The 2026 Marketing Index: Every Stat You Need to Know After January 1

This index is built for leaders who need a clean read on what is changing going into 2026 and what that means for budgets, channel mix, and accountability. It is also built for teams who want the most recent digital marketing statistics 2026 in one place, that can actually inform your next moves.

If you want marketing benchmarks to reference in 2026 that translate into action, start here. For more business and marketing analysis like this, explore Brand Vision Insights. If you need a partner to turn the plan into execution, Brand Vision works across strategy, design, and growth.

At a Glance: The 20 Numbers That Define Marketing in 2026

• $1.04 trillion: projected global ad spend in 2026.
  
• 5.1%: projected global ad spend growth in 2026.
  
• 68.7%: share of total ad spend expected to be digital in 2026.
  
• 6.7%: forecast digital ad spend growth in 2026.
  
• 14.1%: forecast retail media growth in 2026.
  
• 11.5%: forecast online video growth in 2026.
  
• 11.4%: forecast social growth in 2026.
  
• 80%+: programmatic share of digital investment.
  
• $1.14 trillion: forecast global ad revenue in 2025, excluding US political advertising.
  
• 8.8%: forecast global ad revenue growth in 2025, excluding US political advertising.
  
• 7.1%: forecast global ad revenue growth in 2026, excluding US political advertising.
  
• 7.7%: marketing budgets as a share of company revenue in 2025.
  
• 59%: CMOs reporting insufficient budget to execute strategy in 2025.
  
• 30.6%: share of marketing budgets going to paid media.
  
• 2.4%: paid media as a share of company revenue.
  
• 6.04 billion: global internet users by the start of October 2025.
  
• 73.2%: global internet penetration by the start of October 2025.
  
• 2.2 billion: people still offline worldwide.
  
• 5.66 billion: global social media user identities, up by 259 million in the past year.
  
• 16.3%: ecommerce share of total US retail sales in Q2 2025.
  
• $258.6 billion: US digital ad revenue in 2024, up 14.9% year over year.
  
• $53.7 billion: US retail media network revenue in 2024, up 23% year over year.
  
• $36: average email ROI per $1 spent.

Key figures are drawn from public reporting and research including Campaign Asia, Gartner, DataReportal, IAB, the U.S. Census Bureau, and Litmus.

How to use this index on January 1

You do not need to react to every trend. You need to reconcile three things that must agree: where your budget goes, how your pipeline is measured, and whether your website can convert demand into action.

Use the index to pick a small set of 2026 marketing metrics that you will track weekly. Then build the operating cadence that makes those metrics improve.

The Budget Reality Check: Growth Is Up, Scrutiny Is Also Up

Marketing budgets are not collapsing. They are being held to a higher standard. That is the practical shift in 2026 marketing trends.

A flat budget is not neutral when media costs rise, competition increases, and the same team is expected to ship more work. It forces choices. It also makes waste visible.

The 7.7% ceiling and what it forces

Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey puts marketing budgets at 7.7% of company revenue, with 59% of CMOs saying they do not have enough budget to execute strategy. Those two numbers belong together. A stable percentage can still feel like a cut if the work expands. (Gartner)

This is why 2026 planning should start with fewer priorities and clearer accountability. It also explains the quiet move toward tighter reporting, fewer agency relationships, and more in house production where it improves speed.

• Treat 2026 planning as a portfolio: one or two bets, one or two steady channels, and one defensive retention lever.
  
• Set a minimum standard for any spend: what must it deliver, and how will you know within 30 days.

Where money is still flowing

Gartner reports paid media as 30.6% of marketing budgets, equal to 2.4% of company revenue. (Gartner) That is not a statement about “more ads.” It is a statement about how teams buy certainty when organic reach is harder to predict.

For B2B teams in particular, paid media can be the fastest route to pipeline, but only if the rest of the system is built. That means clear positioning, strong conversion paths, and measurement that is honest about causality. If that sounds like work you have been postponing, start with one outcome and work backward. Many teams looking for a stronger demand engine begin by aligning brand, website, and acquisition as one system, which is the core of our B2B marketing agency work.

• Budget conversations go better when you separate spend for learning from spend for scaling.
  
• If paid media is the largest line item, the website must be treated as a profit lever, not a brochure.

Digital Reach in 2026: The Market Is Bigger Than Ever

Digital reach is not the constraint. The constraint is attention, trust, and conversion.

DataReportal’s Digital 2026 reporting puts global internet users at 6.04 billion, which is 73.2% global penetration. At the same time, 2.2 billion people remain offline. Both facts matter. Growth still exists, but it is uneven. (DataReportal)

Internet adoption at scale

When most of the world is online, your competition set expands. Your customer’s comparison set expands too. The net result is that basics become decisive: clarity, trust signals, and fast paths to action.

You can also expect more blended journeys. People move between search, social, marketplaces, and private messaging without thinking of them as channels. Your job is to show up consistently and make the next step easy.

• Plan for cross-channel journeys: ensure your message, offer, and proof points are consistent across touchpoints.
  
• Treat “reach” as a leading indicator, not a KPI. The KPI is qualified action.

Social media is a supermajority, with caveats

Global social media user identities are reported at 5.66 billion, equivalent to 68.7% of the global population, with 259 million added over the past year. (Meltwater) That scale matters even if identities are not perfect proxies for unique individuals.

The implication is simple. Social is not a niche awareness channel. It is a mainstream discovery surface, and for many audiences it is where first impressions form. Your brand needs to read well in a scroll, but it also needs depth when someone clicks through.

• Build social for both speed and substance: one line clarity plus a destination that closes the loop.
  
• If your brand is hard to explain, fix that before you buy more impressions.

Search and Discovery: Still the Engine, Now With AI Layers

Search is still central. What is changing is how people arrive and what they do next.

DataReportal notes that the share of online adults who used a search engine in the past month has fallen to 80.3%. (DataReportal) That is still a large majority. It is also a reminder that discovery is fragmenting across platforms, feeds, and AI assistants.

The 2026 Discovery Stack

In 2026, most brands win discovery by stacking surfaces, not by betting on one channel. Search still captures intent. Social shapes consideration. Retail and marketplace search captures high intent product demand. AI assistants sit across all of it, compressing research into fewer steps.

This is where many marketing teams slip into vague language. Instead, map your discovery stack to what buyers actually do: learn, compare, validate, and decide.

• Treat discovery as a system: search, social, commerce, and AI assisted research need consistent positioning.
  
• Build one content spine: a few core pages that answer the highest intent questions clearly.

How to write and design for fewer guaranteed clicks

When clicks are less predictable, the quality of what happens after the click matters more. Teams that focus only on top funnel traffic often miss the real constraint, which is conversion and trust.

This is where strong technical and content foundations pay off. If you are making serious bets on search visibility, your site architecture, speed, and page experience should be treated as growth work. This is also where an SEO agency should be judged by outcomes and by the quality of the on site system it leaves behind.

• Ensure every high intent page has a single primary job: book, buy, request, subscribe, or start.
  
• Write for the decision, not the keyword. Keywords help you get found. Decisions help you get paid.

Search metrics that still mean something

In a mixed discovery world, the goal is not perfect attribution. The goal is useful truth. Track metrics that connect activity to outcomes and that can be improved with specific actions.

A simple set works for most teams: qualified sessions, conversion rate by landing page type, lead or purchase quality, and time to first response. If you cannot act on a metric within two weeks, it is usually not worth weekly attention.

• Build a small dashboard you can defend in a budget review.
  
• Pair every metric with an owner and a lever. No owner, no lever, no metric.

Social and Creator Media: Efficient Reach, Volatile Inputs

Social media remains one of the most efficient ways to buy reach. It is also one of the most sensitive to creative quality, frequency, and platform shifts.

The 2026 pattern is not that social stops working. It is that the inputs matter more. Creativity, offer clarity, and landing page alignment decide performance faster than targeting tricks.

A discovery channel, not just a distribution channel

The highest performing social programs treat the channel as a discovery engine. They do not assume the audience already trusts them. They build trust in small, repeated moments, then convert when the user is ready.

This is where brand systems earn their keep. Consistent naming, consistent visual language, and consistent proof points lower the cognitive load. If that layer is missing, social often becomes expensive noise. A strong branding agency engagement can help rebuild that system without turning everything into a rebrand.

• Build repeatable creative patterns: a small set of formats that map to awareness, consideration, and conversion.
  
• Treat comments and saves as qualitative research, not vanity.

Creator partnerships as a repeatable system

Creator work tends to fail when it is treated as a one-time activation. It tends to work when it is treated as a pipeline: select, brief, produce, test, then expand.

In 2026, assume that creators are part of your media mix, not a separate program. That means your measurement, your approvals, and your content reuse rights should be built in from the start.

• Standardize briefs so creators can deliver fast without guesswork.
  
• Build a reuse plan before you publish. If you cannot reuse it, you are leaving value behind.
  

Retail and Commerce Media: High Intent Inventory Takes Share

Retail media is not just another channel. It is an operating model built on first-party purchase signals.

Campaign forecasts point to retail media as the fastest growing digital channel in 2026, with 14.1% growth. (LLBonline) IAB’s 2024 reporting shows retail media networks growing 23% to $53.7 billion in the US. Together, those numbers explain why commerce media keeps taking share. (IAB)

Retail media is a data product

In retail media, the “ad” is only part of the product. The real product is measurement and signal. That is why this channel keeps attracting budget in a market where scrutiny is rising.

For brands, this means that product data, pricing discipline, and inventory coordination become marketing work. You cannot separate media from operations and expect stable results.

• Treat product feeds and retail content as revenue infrastructure.
  
• Align promotions, onsite merchandising, and media flights so the customer sees one coherent offer.

What ready for retail media looks like

Retail media rewards clarity. It punishes vague offers and weak product pages. If your conversion path is brittle, the channel will reveal it quickly.

The practical move is to build a short readiness checklist. Are product pages clear, fast, and consistent? Is your review and proof strategy credible? Do you have a repeatable way to learn what works and scale it?

• Start with one retailer or one marketplace and get the basics right.
  
• Do not chase every format. Pick the inventory that matches your margin structure and your ability to fulfil.
  

Video and Streaming: The Default Buy Keeps Expanding

Video is no longer a specialist channel. It is the default creative format across platforms.

Campaign forecasts show online video growing 11.5% in 2026. (Campaign Asia) That is not only about entertainment. It is about how people learn, compare, and validate.

Where video earns its keep

Video tends to perform best when it does one job well. It can explain a complex product. It can reduce perceived risk. It can show proof in a way that text cannot.

Most teams overproduce the wrong thing. They invest in a glossy brand film that does not convert, and they underinvest in simple explainers and proof driven demonstrations that do.

• Build a video ladder: short, mid, and long formats that map to the buying journey.
  
• Reuse aggressively. One strong shoot should feed multiple placements for months.
  

Creative and landing pages must match

Video sets expectations. If the landing page does not deliver on those expectations, performance collapses. This is a design and UX problem as much as a media problem.

The fix is usually not a bigger budget. It is tighter message match, faster pages, and fewer choices. When the site behaves like a product, video becomes a growth multiplier.

Owned Channels: Email and First Party Data Are Back in the Spotlight

Owned channels are the hedge against volatility. They are also the place where many teams quietly create profit.

Litmus reports an average email ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. (Litmus) That number does not mean every email program is profitable. It means email can be the highest leverage channel when fundamentals are in place.

Email ROI is high, but measurement is messy

Many teams “feel” email is effective, but struggle to isolate impact. That gap matters in a year when scrutiny is rising.

In 2026, the goal is not perfect attribution. The goal is reliable internal truth: what email drives, how it supports other channels, and what segments produce the highest quality outcomes.

• Track revenue or pipeline contribution by lifecycle stage, not just by campaign type.
  
• Separate transactional, lifecycle, and promotional email so you can manage frequency without hurting trust.

Permission assets and first party data

First party data is only valuable when it is permissioned and usable. That means your forms, preferences, and onboarding flows must be designed to collect what you will actually use.

Treat your list and account base as assets that appreciate with care. That care looks like relevance, restraint, and a clear value exchange.

• Build preference controls that reduce unsubscribes and improve relevance.
  
• Use email to move people closer to a decision, not to fill a calendar.

Website and UX Benchmarks: The Conversion Layer Most Teams Underfund

If your website does not convert, everything else becomes expensive. That is the simplest truth in modern marketing.

The US Census reports ecommerce at 16.3% of total US retail sales in Q2 2025. (Census) Even if you are not an ecommerce business, the behavioural signal is clear. Customers are comfortable transacting online. They expect clarity, speed, and low friction.

The site as your efficiency layer

Your website is not a channel. It is the conversion layer that sits under every channel. It translates attention into action. When it is weak, teams compensate with more spend.

This is why leadership teams should treat site performance as a financial lever. It affects CAC, sales cycle speed, and lead quality. If you are rebuilding or modernising, a strong web design agency should be measured on clarity and conversion, not on visuals alone.

• Make the primary action obvious on every key page.
  
• Reduce steps, reduce fields, reduce doubt.

A simple UX triage checklist

Most site wins come from basics executed well. You do not need a redesign to make progress in January. You need a focused triage and a short sprint.

Here is a checklist that tends to pay back quickly:

• Message match: does the page say what it is, who it is for, and why it matters in the first 10 seconds.
  
• Proof: is there credible evidence close to the decision point.
  
• Friction: do forms, checkout, or booking flows remove unnecessary fields and steps.
  
• Navigation: can a user find the next relevant page without thinking.
  
• Speed and mobile: is the experience calm and readable on a phone.
  
  

If you need a deeper systems approach, this is where a UI UX design agency can make the biggest difference. Not by adding complexity, but by reducing it.

• Fix the top five pages first. Do not spread effort across the whole site.
  
• Test changes against conversion rate and lead quality, not against preference.
  

What to fix first in January

January work should focus on the highest leverage bottlenecks. For most teams, that is the home page clarity, the core service or product pages, and the primary conversion flow.

You will know you are prioritising well when each fix can be tied to a metric and shipped inside two weeks.

• Ship improvements in sprints, not in long redesign projects.
  
• Hold the line on simplicity. If you add a new section, remove an old one.
  

Measurement in 2026: From Attribution to Incrementality

Attribution is not dead. It is just less complete than teams want it to be.

In 2026, measurement gets better when you accept that the goal is decision quality, not perfect tracking. That shift is what makes a measurement system usable.

The Measurement Stack

Most teams need a stack, not a single model. A pragmatic measurement stack usually includes:

• Platform reporting for directional optimisation and creative testing.
  
• Site analytics for behaviour and conversion quality.
  
• CRM or pipeline reporting for downstream outcomes.
  
• Experimentation for causal learning on key levers.
  
• Periodic modelling for budget allocation decisions.

This stack is not glamorous. It is what lets you invest with confidence when the market is noisy.

• Decide what “good” means for each layer before you change tools.
  
• Keep the stack small enough that the team will maintain it.

What to report weekly, monthly, quarterly

Reporting cadence is strategy. Weekly should focus on what can be changed quickly. Monthly should focus on performance by channel and by segment. Quarterly should focus on allocation and what you will stop doing.

If a metric does not change a decision, it should not be in the executive deck.

• Weekly: conversion rate trends, lead quality signals, creative winners and losers.
  
• Monthly: channel contribution, cohort performance, pipeline velocity.
  
• Quarterly: allocation changes, product or market shifts, and the next two bets.

How AI changes measurement, not just execution

AI increases output. It also increases noise. When content and creative can be produced faster, measurement has to become more disciplined or teams scale the wrong work.

The right response is not fear. It is governance: clear briefs, clear success metrics, and clear stop rules. AI should reduce cycle time. It should not reduce accountability.

• Require hypotheses for tests, even for “small” creative changes.
  
• Build a stop rule for underperforming spend and underperforming content.

The January 1 Reset: A 30 Day Checklist for Leaders

Most marketing plans fail quietly. Not because they are wrong, but because they are not operated. January is your chance to fix that with a clear cadence and a small set of non negotiables.

This reset is designed to be finished in 30 days. It is intentionally simple. If you do it well, you will start Q1 with a plan that can survive scrutiny.

Week 1: Baseline and alignment

Start with the baseline that matters. What is your current spend mix. What is your current conversion rate on key pages. What is your current pipeline quality. What is your current retention picture.

Then align the team on one primary outcome and two supporting outcomes. Too many goals make accountability impossible.

• One page dashboard: five to eight metrics, one owner per metric.
  
• A list of what you will stop doing in Q1. This is as important as what you will start.

Week 2: Fix the conversion layer

Treat the website as the first operational project of the year. Not a redesign. A conversion sprint.

Audit the top entry pages from paid and organic. Identify the top points of friction. Ship fixes with clear measurement. This week often produces the fastest efficiency gains in the entire quarter.

• Tighten message match on high intent pages.
  
• Reduce form friction and clarify next steps.

Week 3: Tighten measurement and experimentation

Build the measurement stack you will actually use. Decide what gets reported weekly and what gets reviewed monthly. Set up one or two experiments that can produce learning inside the quarter.

This week is also where you validate tracking basics. If you cannot trust the numbers, you cannot defend the budget.

• Choose one experiment that tests a meaningful lever, not a cosmetic change.
  
• Document learnings in a single place so the team stops repeating tests.

Week 4: Lock the operating cadence

Codify how work moves. Decide how briefs are written, how creative is approved, and how performance is reviewed. The goal is not bureaucracy. The goal is speed with clarity.

Then pick the two bets you will pursue in Q1 and the one risk you will manage. Put them on a calendar with owners and expected outcomes.

• Weekly performance review with decisions, not discussion.
  
• Monthly allocation review that includes what you will cut.

If you want a senior partner to pressure test your plan, align the operating model, or rebuild the conversion system underneath your channel mix, start with a focused marketing consultation. It is often the fastest way to turn marketing statistics 2026 into an operating plan that holds up in the real world.