The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has raised its 2026 US advertising growth forecast to 12.3 percent, driven by strong performance in social media and connected TV. The report highlights that advertisers are increasingly prioritizing AI-driven product discovery and adapting measurement strategies to account for AI agents.
The upward revision of the IAB US advertising forecast suggests that streaming and digital platforms are successfully capturing budgets previously reserved for linear television. For the streaming ecosystem, the 15.6% growth in connected TV highlights a critical pivot toward performance-based outcomes, as 63% of marketers now prioritize customer acquisition over brand equity. This shift forces a technical evolution in ad tech stacks to support AI-optimized content and new attribution models that track brand citations within conversational AI tools. Watch for whether the projected 7% growth in digital out-of-home holds steady as buyers increasingly favor the high-precision targeting offered by CTV and social platforms.
As marketers navigate these shifts, zero-click AI searches are increasingly influencing how budgets are allocated across the digital landscape. To improve accuracy, marketers urged to use CTV marketing mix models for calibration.
The IAB has increased its 2026 US advertising growth forecast to 12.3%, fueled by significant gains in connected TV and social media. This shift highlights a major transition as marketers move budgets away from linear television toward digital platforms, prioritizing customer acquisition and adapting measurement strategies for AI-driven search and conversational agents.
Connected TV spending is projected to grow by 15.6% in 2026.
Linear television is the only major category expected to contract, with a forecast decline of 1.5%.
Marketers identified AI-driven product discovery as the top investment challenge, cited by 44% of buyers.
Yes, approximately 86% of advertisers plan to change their media performance measurement strategies within the next year to account for the rise of conversational AI agents.
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