Global Ad Spend Jumps 11.9% to $1.34 Trillion in 2026

In its latest Q3 2026 forecast, WARC expects global ad spend to reach $1.34 trillion this year, an 11.9% increase over last year, before the growth pace slows to 8.4% in 2027 and 7.9% in 2028.

Social media leads the fastest-growing channels at 21.3%, reaching $394.6 billion. Online search follows with a 14.2% growth to $295.7 billion, followed by retail media with a 14.3% growth to $202.1 billion, video on demand growing at 15.1%, and digital out-of-home advertising at 13.7%.

In terms of market share, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta account for 59.7% of the advertising market outside China, a figure that illustrates the concentration of spending among a limited number of major platforms.

In the Arab region, these figures signal a shift not only in spend volume but in the channel mix, with spending on retail media and social media growing faster than traditional channels. This directly affects advertisers, agencies, and websites, as it redistributes budgets across platforms and changes the metrics for measuring campaign return on investment.

What do these terms mean?

Ad Spend: The total amount paid by companies to display their advertisements across various channels over a specific period.

Retail Media: Advertising space sold by major retailers on their websites and apps, leveraging customer purchase data for targeting.

Video on Demand (VOD): Video content viewed at a time chosen by the user, incorporating advertisements within streaming services.

Digital Out-of-Home (Digital OOH): Digitally managed advertising screens in public spaces that allow content and timing to be updated dynamically instead of using static printed billboards.