Paid media looked different at the end of 2026 than it did at the start. The core channels stayed the same, but how budgets moved between them, and what it takes to stand out inside each one, changed in a few clear ways.
New Campaign Types Arrived Alongside Manual Controls
Google’s ad platforms added AI-driven campaign types like Performance Max and Demand Gen next to the traditional manual controls, giving advertisers more ways to build and structure campaigns. At the same time, AI-generated summaries changed how some informational searches play out before a user ever reaches an ad, which made search results a little more nuanced to read than they were a year ago.
Streaming and Live Sports Pulled in More Budget
Streaming TV had a standout year. A Digiday survey found 45% of brands planning to use streaming ads this holiday season, up from 23% the year before. Live sports added to that momentum, with rights spread across more platforms than ever, including Amazon, Netflix, YouTube TV, Apple TV+, and Peacock.
Creative Carried More of the Load
Targeting on social platforms got less precise as privacy changes and broad, automated campaign types took over. That shifted more of the performance weight onto creative and offer quality, since the ad itself increasingly does the work that audience targeting used to do.
The Common Thread
Budgets spread across more channels than ever in 2026, from search and social to streaming, live sports, and Amazon. The year’s theme was less about any single channel changing and more about how many places a campaign now has to show up well.
Sources: Digiday’s 2026 Holiday Marketing Research, eMarketer’s coverage of streaming, live sports, and Amazon advertising, and Search Engine Journal’s PPC trends coverage.