapting to AI-driven search, cited by 44% |
Source: IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Full Year 2025 (April 2026); IAB 2026 Outlook Study, September Update; Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (May 2026); The CMO Survey, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, Deloitte and the American Marketing Association (Spring 2026).
The table answers the headline question in two ways. The IAB numbers track money that reached advertising platforms, so they show the market’s scale: $294.6 billion in 2025, with social at $117.7 billion and search at $114.2 billion. Programmatic buying, which is automated, reached $162.4 billion. Creator advertising is the smallest line here, but it is growing fastest, from $37 billion to a projected $44 billion. IAB’s figures measure revenue earned by ad sellers, so they capture what advertisers paid out, not what each company reported in its own books.
The Gartner and CMO Survey rows show how companies budget. Gartner puts marketing at 7.8% of revenue and The CMO Survey puts it at 9.0%. The gap comes from the samples: Gartner polled 401 leaders, mostly at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue. The 15.3% AI share and the 30% readiness figure show that companies are spending on AI faster than they are learning to use it. Read the two layers together: the first shows the size of the market, and the second shows the limits inside each company.
US Digital Advertising Spend 2026: Quarterly Revenue From the IAB and PwC Report
US digital ad revenue by quarter, 2025, $ billions
Q1 2025 | █████████████ 65.0
Q2 2025 | ██████████████ 70.0
Q3 2025 | ███████████████ 74.5
Q4 2025 | █████████████████ 85.0
| Quarter | Revenue ($ billions) | Year-over-Year Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | $65.0 | 12% |
| Q2 2025 | $70.0 | 13% |
| Q3 2025 | $74.5 | 15% |
| Q4 2025 | $85.0 | 15% |
| Full year 2025 | $294.6 | 13.9% |
Source: IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Full Year 2025 (April 2026).
Revenue climbed every quarter. Q1 brought in $65.0 billion, Q2 $70.0 billion, Q3 $74.5 billion and Q4 $85.0 billion. Q4 beat Q1 by about 30.7%, and it carried 28.9% of the full-year total because holiday shopping pulls ad dollars into the last three months and auction prices rise when many advertisers compete for the same shoppers. The four quarters add up to $294.6 billion. IAB points out that 2025 had no Olympics, World Cup or election to lift spending, so the growth came from steady demand.
Growth also sped up. Year-over-year growth started at 12% in Q1, rose to 13% in Q2 and reached 15% in both Q3 and Q4. The full-year rate of 13.9% sits between those marks. For a company planning 2026 spend, the lesson is simple: platform prices and volumes rose through the year, so a flat budget buys less reach in Q4 than in Q1. A finance team that budgets by quarter should plan for the fourth quarter to cost more per unit of reach. IAB’s September update raised the 2026 forecast to 12.3% after a strong first half with the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.
US Digital Ad Spend by Channel 2026: Social, Search, Video and Commerce Media
2025 US digital ad revenue by category, $ billions
Social | ████████████████████████ 117.7
Search | ███████████████████████ 114.2
Display | ████████████████ 81.6
Digital video | ████████████████ 78.0
Commerce media | █████████████ 63.4
Podcast | ░ 2.9
| Channel | 2025 Revenue | Growth | Share of Digital Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social | $117.7 billion | 32.6% | 40.0% |
| Search | $114.2 billion | 11.0% | 38.8% |
| Display | $81.6 billion | 9.8% | 27.7% |
| Digital video | $78.0 billion | 25.4% | 26.5% |
| Commerce media | $63.4 billion | 18.0% | 21.5% |
| Podcast | $2.9 billion | 17.6% | 1.0% |
Source: IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Full Year 2025 (April 2026).
Social took the top spot at $117.7 billion, a gain of $29.0 billion, or 32.6%, in one year. Search stayed close at $114.2 billion, but its growth slowed to 11% from 15.9% in 2024. Together social and search hold about 78.8% of the total. The shares add up to more than 100% because the IAB counts channels like video and commerce media across platforms, so one dollar can appear in two rows. Read each share on its own, not as a slice of one pie. Treat the shares as a ranking, not a split of a whole.
Video grew 25.4% to $78.0 billion, up from 19.2% the year before, so it is still pulling in a rising share of new money. Commerce media, which is advertising inside retail sites and apps, grew 18.0% to $63.4 billion on first-party shopper data. Display grew 9.8% to $81.6 billion, the slowest of the large channels. Podcast is tiny at $2.9 billion but grew 17.6%. The picture is clear: companies move budget toward channels where they can tie spend to sales. For a US company, the practical read is that search is a mature channel with steady demand, while social is the growth channel with rising prices.
US Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue 2026: Gartner and The CMO Survey
Marketing budget as % of company revenue
Gartner 2025 average | ███████████████ 7.7
Gartner 2026 average | ████████████████ 7.8
Gartner AI-ready companies | ██████████████████ 8.9
CMO Survey, % of revenue | ██████████████████ 9.0
CMO Survey, % of company budget| ███████████████████ 9.6
| Measure | Result | Source and Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Gartner, 2025 | 7.7% of revenue | 401 leaders surveyed in 2026 |
| Gartner, 2026 | 7.8% of revenue | 401 leaders, mostly over $1 billion revenue |
| Gartner, AI-ready companies | 8.9% of revenue | The 30% with mature AI |
| The CMO Survey, share of revenue | 9.0% | Spring 2026 wave |
| The CMO Survey, share of company budget | 9.6% | Spring 2026 wave |
| The CMO Survey, spending growth | 1.7% | Smallest rise since 2021 |
Source: Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (May 11, 2026); The CMO Survey, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, Deloitte and the American Marketing Association (Spring 2026).
Gartner found that budgets barely moved, from 7.7% of revenue in 2025 to 7.8% in 2026. Gartner also says that level is 18% below the average of four years ago. Companies with strong AI readiness report 8.9%, which is 1.1 points above the average. The CMO Survey reports 9.0% of revenue and 9.6% of total company budgets, and its measured spending growth of 1.7% is the smallest since 2021. The two surveys differ by 1.2 points, and sample size and company size explain most of that gap. Gartner’s sample leans toward very large firms, so smaller companies may see different shares.
A quick illustration shows what the shares mean. A company with $1 billion in revenue and a 7.8% budget spends about $78 million on all marketing. At 9.0% it spends $90 million. Digital channels take most of that, and the next section shows how. The figure also helps explain why total platform revenue grows 13.9% while corporate budgets stay flat: the platforms gain share inside each budget, and new advertisers keep arriving. Use these shares as benchmarks, then adjust for industry, profit margin and growth stage.
US Digital Marketing Budget Allocation 2026: Paid Media, AI and Martech
Share of marketing budget, percent
Paid media | ████████████████ 31.4
Martech, 2021 | █████████████ 26.6
Martech, 2025 | ███████████ 22.4
Martech, 2026 | ██████████ 19.4
AI, AI-ready companies | ███████████ 21.3
AI, survey average | ████████ 15.3
| Allocation Metric | 2026 Figure |
|---|---|
| Paid media share of budget | 31.4% |
| AI share, survey average | 15.3% |
| AI share, AI-ready companies | 21.3% |
| Martech share, 2021 | 26.6% |
| Martech share, 2025 | 22.4% |
| Martech share, 2026 | 19.4% |
| Leaders saying budget is too small for strategy | 56% |
| Leaders planning agency and labor cuts | 39% |
Source: Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey (May 11, 2026), as reported by Marketing Dive and other trade outlets.
Paid media now takes 31.4% of the average budget. Gartner says leaders are protecting it by cutting agency and staff costs, and 39% of leaders plan those cuts. This pays off for ad platforms: paid media is the line that shows results fastest. Commerce media follows shoppers into retail sites, so the US eCommerce statistics help explain why retail advertising keeps growing. Martech fell from 26.6% of budgets in 2021 to 22.4% in 2025 and 19.4% in 2026. Money for agencies and software shrinks while money for media and AI grows.
AI is the new line. The average company sends 15.3% of its budget to AI work, and the most AI-ready group sends 21.3%, about 6 points more. Only 30% of leaders say their teams can scale AI, and 56% say their budget is too small for their strategy. That tension is the main 2026 story: companies have the same money, more tools to pay for and the same pressure to grow. Expect budget to move from agencies and older software into paid media and AI. Gartner also notes that budgets sit about 18% below the average of four years ago, which squeezes every line at once.
US Digital Ad Spend Growth Forecast 2026: IAB Channel Projections
IAB September 2026 projected growth by channel, percent
Social media | █████████████████ 16.5
Connected TV | ████████████████ 15.6
Commerce media | ██████████████ 13.6
Digital video ex-CTV| █████████ 9.4
Podcasts | █████████ 8.7
Paid search | ████████ 8.1
Digital out of home | ███████ 7.0
Linear TV | ▌ -1.5
| Channel | September 2026 Forecast | January 2026 Forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social media | 16.5% | 14.6% | +1.9 points |
| Connected TV | 15.6% | 13.8% | +1.8 points |
| Commerce media | 13.6% | 12.1% | +1.5 points |
| Digital video excluding CTV | 9.4% | 9.6% | -0.2 points |
| Podcasts | 8.7% | 8.6% | +0.1 points |
| Paid search | 8.1% | 8.2% | -0.1 points |
| Digital out of home | 7.0% | 7.4% | -0.4 points |
| Linear TV | -1.5% | -1.7% | +0.2 points |
Source: IAB 2026 Outlook Study, September Update (September 10, 2026).
IAB raised its total 2026 US ad spend growth forecast to 12.3% from 9.5%, after surveying more than 200 brand and agency buyers. Social leads at 16.5%, then connected TV at 15.6% and commerce media at 13.6%. These three also gained the most since January, by 1.9, 1.8 and 1.5 points. The rise in social matches the earlier trend, and the social media advertising statistics for the US cover platform revenue and ad prices in more detail.
Paid search is forecast at only 8.1%, and linear TV is the one channel that shrinks, at -1.5%. Buyer goals shifted as well. Customer acquisition rose 9 points to 63% as a top goal and brand equity rose 6 points to 43%. Adapting to AI-driven search is the top challenge for 44% of buyers, and 86% expect to change how they measure results within 12 months. Cutting search and linear spend while adding social, video and commerce media is the pattern in these figures. The IAB study draws on more than 200 buyers, so it reflects stated plans, not final spend. Creator and influencer partnerships draw increased focus from 54% of buyers, demo-targeted advertising from 53%, publishers with first-party data from 48% and contextual advertising from 45%.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do US companies spend on digital marketing in 2026?
US digital advertising revenue hit $294.6 billion in 2025, and IAB forecasts 12.3% growth in total US ad spend for 2026. Inside companies, all marketing takes about 7.8% to 9.0% of revenue. The first figure counts ad-seller revenue and the second counts budget share.
How much did US digital advertising grow in 2025?
It grew 13.9% to $294.6 billion. Growth was 12% in Q1, 13% in Q2 and 15% in both Q3 and Q4.
What percentage of revenue do US companies spend on marketing?
Gartner reports 7.8% of revenue in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025. The CMO Survey reports 9.0% of revenue and 9.6% of company budgets.
How much is US social media advertising worth?
Social ad revenue reached $117.7 billion in 2025, up 32.6%. That is 40.0% of digital ad revenue.
How much do US companies spend on search advertising?
Search ad revenue was $114.2 billion in 2025, up 11%. Growth slowed from 15.9% in 2024, and IAB projects 8.1% paid search growth in 2026.
How much of the marketing budget goes to paid media?
Paid media takes 31.4% of the average marketing budget in 2026, based on Gartner’s survey of 401 marketing leaders.
How much of the marketing budget goes to AI?
The average is 15.3%. Companies with mature AI capability spend 21.3%, and only 30% of leaders say their teams can scale AI.
Which digital ad channel is growing fastest in 2026?
IAB projects social media at 16.5%, connected TV at 15.6% and commerce media at 13.6%. Linear TV is the only major channel forecast to shrink, at -1.5%.
How much do brands spend on creator advertising?
Creator advertising reached $37 billion in 2025 and IAB projects $44 billion in 2026. In the September study, 54% of buyers plan more focus on creator and influencer partnerships.
How big is programmatic advertising in the US?
Programmatic spend rose 20.5% to $162.4 billion in 2025, a gain of $27.6 billion.
Are US marketing budgets growing in 2026?
Barely, on both measures. Gartner shows a 0.1 point rise, and The CMO Survey shows spending growth of 1.7%, the smallest since 2021.
How does AI search change digital marketing spend?
Adapting to AI-driven search is the top challenge for 44% of buyers. Rising zero-click search rates mean fewer visits per search, so buyers are measuring brand visibility inside AI tools, a step 48% of them now take.
What is the IAB forecast for 2026 US ad spend?
IAB forecasts 12.3% growth in total US ad spend for 2026. That is 2.8 points above its January projection of 9.5%, after a strong first half that included the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.
How big is commerce media advertising in the US?
Commerce media revenue reached $63.4 billion in 2025, up 18.0%. It makes up 21.5% of digital ad revenue, and IAB projects 13.6% growth in 2026.
How big is digital video advertising in the US?
Digital video revenue reached $78.0 billion in 2025, up 25.4%. It holds 26.5% of digital ad revenue, and IAB projects connected TV at 15.6% growth in 2026.
Why do Gartner and The CMO Survey report different budget numbers?
Gartner reports 7.8% of revenue and The CMO Survey reports 9.0%. The surveys use different samples, and Gartner leans toward companies with more than $1 billion in revenue.
How much does a company with $1 billion in revenue spend on marketing?
At Gartner’s 7.8% average, it spends about $78 million. At The CMO Survey’s 9.0%, it spends about $90 million. These are illustrations from average rates, not company reports.
What is the top goal of media spend in 2026?
Customer acquisition, cited by 63% of buyers in IAB’s September study. Brand equity follows at 43%, and repeat purchases sit at 24%.
How many marketing leaders say their budget is too small?
56% of leaders in Gartner’s survey say their budget does not cover their 2026 strategy.
Are US companies cutting agency budgets?
Many are. 39% of leaders plan to cut agency and labor spend, and Gartner says paid media, now 31.4% of budgets, is the line being protected.
How much did social media ad revenue grow in dollars?
Social gained $29.0 billion in 2025, rising from about $88.7 billion to $117.7 billion, a rise of 32.6%.
How much do US companies spend on podcast advertising?
Podcast ad revenue reached $2.9 billion in 2025, up 17.6%. IAB projects 8.7% growth for podcasts in 2026.
Is linear TV advertising shrinking in 2026?
Yes. IAB projects linear TV at -1.5% in 2026, a slight improvement from its January forecast of -1.7%.
How worried are marketers about low-quality AI content?
38% of buyers name low-quality AI-generated content as a top media investment challenge, behind AI-driven search at 44%.
How do marketers measure brand visibility in AI tools?
48% of buyers measure brand visibility and citations directly inside AI tools. Another 45% say the hardest part is comparing AI-driven customer journeys with traditional ones.
Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.