Insights
The numbers we plan against
A small set of figures we keep returning to, taken from primary reports rather than from summaries of them. Each chart names its source and links to it, so you can disagree with our reading rather than with our arithmetic.
$294.6bn
US digital ad revenue in 2025, up 13.9% with no Olympics, World Cup or election to inflate it.
15.2%
Retail media's forecast share of all worldwide ad investment by 2027. One pound in seven, spent inside somebody else's shop.
9.8%
Retail media growth in 2027 with Amazon excluded: the slowest since WARC began tracking the channel.
$37bn → $44bn
US creator advertising, 2025 actual to 2026 forecast. A channel half the size of digital video, mostly bought without a rate card.
US digital ad revenue by format
Full year 2025, $ billions
- Social$117.7bn+32.6% YoY
- Search$114.2bn+11.0% YoY
- Display$81.6bn+9.8% YoY
- Digital video$78.0bn+25.4% YoY
- Commerce media$63.4bn+18.0% YoY
- Podcast$2.9bn+17.6% YoY
Categories overlap, because social includes social video, so these do not sum to the $294.6bn total. The point is the ranking, and the fact that search is no longer the largest line.
Source: IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, April 2026
Year-on-year growth by format
Full year 2025, % change against 2024
- Social32.6%
- Digital video25.4%
- Commerce media18%
- Podcast17.6%
- Search11%
- Display9.8%
The market grew 13.9% overall. Everything below that line, search and display, lost share in a year with no Olympics, no World Cup and no election to distort it.
Source: IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, April 2026
AI: adoption, then the drop
Share of organisations at each stage, global survey, % of respondents
- Use AI regularly in ≥1 function88%
- Use generative AI72%
- Can measure a bottom-line effect39%
- Describe AI as fully scaled7%
- Attribute >5% of EBIT to AI6%
The distance between the first bar and the third is the entire opportunity. Getting to 88% took a licence; getting past 39% takes a measurement frame.
Source: McKinsey, The State of AI, November 2025, n=1,993 across 105 countries
Figures are as published and point-in-time. Where a report gives a forecast we label it as one. We do not restate other people's numbers with our own adjustments.