Global ad spend upgraded to $1.17 trn in 2025 as social media platforms drive growth
WARC raises global ad forecast with Meta, Alphabet and Amazon set to capture nearly two-thirds of new spending; 40% of fresh ad dollars now flow into social media.
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Global advertising spend is growing faster than expected, powered overwhelmingly by social media and other digital-first platforms.
According to WARC’s Global Ad Forecast Q3 2025, worldwide ad expenditure is now projected to rise 7.4% this year to $1.17 trillion - a sharp upgrade of 1.2 percentage points from its June forecast.
Read more: Global ad spend crosses $1 trillion for the first time; future trends in media revealed by WARC
This marks the first upward revision in more than a year, but the gains are concentrated among a handful of technology giants. Meta, Alphabet and Amazon together are forecast to account for nearly two-thirds of all ad growth in 2025, underscoring the dominance of digital platforms in capturing new marketing dollars.
Digital takes it all
Nine in every ten incremental ad dollars this year are expected to go to online-only platforms. Social media alone is absorbing two in five new ad dollars, with spending on the channel projected to surge 14.9% to $306.4 billion. That will represent more than a quarter (26.2%) of total global ad spend in 2025.
Meta remains the biggest beneficiary, with 60% of all social media advertising spend expected to flow to the Menlo Park–based company. Search advertising will attract around 22% of new ad dollars, while retail media platforms are set to take another 21.5%.
Read more: India adex to rise 8.4% to $21.3 billion in 2025, even as global growth slows to 6%: WPP Media
By contrast, legacy media owners - even those with digital extensions — are left competing for what WARC compares to “the equivalent of Facebook’s monthly revenue.”
Market outlook
Looking ahead, global ad spend is projected to accelerate further, reaching 8.1% growth in 2026 to total $1.27 trillion. Outside of China, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon already account for 55.8% of advertising spend — a share on track to top 60% by 2030.
“The global market is set to nearly double in value since the pandemic, underscoring the resilience of advertising in a tougher economic climate,” said James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting at WARC.
He added: “Despite economic headwinds, including disruption to global trade and reduced purchasing power among consumers, brands are doubling down on Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, while emerging players like TikTok are growing fast but from smaller bases.”
WARC’s latest global projections are based on data aggregated from 100 markets worldwide and leverage a proprietary neural network which projects advertising investment patterns based on over two million data points.
