Social media will take $394.6 billion in advertising spending in 2026, up 21.3 percent year on year — the fastest growth of any major channel in WARC Media’s latest global forecast, published this week — and is on course to pass $500 billion in 2028.
The numbers, reported by Advanced Television, B&T and other trade outlets from WARC’s third-quarter update, put social comfortably ahead of search, which grows 14.2 percent to $295.7 billion, and retail media, up 14.3 percent to $202.1 billion. Together the three performance channels command 66.4 percent of all global advertising spending in 2026, heading for 70 percent by 2028. Total global spend is forecast at $1.34 trillion, up 11.9 percent.
Social’s dominance shows up inside categories as well as across them. WARC expects social media to account for 40.2 percent of all technology and electronics advertising in 2026 — the fastest-growing advertiser sector overall, up 20.7 percent. Travel and transport (up 19.3 percent) and automotive (up 17.8 percent) follow, all categories that have shifted launch and demand-generation budgets heavily into feed and short-video formats.
Several forces explain the momentum. Social platforms now combine reach, granular targeting, creator content that doubles as ad creative, and shopping features that shorten the path from impression to purchase. WARC’s analysis frames performance channels broadly as beneficiaries of uncertainty: when economic conditions feel unstable, advertisers favour media that can be paused, retargeted and re-measured quickly over commitments made months ahead.
The concentration question hangs over the celebration. Alphabet, Amazon and Meta together are forecast to take 59.7 percent of global ad spend outside China in 2026, rising to 61.5 percent by 2028 — meaning the social surge substantially enriches two companies, Meta and Alphabet’s YouTube, while the rest of the media industry divides what remains. Radio (down 1.9 percent) and publishing (down 2.4 percent) continue their slide in the same forecast.
For media planners, the planning model itself is under review. WARC’s Future of Media research argues that static plans built on rigid personas and stable channel definitions no longer fit an AI-driven landscape in which search behaviour, creative production and audience targeting all shift continuously — and in which brands increasingly market to machines and recommendation systems as well as people.
The practical takeaway for 2027 planning, as the forecast lands on Friday, October 9, 2026: social is not a channel in the plan any more. For a growing share of advertisers, it is the plan — and every other medium has to argue for its place around it.
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