For the first time, social media commands the largest share of digital advertising — and Meta is on course to surpass Google in ad revenue before the year is out.
Social media advertising crossed a symbolic threshold in 2025, overtaking search to claim the largest share of the digital advertising market, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau’s annual assessment of the industry. The shift reflects a sustained reallocation of marketing budgets that has been building for several years and is now reshaping the competitive order among the platforms that have long defined the sector.
Social media ad spending rose 32.6% year over year to $117.7 billion in 2025, giving the channel a 40% share of the total digital market — the first time it has held the top position. Search, which built Google into the dominant force in digital advertising, generated $114.2 billion, but its growth rate declined by nearly 5 percentage points in 2024 as AI-powered tools alter how users find information and how that activity can be monetized.
The downstream consequences for Google are significant. Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, is projected to surpass Google in both US and global advertising revenue for the first time in 2026, according to a recent eMarketer forecast — a milestone that would have seemed unlikely as recently as three years ago.
The IAB’s report also marks a formal reclassification of creator content. What was once treated as an experimental add-on to campaign budgets is now described by the trade group as a “core media channel.” Creator economy spending reached $37 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $44 billion in 2026, driven by a shift from one-off brand partnerships toward always-on strategies that combine micro-influencers, affiliate programs, and performance-focused creators.
“Brands are embedding creators into the foundations of their media strategies, operational workflows and even product development,” the IAB said in the report.
Part of what is driving creator value beyond raw follower counts is commerce. More creators are linking brand awareness activity directly to transactions, capitalizing on the growth of commerce media, which rose 18% last year to $63.4 billion — though its rate of growth also slowed by five percentage points from 2024. The human quality of creator content is also becoming a competitive advantage as algorithmic feeds fill with low-quality AI-generated material, a phenomenon the industry has dubbed “slop.”
AI is creating other complications. The IAB estimates that more than 50% of global web traffic now originates from automated bots — a figure the trade group cited in calling for stronger industry measurement and interoperability standards. The bureau’s recently launched Project Eidos initiative is its formal response to that challenge.
Elsewhere in the report, video advertising — spanning connected TV, social video and online video — grew 25.4% to $78 billion in 2025, accelerating from the prior year. Video game and esports advertising rose 22%, driven by more sophisticated in-game ad formats, stronger demand and improved measurement.
Despite the shifting dynamics, the overall structure of digital advertising is consolidating rather than fragmenting. After brands diversified some spending toward mid-sized platforms in 2024, the pendulum has swung back. The top ten global media platforms increased their collective share of digital ad revenue by 3.4 percentage points in 2025, capturing 84.1% of the total market, leaving less room for smaller players than at any point in recent years.