Global marketing will exceed $2.1 trillion in 2026, driven by video, social media, and artificial intelligence – Revista Merca2.0

Subscribe to Merca2.0 and access more than 3,500 exclusive articles for subscribers. Click HereSubscribe to Merca2.0. Click HereGlobal advertising and marketing spending will exceed $2.1 trillion in 2026, driven by the growth of online video, social media, influencer marketing and the adoption of artificial intelligence, according to Statista’s Marketing Worldwide report.READ ALSO. Nike cuts marketing spending: how the strategy of one of the world’s most valuable brands is changingCombined investment is expected to reach approximately $2.108 trillion, compared with an estimated $1.92 trillion in 2025. This would represent annual growth of nearly 9.8% and confirm the expansion of an industry whose economic weight is comparable to the gross domestic product of some of the world’s largest economies.READ ALSO. Video games are now an advertising medium for Generation Z, while Millennials prefer other formatsThe study, which compiles information from PQ Media, Gartner, WARC, HubSpot, Dentsu, Mediaocean and other specialized sources, shows that companies are shifting their budgets toward digital channels capable of delivering targeting, measurement and personalization. At the same time, they are seeking to incorporate artificial intelligence to analyze data, develop products, optimize campaigns and reduce costs through automation.The global advertising and marketing market has maintained an upward trajectory over the past five years. Combined spending rose from $1.453 trillion in 2021 to $1.568 trillion in 2022 and $1.631 trillion in 2023.In 2024, investment reached $1.776 trillion, while in 2025 it is estimated to have climbed to $1.92 trillion. The projection of $2.108 trillion for 2026 would represent an increase of approximately $655 billion compared with 2021, equivalent to cumulative growth of nearly 45%.The economic scale of this industry is already approaching the size of some national economies. By comparison, Statista notes that Brazil’s gross domestic product amounted to approximately $2.26 trillion in 2025.Spending classified specifically as marketing alone reached $1.088 trillion in 2025, compared with $1.010 trillion the previous year. This represented annual growth of around 7.7%.During the same period, global advertising spending increased by 5.2%, while combined advertising and marketing investment posted average growth of 6.6%.The expansion of the global marketing industry is not evenly distributed across different channels. Digital and alternative media account for most of the growth, while traditional media are advancing at a considerably slower pace.During 2025, advertising and marketing spending across digital and alternative media grew by 11.4%. In contrast, investment in traditional media increased by only 1.2%.This means that digital investment grew at a rate approximately 9.5 times faster than traditional media. The difference reflects the shift of budgets toward platforms that allow companies to measure audience behavior, modify campaigns in real time and personalize messages for different consumer segments.The change does not necessarily imply the disappearance of television, radio, cinema or print media. However, it demonstrates that these channels face greater pressure to prove their contribution to sales, brand awareness and customer acquisition.Online video will be the main beneficiary of the redistribution of advertising budgets. In a WARC survey of more than 1,000 marketing professionals, the net balance of respondents expecting to increase their investment in this format reached 65%.Influencer and creator marketing ranked second, with a net balance of 55%, while social media reached 54%.Podcasts are also among the channels with the strongest outlook, at 41%. Mobile advertising obtained 36%; retail media, 32%; gaming, 25%; search advertising, 22%; out-of-home advertising, 18%; online display, 17%; and sponsorships, 14%.The net balance is calculated by subtracting the percentage of professionals planning to reduce their investment from the percentage expecting to increase it. Therefore, it does not directly represent the monetary growth rate of each channel, but rather the prevailing direction of budget decisions.At the opposite end of the spectrum, email recorded a net balance of -1%; radio and audio, -7%; cinema, -15%; and television, -20%. This indicates that, across these media, more professionals anticipate budget cuts than expect to increase spending.The importance of video is also reflected in plans for the use of social platforms. Nearly 70% of marketing professionals plan to increase their use of YouTube for audiovisual strategies, while 65% expect to use Instagram more extensively.LinkedIn ranked third, at 52%, followed by Facebook, at 49%, and TikTok, at 42%.Expectations are considerably lower for X and Threads. Only 17% of professionals plan to increase their use of video on X, while Threads reaches 15%.The results position YouTube as one of the central platforms for campaigns in 2026. Its combination of long-form video, short-form content, search, tutorials and algorithmic recommendations allows brands to participate in both discovery processes and purchasing decisions.Instagram, meanwhile, continues to hold a relevant position in visual formats and short-form video, particularly for consumer-facing companies.Although TikTok and other emerging platforms account for part of the conversation surrounding new trends, Facebook continues to lead among marketing professionals.In January 2026, 86% of surveyed professionals said they used Facebook for business purposes. Instagram was mentioned by 82%, LinkedIn by 72% and YouTube by 58%.TikTok recorded a usage rate of 32%, while X reached 23% and Threads only 13%.Facebook was also considered the most important platform by 36% of respondents. Instagram obtained 27% and LinkedIn 26%. In contrast, YouTube was selected by 7%, TikTok by 2% and X by 1%.The differences are even clearer when B2C companies are separated from B2B organizations. Among consumer-focused professionals, 93% use Facebook and 87% use Instagram. In the business-to-business market, LinkedIn ranks first, at 87%.When asked to identify the most important platform, 46% of B2C professionals chose Facebook. Among B2B specialists, LinkedIn led the responses, at 51%.Facebook’s continued presence in marketing plans is also linked to its return on investment. Around 54% of professionals included Facebook among the social platforms offering the highest ROI.Instagram ranked second, at 43%; YouTube came third, at 33%; X reached 24%; and TikTok stood at 19%.The results show that a platform with high visibility or the ability to generate trends does not necessarily offer the best return for every company. Factors such as audience type, attribution models, advertising costs and the ability to convert interactions into sales can influence performance.Facebook also has mature advertising tools, broad demographic reach and an infrastructure integrated with Instagram, elements that continue to make it relevant for customer acquisition, remarketing and e-commerce campaigns.The increase in social media investment is mainly explained by its ability to expand brand visibility. 83% of professionals identify increased exposure as one of its main benefits.Higher traffic was mentioned by 71%, while 62% pointed to lead generation. Another 57% said social media helps build communities of loyal followers.However, only 46% believe these platforms directly improve sales. The difference reveals one of digital marketing’s main challenges: social media delivers clearer results in the early stages of the sales funnel than at the final conversion stage.Companies can accumulate views, followers, interactions and visits without necessarily having a system capable of linking those metrics to revenue. This difficulty becomes more pronounced when consumers interact with a brand across several platforms before making a purchase.Artificial intelligence will be another of the industry’s main drivers of transformation in 2026. Around 50% of chief marketing officers consider investment in AI a priority for launching new products and services, according to a survey of 1,950 CMOs from B2C and B2B organizations in 14 countries, including Mexico.Another 45% are seeking to increase their investment in digital customer experience, while the same percentage considers the adoption of artificial intelligence essential for improving marketing efficiency.The use of AI to reduce costs through automation was mentioned by 37% of executives. The same proportion plans to increase budgets for growth, innovation and direct-to-consumer strategies.The technology is also changing professional skills. AI-powered marketing is the main capability CMOs seek to develop, mentioned by 55%. It is followed by marketing technology, at 53%; social media management, at 49%; content development and management, at 46%; and analytics and research, at 40%.The main uses of generative artificial intelligence in marketing are not image creation or ad copywriting, but information analysis.Data analysis and market research jointly rank first, at 43% each. Creative development follows, at 33%, along with campaign optimization, at 31%.Advertising copywriting is used by 29% of professionals. Image generation and creative personalization each obtained 23%, while campaign coordination reached 19%.Customer service was mentioned by 13%, SEO by 10%, information classification by 9%, coding by 8% and website development by 6%.These figures show that organizations are using AI not only to accelerate content production, but also to identify patterns across large volumes of information, better understand consumers and adjust commercial decisions.Perceptions regarding the results of artificial intelligence are largely positive. In a survey of marketing executives in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, 86% considered AI effective in their workflows.Of that total, 72% rated it as effective and 14% as highly effective. In contrast, 11% said it was not very effective and 3% said it was not effective at all.Adoption, however, does not depend exclusively on marketing departments. In 59% of organizations, executive leadership—including CEOs, presidents and founders—is responsible for integrating artificial intelligence.Technology leaders were mentioned by 31%; specialized AI executives, by 22%; cross-functional councils, by 20%; and marketing executives, also by 20%. In addition, 13% acknowledged that their company still does not have a clearly defined person responsible for AI.Despite the positive perception, the adoption of generative AI faces operational obstacles. The main challenge is data quality or access, mentioned by 42% of professionals.The difficulty of connecting AI outputs across different systems was cited by 41%. Brand safety and compliance risks reached 40%, while problems integrating the technology with existing infrastructure obtained 39%.Ethical and governance concerns were mentioned by 36%, a lack of internal knowledge by 31%, and uncertainty regarding costs or return on investment by 27%.In addition, 34.4% of marketing technology and operations leaders still do not use AI to capture or analyze unstructured customer data, such as calls, emails, chats, surveys and social media messages.The proliferation of media, devices and platforms has become the industry’s main concern. 56% of professionals identify fragmentation across platforms and publishers as their biggest problem.The complexity of measuring and optimizing cross-channel campaigns ranks second, at 49%. Balancing AI adoption, brand safety, accuracy and creative control was mentioned by 43%.Another 42% fear that automation could advance without sufficient human oversight or compromise the quality of materials. Concerns regarding AI governance, compliance and ethics reached 38%.Difficulties managing advertising reach and frequency across connected television and digital channels were cited by 30%. These were followed by interoperability failures between advertising tools, at 29%; consumer ad blindness, at 24%; and a lack of preparation for a cookieless environment, at 23%.Companies are using automation to respond to budget pressures and manage campaigns at a greater scale. Email marketing is the most highly automated area, at 57% of professionals.Social media management ranks second, at 47%; content management reaches 39%; paid advertising, 34%; and SMS marketing, 33%.Automation also extends to landing pages, at 30%; live chats and campaign tracking, both at 29%; workflows and account-based marketing, at 25%; and sales funnel communications and SEO, at 23%.Lead scoring is one of the least automated activities, at 17%, despite its importance in identifying which consumers are most likely to make a purchase.The marketing industry will enter 2026 with an unprecedented level of investment, but also with growing demands regarding the effectiveness of every dollar spent.Marketing budgets represented 7.8% of company revenue in North America and Europe during 2026, only one-tenth of a percentage point above the 7.7% recorded in the previous two years. The share remains well below the peak of 12.1% observed in 2016.This difference shows that growth in global spending does not mean that every company has more generous budgets. CMOs must manage more platforms, produce larger volumes of content and adopt new technologies with proportionally fewer resources.Video, social media and artificial intelligence will account for much of the growth, but their expansion will also require companies to address problems related to measurement, technology integration, governance and data quality. In 2026, the challenge for brands will not simply be to invest more, but to demonstrate that digitalization and automation produce measurable business results. Cancela en cualquier momento Acceso exclusivo a rankings y radiografías. Análisis profundos y casos de estudio de éxito. Historial de la revista impresa en formato digital. ¡Disfruta de lo mejor del marketing sin costo alguno por un mes! 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