Gitnux/Report 2026

Advertising and Marketing Industry Statistics

See how Advertising and Marketing Industry performance is shifting in 2025 with winners pulling ahead on measurable outcomes while spend priorities are getting reweighted fast. If you manage budgets, plan campaigns, or benchmark growth, this is the clearest place to spot what changed and what it means for the next quarter.
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November 10, 2026Updated
Advertising and Marketing Industry Statistics
Thomas LindqvistWritten by Thomas Lindqvist·Edited by Priya Chandrasekaran·Fact-checked by Jonathan Hale
Published ·Updated
How this report is researched
01Editorial Scope

An editor sets the topic, the inclusion criteria, and the evaluation framework before research starts.

02Source Research

AI search agents locate sources and extract each figure together with the document it came from.

Read our full methodology →

Search agents attach provenance to every extracted figure.

Next review: within 39 days

01 Industry overview

The advertising and marketing industry at a glance

Advertising is expanding rapidly across digital channels: global ad spend is forecast to reach $1.34 trillion in 2026, up 11.9%, while AI, commerce media and scaled platforms reshape competition.

$1.34T[72]
Global ad spend forecast, 2026
$294.6B[3]
U.S. internet ad revenue, 2025
$162.4B[3]
U.S. programmatic revenue, 2025
59.7%[72]
Big Three global share, 2026
Market size
Global advertising spend is forecast at $1.34 trillion in 2026. In the United States, internet advertising revenue reached $294.6 billion in 2025, a 13.9% year-over-year increase.[72][3]
Forecast & CAGR
WARC forecasts global advertising growth of 11.9% in 2026, following 10.0% growth in both 2024 and 2025. Its forecast for 2027 is 7.9%, taking global spend to approximately $1.40 trillion.[72][73]
Market share & regions
The United States remains the largest advertising market, while China is forecast to account for $200.1 billion, or 16.8% of global advertising spend, in 2025. WARC forecasts Alphabet, Amazon and Meta to capture 59.7% of global spend excluding China in 2026.[73]
Segmentation
In U.S. digital advertising in 2025, social media generated $117.7 billion, search $114.2 billion, digital video $78.0 billion and commerce media $63.4 billion. Programmatic advertising reached $162.4 billion, while creator advertising reached $37 billion.[3]
Key players & concentration
Global growth is concentrated among Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, which together are forecast to hold 59.7% of global advertising spend excluding China in 2026. In U.S. agency services, the FTC described Omnicom and IPG as the third- and fourth-largest media-buying providers by revenue before their $13.5 billion merger.[74]
Trends, drivers & challenges
AI is improving creative production, targeting, optimization and measurement, while social, video and commerce media are driving growth. Key challenges include privacy regulation, measurement and attribution, economic uncertainty, platform concentration and the need to prove incremental results in streaming and creator campaigns.[3]
Consumer behavior & competition
Consumer usage is shifting toward video, creator-led content and commerce-connected environments: U.S. digital video revenue grew 25.4% to $78 billion in 2025, while social advertising grew 32.6% to $117.7 billion. Nearly half of creator ad buyers, or 48%, now consider creators a must-buy channel.[3]
M&A
The FTC approved Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of IPG in 2025 subject to a final order restricting coordination that could deny advertising dollars to publishers based on political or ideological viewpoints. The transaction combines two of the six major global advertising holding companies.[74]
Regulation
The EU Digital Services Act prohibits targeted advertising based on special-category personal data and prohibits profiling-based targeted advertising where platforms know with reasonable certainty that a user is a minor. In the United States, the Justice Department’s September 2026 Google ad-tech remedies require interoperability, data sharing and nondiscriminatory bidding.[75][76]
Latest news
WARC’s October 8, 2026 forecast raised expected global advertising growth to 11.9% in 2026, or $1.34 trillion, citing AI investment and major events including the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and U.S. midterm elections. On September 16, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department announced substantial Google ad-tech remedies designed to increase interoperability and competition.[76]

02 Ranking

Top 10 Companies in the Advertising And Marketing Industry

The leading companies in the advertising and marketing industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.

Updated November 10, 2026 · Next review December 10, 2026

Verdict

Publicis Groupe leads Gitnux's 2026 advertising and marketing ranking with an Overall score of 9.6, with revenue growth 8.5% and operating margin 18.2%. The Trade Desk is the highest-ranked advertising technology platform at 9.4, driven by revenue growth 18.5% and operating margin 20.3%.

Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓

Editor's top 3 picks

Where to start, by need.

  1. #1 Overall · Leader in agency and communications

    Publicis Groupe

    FR

    Ranked #1 · 9.6 · Agency and communications

    Why we picked it: It spans marketing, communication, media, data and technology services across 100+ countries.

    See in ranking ↓Visit publicisgroupe.com ↗

  2. Leader in programmatic trading

    The Trade Desk

    US

    Ranked #2 · 9.4 · Programmatic trading

    Why we picked it: It runs an independent demand-side platform for digital advertising campaigns.

    See in ranking ↓Visit thetradedesk.com ↗

  3. Leader in advertising effectiveness research

    Ipsos

    FR

    Ranked #3 · 8.8 · Advertising effectiveness research

    Why we picked it: It provides brand health, creative effectiveness, media effectiveness and innovation research.

    See in ranking ↓Visit ipsos.com ↗

Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.

Full ranking

Sort by
Top 10 companies in the advertising and marketing industry, 2026 – Gitnux ranking
#CompanyOverall ↓Company snapshot
1

Publicis Groupe

Agency and communications · FR

9.6
2

The Trade Desk

Programmatic trading · US

9.4
3

Ipsos

Advertising effectiveness research · FR

8.8
4

Stagwell

Agency and communications · US

8.7
5

Magnite

Programmatic trading · US

8.6
6

WPP

Global media, creative, production and marketing services · GB

8.6
7

Hakuhodo DY Holdings

Japanese and international advertising and marketing services · JP

8.2
8

PubMatic

Cloud infrastructure for digital advertising · US

7.8
9

Quad

Integrated marketing experience and production services · US

7.8
10

S4 Capital

Digital advertising, content and technology services · GB

7.5

How we score

  • Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
  • Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
  • Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
  • Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.

Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.

Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.

Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 10, 2026.

Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.

Cite this ranking

APA

Thomas Lindqvist. (2026, February 13). Top 10 companies in the advertising and marketing industry. In Advertising And Marketing Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/advertising-and-marketing-industry-statistics/#top-companies

report visual · Comparison

Revenue of the largest advertising and marketing companies

WPP leads with $17.2B in annual revenue (group level, converted to USD).

WPP$17.2B
Publicis Groupe$15.7B
Hakuhodo DY Holdings$5.8B
Stagwell$2.9B
The Trade Desk$2.9B
Ipsos$2.7B
source-verifiedsec.gov · publicis-groupe.publispeak.com · hakuhodody-holdings.co.jp · stagwellglobal.com · ipsos.com2026

04 Statistics

Technology & Innovation

Technology adoption concentrates on AI in campaign execution and marketing automation. In 2026, 96% of major brands used AI in marketing and 75.0% of professionals reported efficiency gains.

AI in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 20% of major brands were testing paid advertising in large language models in 2026 globally.[1]
  • 75.0% of marketing and advertising professionals said AI made them moderately to significantly more efficient in 2026 globally.[2]
  • 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026 globally.[1]
  • 61.4% of marketing and advertising professionals used generative or agentic AI daily in 2026 globally.[2]
  • More than 50% of marketers used generative AI for creative content and audience targeting in 2025 globally.[3]
  • 33.2% of marketing and advertising professionals reported significant efficiency gains from AI in 2026, up from 13.5% in 2024.[2]

Automation in the advertising and marketing industry

  • $8.44 billion was the estimated global marketing-automation industry revenue in 2026.[4]
  • $21.7 billion is the forecast global marketing-automation industry revenue for 2032.[4]
  • 41% of marketers said their customer journeys were mostly or fully automated in 2026 globally.[4]
  • 10% was the year-over-year growth in marketing-automation-manager job postings during 2025 in the United States.[5]

Digital Transformation in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across 15 countries, 77% of organizations used generative AI for marketing content creation in 2025.[6]
  • 30% of agencies, brands and publishers had fully integrated AI across the media campaign lifecycle in the advertising industry in 2025.[3]
  • 44% of client-side marketing respondents said their companies were actively bringing more marketing functions in-house in 2024.[7]
  • Across 15 countries, 72% of organizations were using generative AI extensively or to a limited extent in their marketing departments in 2025.[6]
  • 57% of companies in the marketing sector were in the emerging stage of digital transformation in the U.S. in 2024, meaning new technology was not yet integrated into processes.[8]
  • Across 15 countries, 70% of organizations used generative AI to measure and track customer and marketing metrics in 2025.[6]

Technology Adoption in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 83% of advertising executives said their companies had deployed AI in the creative process in 2026, up from 60% in 2024.[3]
  • 63% of multinational brand owners were already using generative AI in marketing in 2024, most commonly for content creation, ideation and task automation.[1]
  • 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026, including 80% using it for content creation and 54% for media buying or optimization.[1]
  • 77% of marketers reported using AI in 2024, up from 57% in 2023, based on Digiday+ Research surveys.[9]

Cloud Computing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 72% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it for office software in 2025, while another 72% used it for file storage.[10]
  • 85% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it to host email systems in 2025.[10]
  • 52.74% of EU enterprises used paid cloud computing services in 2025.[10]
  • 85% of large EU businesses used paid cloud computing services in 2025, compared with 52% of small and medium-sized enterprises.[10]

Big Data in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 40% of EU enterprises performed data analytics internally or through another organization in 2025.[10]
  • 33% of EU enterprises used data analytics performed by their own employees in 2025.[10]
  • 60% of enterprises in Denmark performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the highest share among EU countries.[10]
  • 25% of enterprises in Poland performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the lowest share among the EU countries reported.[10]

IoT in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 48% of large EU enterprises used Internet of Things devices or systems in 2021, compared with 26% of small enterprises.[10]
  • 34% of EU information and communication enterprises used IoT devices or systems in 2021.[10]

05 Statistics

Data & Analytics

Measurement depends on integration and data quality. In 2024, 81% of marketers used descriptive analytics, while 73% reported at least 10% of lead data as inaccurate or outdated.

Business intelligence in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 45% of marketers used social media analytics to target accounts in 2024.[11]
  • 21% of marketing leaders received actionable insights in real time in 2024.[12]
  • 59% of marketers said their marketing tools were fully integrated with one another in 2024.[11]
  • 26% of marketing leaders received actionable insights in real time in 2023.[12]
  • 81% of marketers used data to monitor performance through descriptive analytics in 2024.[13]
  • 65% of marketers used forecasting and scenario-planning tools through predictive analytics in 2024.[13]

Data analytics in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 32% of video-ad buyers used marketing-mix modeling to mitigate measurement issues in 2024.[3]
  • 33% of video-ad buyers used cross-device measurement to mitigate measurement issues in 2024.[3]
  • 37% of video-ad buyers used artificial intelligence to mitigate measurement issues in 2024.[3]
  • 8.9% of marketing budgets were allocated to marketing analytics in 2022, with expected spending of 14.5% within three years.[14]
  • 41% of video-ad buyers used AI to measure brand safety, suitability or fraud in 2024.[3]
  • 34% of video-ad buyers used multi-touch attribution to mitigate measurement issues in 2024.[3]

Data Quality in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 31% of CMOs say data completeness is the biggest data-quality problem affecting their marketing organizations across the surveyed markets in 2025.[15]
  • 67% of marketing professionals report that poor data quality disrupts lead handoffs between marketing and sales.[16]
  • 73% of marketers say at least 10% of their lead data is inaccurate or outdated, based on a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[16]
  • 45% of CMOs estimate that the marketing data their teams use for decisions is incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated; the survey covered marketers across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2025.[15]
  • 30% of CMOs identify improving data quality as the biggest lever for improving marketing performance across surveyed marketing organizations in 2025.[15]

Data Governance in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 45% of respondents identify regulatory compliance as a goal of their data-governance program in 2024, in a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[17]
  • 14% of organizations in the Dutch marketing sector report using data governance in 2024, down from 16% in 2022.[18]
  • 92% of marketing decision-makers report investing in automated data-governance platforms, according to a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[16]
  • 49% of advertising and data decision-makers at U.S. brands, agencies, and publishers are creating or planning dedicated teams or departments in response to privacy and data-governance requirements in 2024.[3]
  • 58% of organizations with data-governance programs report improved data quality in 2024, based on a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[17]
  • 71% of global respondents report that their organization has a data-governance program in 2024, up from 60% in 2023.[17]

KPIs in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 34% of marketers identified lead-to-customer conversion rate as a top metric in 2026.[11]
  • 40% of marketers identified lead quality and marketing-qualified leads as their most important success metric in 2026 in a separate HubSpot summary.[11]
  • 44% of marketers analyzed campaign performance weekly in 2026.[11]
  • 29% of marketers identified lead-generation volume as a top metric in 2026.[11]
  • 31% of marketers identified return on investment as a top metric in 2026.[11]
  • 39% of marketers identified lead quality and marketing-qualified leads as their most important success metric in 2026.[11]

06 Statistics

Strategy & Growth

Growth expectations coexist with hiring and agency-structure changes. Digital agencies in North America numbered more than 71,000 in 2026, while average digital-agency revenue growth was 4.5% in 2024.

Growth in the advertising and marketing industry

  • Digital agencies in North America numbered more than 71,000 in 2026.[19]
  • Global advertising spending grew 7.3% to nearly $1.1 trillion in 2024.[20]
  • North American digital agencies grew at a 12% compound annual rate from 2018 to 2026.[19]
  • 73% of marketing agencies predicted revenue growth in 2024, down eight percentage points from 2023.[21]
  • 57% of agency leaders anticipated expanding their teams in 2024.[21]
  • Average digital-agency revenue growth was 4.5% in 2024.[19]

Differentiation in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 50% of marketers said creativity was the most important factor helping advertising agencies stand out during pitches.[22]
  • 55% of client-side marketers said specialist agencies made more sense than generalist agencies in 2024.[7]
  • More than 80% of marketers surveyed by Setup used artificial-intelligence technologies to enhance marketing strategies and business objectives in 2024.[7]
  • 47% of marketers said a true understanding of the company’s goals and objectives helped agencies stand out during pitches.[22]

Mergers and acquisitions in the advertising and marketing industry

  • Marketing-technology, digital-content and ad-tech M&A transactions reached 414 in 2024.[23]
  • Marketing and advertising M&A activity increased 7% globally in 2024 compared with 2023.[24]
  • Marcom-agency acquisitions in 2024 involved 13,324 employees.[23]
  • There were 52 marcom-agency acquisitions in 2024, down 37% from 82 in 2023.[23]
  • Agency-services and strategy M&A activity increased 32% year over year in 2024.[25]
  • Global media and marketing M&A deal value excluding transactions above $10 billion rose 47% to $63.8 billion in 2024.[25]

Strategic partnerships in the advertising and marketing industry

  • More than half of clients sought branding or identity services from agency partners in 2024.[7]
  • The average client-agency partnership lasted approximately seven years in 2025.[26]
  • 44% of client-side companies were actively bringing more marketing functions in-house in 2024, reshaping their use of agency partners.[7]
  • 40% of clients said they were likely to switch their primary agency within six months in 2024.[7]
  • 56% of client-side companies retained agency partnership structures in 2024 rather than bringing all marketing functions in-house.[7]
  • The average client-agency relationship was 3.2 years in 2016, less than half the approximately seven years reported for 2025.[26]

07 Statistics

People & Workforce

Workforce availability and skills gaps shape execution. In the United States, 10,829 employers were hiring senior marketing talent at the end of 2025, 5.2% higher than a year earlier.

Hiring in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 23% of agency leaders reported difficulty hiring in the preceding year in 2025, down from 55% in the 2023 study.[27]
  • 10,829 employers were hiring senior marketing talent in the United States at the end of 2025, 5.2% more than a year earlier.[28]
  • 8.0% was the year-over-year growth in entry-to-manager marketing vacancies in the United States in September 2026.[28]
  • 6% is the projected employment growth for advertising, promotions and marketing managers in the United States from 2025 to 2035.[29]
  • 15.5% was the year-over-year growth in director-level and above marketing vacancies in the United States in September 2026.[28]

Employee retention in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 4% of agencies reported staff losses above 50% during the first two quarters of 2023.[30]
  • 47% of agency leaders said they had lost staff during the preceding year in 2025.[27]
  • 80% of agency leaders said strong relationships were the top factor in client retention in 2026.[21]
  • 71% of agencies reported voluntary turnover below 10% in 2022.[31]
  • 50% of public-relations professionals had considered quitting because of burnout in 2024.[32]

Remote Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among U.S. marketing, advertising and public-relations office job postings, 12.2% were advertised as remote in 2024.[33]
  • Across marketing organizations, 37.8% reported working from home all the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[34]
  • Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 20% reported working fully remotely in the State of Sales and Marketing Report.[35]
  • Across marketing organizations, 55.6% reported working from home some of the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[34]

Hybrid Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 57% said their employer offered a hybrid work option to at least some employees.[35]
  • Across advertising professionals, 64% preferred hybrid work over fully remote or fully on-site work in the 2024 Myers Report survey.[36]
  • Among marketers, 68.7% said in 2024 that their current balance of office and home-working days was appropriate.[37]
  • Across advertising professionals, 74% reported working in hybrid situations in the 2024 Myers Report survey of 3,462 respondents.[36]

Upskilling in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 36.9% of brand-side marketers identified insufficient data and analytics skills as a business concern in 2024 globally.[37]
  • 35% of marketers met a basic benchmark of foundational marketing knowledge in 2026 globally.[38]
  • Four times as many marketers met the foundational marketing-knowledge benchmark when they had received marketing training in 2026 globally.[38]
  • 60.7% of chief marketing officers and marketing directors were not offered upskilling opportunities by their employers in 2024 globally.[37]
  • 33.8% of marketers said training existing staff was a response to data-literacy and analytics skills gaps in 2024 globally.[37]

Employee Engagement in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across organizations with highly activated communications strategies, 40% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[39]
  • Across organizations surveyed globally, 32% reported an increase in employee engagement from their previous survey in Gallagher’s 2026 Employee Communications Report.[39]
  • Across organizations with low-activation communications strategies, 23% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[39]
  • Across the global workforce, 21% of employees were engaged in 2024, according to Gallup’s worldwide workplace measure.[40]

DEI in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 63% of major brands had adopted responsible-AI principles covering marketing in 2024 globally.[1]
  • 54% of major brands had an AI governance board in 2024 globally.[1]
  • 30.8% of advertising and marketing professionals were ethnically diverse in 2023 in the United States, down from 32.3% in 2022.[26]

08 Statistics

Customer & Sales

Customer experience in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 52.8% of B2B marketers considered relationship-building and networking more effective than in B2C marketing in 2025.[41]
  • 54% of B2B organizations with dedicated content marketing resources had teams of two to five people in 2025.[42]
  • 76% of B2B organizations had a dedicated content marketing team or staff in 2025.[42]
  • 17.3% of B2B marketers said their customer journey stages were fully mapped in 2025.[41]
  • 50.2% of B2B marketers identified reaching the right buying groups as their top challenge to maximizing marketing ROI in 2025.[41]

Customer retention in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 68% of agencies lost clients during the preceding year in the 2025 agency research report.[27]
  • 43% of marketing agencies reported an average client lifetime of two to five years in 2026.[21]
  • 76% of agencies rated accurate reporting extremely important for client retention in 2026.[21]
  • 24% of agencies described client defection risk as a severe challenge in 2025.[27]

Customer acquisition in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 33% of marketing agencies used outbound outreach as a client-acquisition channel in 2026.[21]
  • 62% of agencies reported an average client lifespan of at least 24 months in the 2025 agency outlook research.[4]
  • 38% of agencies cited SEO and content marketing among their client-acquisition approaches in 2026.[21]
  • Client acquisition remained the top challenge for agency leaders in 2026, according to AgencyAnalytics’ benchmark research.[21]
  • 26% of marketing agencies used digital advertising as a client-acquisition channel in 2026.[21]

Customer loyalty in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 98% client retention was reported by ArtVersion after implementing its agency client-retention strategy in 2024.[43]
  • 46.8% of marketers were exploring how to apply brand values in 2026.[44]
  • 52% of marketers said content marketing grew loyalty among existing clients or customers in 2025.[11]

Lead generation in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 49% of marketers said content marketing helped generate sales or revenue in 2025.[11]
  • 34% of marketers ranked lead-to-customer conversion rate among the five most important marketing metrics in 2026.[11]
  • 93% of marketers reported that personalization improves leads or purchases in 2026.[11]
  • 29% of marketers ranked lead-generation volume among the five most important marketing metrics in 2026.[11]
  • 40% of marketers identified lead quality and marketing-qualified leads as their most important success metric in 2026.[11]

09 Statistics

Marketing & Brand

Budget allocation shifts toward digital and performance channels. Nearly two-thirds of marketing budgets went to digital and performance channels in Nielsen’s 2024 global marketer survey.

Marketing in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 2.5 million marketers worked in the United States according to 2024 industry estimates.[45]
  • Employment of advertising, promotions and marketing managers was projected to grow 6% from 2022 to 2032 in the United States.[45]
  • At least 6.5 million marketers worked globally according to 2024 industry estimates.[45]
  • 20% of marketing activities were outsourced according to senior marketers surveyed for the AMA’s 2024 industry overview.[45]
  • 6 million U.S. professionals worked in marketing-adjacent roles such as sales, public relations, fundraising, user experience and graphic design in 2024.[45]

Digital marketing in the advertising and marketing industry

  • $102.9 billion in U.S. search advertising revenue was recorded in 2024, representing 39.8% of digital ad revenue.[3]
  • $258.6 billion in U.S. internet advertising revenue was recorded in 2024, up 14.9% year over year.[3]
  • $2.43 billion in U.S. podcast advertising revenue was recorded in 2024, up 26.4% year over year.[3]
  • 70% of global marketers planned to prioritize performance marketing over brand-building initiatives in 2024.[46]
  • Nearly two-thirds of marketing budgets went to digital and performance channels in Nielsen’s 2024 global marketer survey.[46]

Branding in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 60% of chief marketing officers at Fortune 500 companies were women in 2024.[45]
  • One in four Fortune 500 companies had a chief marketing officer on the executive team in 2024.[45]
  • 79.2% of marketing teams expected at least a slight increase in their 2026 budgets compared with 2025.[44]
  • 49% of global marketers were between 25 and 35 years old in 2024.[45]
  • 40% of U.S. marketers were between 25 and 35 years old in 2024.[45]

Social media in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 72% of marketers targeted Millennials in 2024.[11]
  • 36% of marketers targeted Generation Z in 2024, up from 34% in 2023.[11]
  • $88.8 billion in U.S. social-media advertising revenue was recorded in 2024, up 36.7% year over year.[3]
  • 37.7% of B2B marketers identified content creation and optimization as an AI-related marketing priority in 2025.[41]
  • 19% of marketers targeted Baby Boomers in 2024.[11]

Influencer Marketing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 74% of surveyed brands, agencies and creators reported year-over-year creator-marketing budget increases in the 2025 survey covering nine countries.[47]
  • Six in 10 multinational brands had dedicated influencer-marketing budgets globally in 2025, up from 37% in 2019.[1]
  • 77.7% of surveyed U.S. companies increased their creator-economy budgets in 2025, according to a survey of 139 marketers.[23]
  • 54% of multinational marketers expected influencer-marketing budgets to increase over the following 12 months in 2025, with average projected growth of 23%.[1]
  • 58% of global marketers reported dedicated and growing budgets for creator or influencer partnerships in Nielsen’s 2026 survey.[48]

10 Statistics

Operations & Execution

Operations track automation, outsourcing, and measurement limits. Nearly half of marketing agencies in 2026 could not track users who discovered brands through AI tools.

Process optimization in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 92% of advertising-agency professionals used generative AI tools at work in 2024, and nearly two-thirds used them at least weekly.[2]
  • 38% of marketing agencies were already using agentic AI for workflow automation in 2026.[21]
  • 74.5% of advertising-agency leaders planned to increase investment in AI tools over the following 12 months in 2024.[2]
  • 33% of agency leaders said employees submitted time-tracking data on time about 90% of the time in 2024.[49]
  • 69% of agency leaders’ working time was spent in meetings in the 2024 agency-operations survey.[49]

Operational efficiency in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 16% of agencies achieved billable utilization between 51% and 75% in 2024.[50]
  • 19% of agencies hit their profitability targets less than once a month in 2024.[50]
  • 57% of agencies did not complete projects profitably on a weekly basis in 2024.[50]
  • 57% of agency leaders said they had made difficult decisions, including staff layoffs, during 2024.[50]
  • 18% of agencies always reached their billable-versus-non-billable time targets in 2024.[49]

Quality management in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 62.8% of advertising-agency professionals felt good, optimistic or confident about digital advertising’s future in 2024.[2]
  • 77.8% of advertising-agency professionals believed generative AI would have a positive impact on agencies in 2024.[2]
  • Nearly half of marketing agencies said in 2026 that they could not track users who discovered brands through AI tools.[21]
  • 66% of marketing agencies reported increased client demand for AI-search services in 2026.[21]
  • 72.5% of advertising-agency leaders felt good, confident or optimistic about digital advertising’s future in 2024.[2]

Supply chain in the advertising and marketing industry

  • $26.8 billion of programmatic advertising spend was classified as wasted in the ANA’s second-quarter 2025 transparency benchmark.[26]
  • 14.9% was the year-over-year growth rate for U.S. internet advertising revenue in 2024, reaching $258.6 billion.[3]
  • 25.4% was the year-over-year growth rate for U.S. digital-video advertising revenue in 2025.[3]
  • 9.8% was the year-over-year growth rate for U.S. display advertising revenue in 2025, reaching $81.6 billion.[3]
  • 13.9% was the year-over-year growth rate of U.S. internet advertising revenue in 2025, reaching $294.6 billion.[3]

Outsourcing / Offshoring in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)

  • 93% of companies used third-party resources such as agencies or contractors for content to some degree in 2024, while 57% planned to outsource more than half of content creation.[51]
  • 45% of marketing respondents outsourced design functions fully or partly in 2024, according to the Marketing Benchmark Survey.[52]
  • 63.1% of marketers outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in the 2025 survey, covering more than 3,500 respondents globally.[37]
  • 67.5% of B2B brands outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in 2025, compared with 60.2% of B2C brands.[37]
  • 57% of marketing respondents outsourced video production fully or partly in 2024, the most commonly outsourced marketing function in the survey.[52]

11 Statistics

Finance & Pricing

Pricing and margins remain uneven across services while AI increases perceived operating time savings. In 2026, 79% of marketing agencies saved at least five hours per week using AI.

Pricing strategy in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 22% of digital-agency leaders increased their hourly rates between 2023 and 2024.[19]
  • 65% of digital agencies priced services between $150 and $224 per hour in 2024.[19]
  • 30% of digital agencies priced services between $175 and $199 per hour in 2024.[19]
  • 29% of digital agencies charged between $175 and $199 per hour in 2025.[19]

Cost reduction in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 20% of agencies strongly agreed that operational efficiency could be improved in 2024.[50]
  • 79% of marketing agencies saved at least five hours per week using AI in 2026.[21]
  • 41% of agencies achieved their profitability targets less than once a week in 2024.[50]
  • 57% of agencies did not complete projects profitably on a weekly basis in 2024, indicating recurring cost and delivery leakage.[50]
  • 38% of marketing agencies used agentic AI for workflow automation in 2026.[21]

Profitability in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 10% was the average net margin for agencies that expanded services in 2025.[19]
  • 13% was the average net margin reported by digital agencies in 2025.[19]
  • 26% of marketing-agency leaders reported operating margins between 21% and 30% in 2026.[21]
  • 23% of marketing-agency leaders reported operating margins above 40% in 2026.[21]
  • 30% was the average net margin for agencies that reduced services in 2025.[19]

Financial planning in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 87% of North American digital agencies employed fewer than 50 people in the latest Promethean assessment.[19]
  • $850 billion was the estimated software, cloud and media spend influenced by digital agencies in Promethean’s latest assessment.[19]
  • More than 71,000 digital agencies operated across North America according to Promethean’s latest market assessment.[19]
  • 12% was the five-year average growth rate reported for digital agencies in 2025.[19]
  • More than 200,000 digital agencies operated worldwide according to Promethean’s latest market assessment.[19]

12 Statistics

Product & Service

Service categories follow answer and content workflows. In 2026, 66% of clients demand answer-engine optimization or SEO services from agencies.

Product development in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 42.5% of marketing teams extensively use AI for content creation in 2026, supporting development of advertising and marketing deliverables.[44]
  • 37.7% of marketing teams occasionally use AI for media creation in 2026, indicating widespread adoption in campaign and creative development.[44]
  • 39.8% of marketing teams occasionally use AI for brainstorming and ideation support in 2026.[44]
  • 37.5% of marketing teams occasionally use AI for strategic planning and forecasting in 2026.[44]
  • 33.4% of marketing teams extensively use AI for strategic planning and forecasting in 2026, informing marketing-product development decisions.[44]

Product lifecycle in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 66% of clients demand answer-engine optimization or SEO services from agencies in 2026, making it the leading new service category.[21]
  • 51% of surveyed agencies offered branding or identity services in 2024, making it one of the most common agency service lines.[7]
  • 70% of agencies reported retaining clients for two or more years in 2023, indicating extended service lifecycles.[21]
  • 38% of agency clients sign up for two services in 2026, showing the role of service expansion across the agency relationship lifecycle.[21]
  • 41% of surveyed agencies offered web or mobile design and development services in 2024.[7]

After-sales in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 80% of agency leaders said strong relationships were the leading factor in client retention in 2026.[21]
  • 79% of digital marketing agencies reported better agency-client relationships than one year earlier in 2023.[53]
  • 71% of agencies used increased communication and transparency as a client-retention strategy in 2026.[53]
  • Agencies reported average client-retention periods of two to five years in 2024.[21]
  • 70% of agencies retained clients for at least two years in 2023, linking ongoing service quality with agency longevity.[21]

Value proposition in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 77% of marketers agreed that audience data is important to marketing in 2024, supporting more relevant value propositions.[11]
  • 37.52% of marketers prioritized customer experience with their brand in 2025.[11]
  • 52% of marketers said content marketing grew loyalty with existing clients or customers in 2025.[11]
  • 93% of marketers said personalization improves leads or purchases in 2026, supporting personalization as a marketing value proposition.[11]
  • 28.78% of marketers created content aligned with their brand values in 2025.[11]

13 Statistics

Sustainability & Ethics

Sustainability commitments increasingly show up as client-facing requirements. In 2025, 43% of European digital advertising respondents had set or were setting science-based targets.

Sustainability in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 43% of European digital advertising respondents had set or were setting science-based targets in 2025.[54]
  • 29% of European digital advertising businesses ranked sustainability as their second-most important business challenge in 2025.[54]
  • 74% of European digital advertising businesses viewed sustainability as a crucial component of their business models in 2025.[54]
  • 50% of European digital advertising businesses identified diversity, equity and inclusion as an important sustainability aspect in 2025.[54]
  • 42% of European digital advertising businesses had disclosed environmental impacts to clients in 2025.[54]

ESG in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 68% of brands said their marketing codes addressed greenwashing in 2023.[1]
  • 47% of companies with ESG criteria linked those criteria to their responsible-marketing frameworks in 2023.[1]
  • 18% of European digital advertising businesses identified governance as an important sustainability aspect in 2025.[54]
  • 94% of large-company marketing respondents said their companies had environmental, social and governance criteria in 2023.[1]
  • 50% of European digital advertising businesses identified diversity, equity and inclusion as an ESG concern in 2025.[54]

Ethics in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 37% of U.S. adults were generally comfortable with marketers using artificial intelligence in 2024.[55]
  • 64% of U.S. adults said marketers bear the primary responsibility for ensuring advertising accuracy in 2024.[55]
  • 76% of U.S. adults said it was important for companies to disclose when their marketing or advertising used artificial intelligence in 2024.[56]
  • 32% of U.S. adults identified privacy violations and data misuse as a primary concern about AI in marketing in 2024.[55]
  • 39% of U.S. adults identified misleading or deceptive AI-generated content as a primary concern about AI in marketing in 2024.[55]

CSR in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 81% of European digital advertising businesses identified client requirements as a driver of sustainability interest in 2024.[54]
  • 41% of brands said they had a sustainability story they were proud to communicate in 2023.[1]
  • 54% of marketers agreed that marketing should educate people about sustainable choices and actions in 2023.[1]
  • 82% of marketers said companies needed to be braver in communicating sustainability efforts in 2023.[1]
  • 75% of European digital advertising businesses identified compliance and regulation as a driver of sustainability interest in 2024.[54]

Circular economy in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 3.0 was the average perceived impact of extended-producer-responsibility policies on the communications and media sector in 2024, on a seven-point scale.[57]
  • 27.9% of surveyed media and marketing companies reported reducing the climate impact of packaging in 2024.[57]
  • 65% of large-company marketing frameworks covered environmental sustainability in 2023, the least-covered priority area reported by the WFA.[1]
  • 69% of large-company marketing respondents identified environmental sustainability as a priority for expanding responsible-marketing framework coverage in 2023.[1]
  • 18% of European digital advertising businesses identified waste creation as an important sustainability aspect in 2025.[54]

Carbon footprint in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 24% of European digital advertising businesses had adopted a greenhouse-gas estimation framework, methodology or model in 2024.[54]
  • 70% of European digital advertising businesses had begun reducing carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions in 2024.[54]
  • 48% of European digital advertising businesses estimated emissions produced by digital media products in 2025.[54]
  • 19% of European digital advertising businesses had started carbon-dioxide-equivalent reduction work but made no significant progress in 2024.[54]
  • 24% of European digital advertising businesses had made significant progress on carbon-dioxide-equivalent reduction in 2024.[54]

15 Statistics

Globalization & Expansion

Cross-market spend growth continues alongside regulatory and platform dynamics. Global advertising-sector spending grew 7.9% to $791.61 billion in 2024.

Globalization in the advertising and marketing industry

  • Global advertising-sector spending grew 7.9% to $791.61 billion in 2024.[64]
  • Advertising spending grew in 15 of the 20 largest global markets because of national elections in 2024.[64]
  • Global marketing-sector spending expanded 9.4% to $984.49 billion in 2024.[64]
  • North America accounted for the largest regional share of global advertising spending in 2024.[65]
  • 58 national markets were covered by dentsu’s 2024 global advertising-spend forecast, which projected $752.8 billion in worldwide advertising expenditure.[66]

Cultural adaptation in the advertising and marketing industry

  • Culturally adapted advertising appeals produced a statistically significant persuasion effect across 121 experimental comparisons involving 12,201 participants.[67]
  • 49% of senior marketing executives surveyed in 2017 allocated less than 5% of their marketing budget to creative adaptation and cross-cultural localization.[68]
  • Culturally adapted advertisements were better liked than unadapted advertisements across 116 experimental comparisons involving 11,175 participants.[67]

Stakeholder management in the advertising and marketing industry

  • 44% of client-side respondents said their companies were actively bringing more marketing functions in-house in 2024.[7]
  • 70% of agency leaders rated client reporting as extremely important for account retention in 2025.[69]
  • The average client-agency relationship lasted approximately seven years in 2025, compared with 3.2 years in 2016.[26]
  • 81% of agency leaders said strong client relationships were the biggest factor in retaining accounts in 2025.[69]
  • 48% of clients identified dissatisfaction with agency delivery as the leading reason for ending an agency partnership in 2024.[7]

Distribution channels in the advertising and marketing industry

  • Global retail-media advertising grew 18.2% in 2024.[70]
  • ByteDance accounted for approximately one-fifth of global social advertising spending in 2024.[71]
  • Meta controlled nearly 63% of global social advertising spending in 2024.[71]
  • Digital channels introduced brands and products to more than 90% of adult internet users in GWI research cited for 2024 advertising trends.[20]
  • Search advertising on platforms including Google, Bing and Naver grew 7.8% globally in 2024.[70]

Key questions about the Advertising and Marketing Industry

What is the global advertising market size in 2026?
Global advertising spend is forecast to reach $1.34 trillion in 2026.
How fast is global advertising expected to grow in 2026?
WARC forecasts global advertising growth of 11.9% in 2026.
Which companies lead the advertising and marketing industry?
Publicis Groupe leads Gitnux's 2026 advertising and marketing ranking with an Overall score of 9.6, with revenue growth 8.5% and operating margin 18.2%. The Trade Desk is the highest-ranked advertising technology platform at 9.4, driven by revenue growth 18.5% and operating margin 20.3%.
What technology shifts are most visible in advertising and marketing in 2026?
AI adoption is widespread: 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026, and 61.4% of professionals used generative or agentic AI daily.
How concentrated is global ad spend in 2026?
Alphabet, Amazon and Meta are forecast to capture 59.7% of global advertising spend excluding China in 2026.
What data governance or measurement problems show up most often?
Data quality is a recurring constraint: 31% of CMOs report data completeness as the biggest data-quality problem, and 73% of marketers say at least 10% of lead data is inaccurate or outdated.
Reference

Cite This Report

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APA
Thomas Lindqvist. (2026, February 13). Advertising And Marketing Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/advertising-and-marketing-industry-statistics
MLA
Thomas Lindqvist. "Advertising And Marketing Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/advertising-and-marketing-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Thomas Lindqvist. 2026. "Advertising And Marketing Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/advertising-and-marketing-industry-statistics.

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