Total global ad revenue grew to $1.14 trillion in 2025: WPP Media

The economy might not be great, but advertising is still growing like gangbusters.

Total global ad revenue (excluding political advertising) is projected to increase 8.8% in 2025 to $1.14 trillion and is projected to grow another 7.1% in 2026, according to a new forecast from WPP Media. (In North America, total ad spend excluding political advertising is expected to increase 12.3% in 2025.)

That figure surpasses the agency’s previous prediction from 2024 that global ad revenue would increase 7.7% this year. (At the time, WPP Media was known as GroupM.)

Amid larger economic trends, including heavy AI investment and the effects of tariffs, new trends are emerging in the ways brands and different verticals are buying advertising. We dug through WPP Media’s report, which analyzed ad revenue data from over 60 markets around the world, and pulled out some takeaways below.

Spending on social: When it comes to content-driven advertising, social and digital platforms are leading the way in growth. Collectively, the categories will reach $413 billion in 2025.

Gaming is growing the fastest within content advertising, and ad spend in that sector is expected to grow to $8.5 billion this year and to $10.7 billion in 2026.

New type of TV: Streaming is also growing by leaps and bounds and is expected to make up 26.2% of total TV revenue in 2025 and 29.6% in 2026. It’s expected to grow 15.2% to $43.9 billion in ad spend this year, and increase another 15.1% in 2026 to $50.5 billion.

TV ads, meanwhile, continue to decline, with the category’s share of global ad revenue declining to 14.6% this year from 15.8% last year. While TV ads as a whole are projected to hit $167.4 billion in 2025 and $170.8 billion in 2026, linear TV ad spend is expected to decrease 3.8% to $123.5 billion this year and drop another 2.6% to $120.3 billion next year.

Magazine advertising is facing the steepest decline, dropping 7.2% to $15.6 billion this year, and another 10.7% to $14 billion next year. In audio, which includes radio and podcasting, total advertising was near-flat in 2025 at $27.5 billion (a decrease of 0.1%); the channel is expected to bring in $27.6 billion next year.

Now searching: Search advertising, which is undergoing a considerable transformation with the infusion of AI, is expected to grow 10.2% to $244.9 billion this year, making up 21.4% of total ad revenue. But growth is expected to stagnate in 2026 and decelerate through 2030.

Commerce is maturing: Advertisers are now treating commerce media, which includes retail media, travel services media, and financial services media networks, as an important part of their media mix, according to the report. The commerce category is expected to make up 15.6% of total global ad revenue in 2025, reaching $178.2 billion. Retail media makes up the majority of commerce revenue, and the US makes up a third of global retail ad revenue; however, the vast growth of that segment could mean future consolidation as advertisers streamline partner portfolios.

Location, location: Location-based advertising is expected to grow 6.3% in 2025 to $56.9 billion, growth that the report attributes to programmatic expansion into out-of-home (OOH) and the channel’s inability to be easily replaced by digital platforms. Total OOH advertising spend is expected to grow to $54.6 billion this year, a YoY increase of 6.3%, with digital OOH (DOOH) expected to grow 9% to $22.2 billion. By 2030, the OOH market is expected to surpass $71.5 billion globally; DOOH will constitute about half of that spend.

Cinema-based advertising in particular will grow 5.5% to $2.2 billion this year but is expected to remain relatively stagnant through 2030 due to “persistent structural headwinds,” according to the report.