Head of state Donald Trump’s tariffs have actually currently influenced client spending, and there is lingering uncertainty amongst company executives concerning just how tariffs will continue to impact budget plans. Advertisers like Kimberly-Clark have actually started to tighten their belts. The personal treatment firm just recently stated that it had reduce its general advertising and marketing invest 10 8 % compared with in 2014’s second quarter.

IPG’s Magna Global, which releases quarterly ad-spend forecasts, said in June that it had adjusted its 2025 growth forecast downward by 1 2 percentage points due to much less confident financial projections and minimized business self-confidence given that December 2024 It currently projects international advertising profits for media owners to reach $ 979 billion in 2025, up just 4 9 % in contrast with 2024

Likewise, in June, WPP Media changed its global advertisement earnings development price downward to 6.0% from a formerly predicted 7 7 % increase, a 13 7 portion distinction. It cited disturbances to international profession and proceeded deglobalization stress weighing on advertising investment as factors for the modification. WPP Media currently anticipates global advertising and marketing earnings to reach $ 1 08 trillion in 2025

While advertisement costs is down, AI devices have actually remained to rapidly develop and become extra nuanced. The latest model getting media agencies’ focus is agentic AI. Agencies informed Digiday that their customers are eager to utilize this brand-new technology in spite of being vague on what agentic AI can do or how it might affect interior workflows.

“That’s returning to where we discover the performances,” claimed Andrea Montano, evp of approach, understandings and links at Setting up Worldwide. “It has to do with just how you make smarter decisions faster, to have the results that you desire and be made up appropriately. There will be some shifts with just how we have commercial arrangements with clients as an outcome of AI, which could be amazing– beneficial on both sides.”

Bearing all of this in mind, Digiday’s 2025 media agency report analyzes the current and future state of media companies from the point of views of complete customer costs and spending by media network. It likewise explores the effect of agentic AI on the agency landscape.

To evaluate the existing state of media preparation and buying and to comprehend which networks customers are buying currently and where they will be spending in the future, Digiday+ Research study gathered actions from 96 firm professionals in a study fielded in July and August 2025

For extra industry insight, Digiday hosted an emphasis group of 7 senior media firm execs who look after media investment at holding company-owned and independent media firms to collect first-person accounts of customer investing. Agencies and networks that joined the emphasis group were:

• Setting up International
• Horizon Next
• IPG Mediabrands
• Mediahub
• Mile Marker
• Novus
• PMG

In the middle of issues over tariffs and the U.S. economic situation, media firm customers are tightening their budgets in 2025, Digiday’s survey found. Almost fifty percent of participants (45 %) claimed customers reduced their budget plans this year. Much less than one-third of firms stated that budget plans continued to be the same (32 % of participants) and fewer than one-quarter stated budget plans raised (22 % of participants).

This year’s reduction in customer spending is a remarkable modification from the outcomes of last year’s firm report , when 39 % agencies informed Digiday their customers had enhanced their budgets in 2024

Amongst participants who said budget plans have actually decreased in 2025, however, over half (53 %) stated budget plans have decreased by less than 20 %.

These traditional budget plan declines may mirror a toughened up approach to the negative influence of tariffs and rising cost of living on customer costs. The danger of tariffs, whether they are eventually established or otherwise, can result in market complication, customer hesitancy and pullbacks in media spend.

Executives that participated in Digiday’s focus group noted that costs has actually been down specifically among customers whose items are influenced by governmental changes to public health programs and new tariffs.

“We have insurance coverage [clients] and we have actually obtained some quite huge cuts since we have federal government financing for Medicare and Medicaid,” Setting up Global’s Montano stated. “That was sort of a type the gut for Q 4 when you have an open enrollment.”

Drew Corry, svp of tactical financial investment and market method at IPG Mediabrands, claimed costs by automobile manufacturers is down too. “The whole classification, from our viewpoint, is influenced by tariffs,” Corry claimed. “We’ve got foreign automakers, however from what I understand, on a macroeconomic viewpoint, even the American automakers were impacted by it too.”

Natalee Cecil Geldert, head of brand media at PMG, stated that some customers are readjusting spending plans on a day-to-day basis. “From an efficiency channel perspective, we’re virtually in the spirit of day trading,” Geldert claimed. “What are hourly, if not everyday, keeps reading performance and the business’ bottom line, and adjusting budget plans in real time to where we’re seeing success.”

But not all clients are pulling back on spending. A number of emphasis group individuals noted that investing has been either flat or up a little in 2025 for categories like financial solutions, traveling, technology and pharmaceuticals. The time of year can additionally influence costs, according to Geldert.

“Heading into Q 3 and priming for Q 4, retail is starting to see an uptick, particularly with new item inventory being released before the vacations,” Geldert said. “And, entering into the sporting activities season, we’re beginning to see points pick up– MLB coming into completion of the period and playoffs, and NFL and college football beginning to kick off.”

Montano claimed that, eventually, many customers would favor to invest continually throughout any given year. “We’re seeing a great deal of clients feel prone with their seasonality,” she stated. “Customers that make a lot of their cash in the fourth quarter intend to flatten out that seasonality. I can see a world where none solitary quarter will be an out of proportion spend in the future, just because of the way that I believe clients intend to run.”

Just as customers bewared with 2025 investing, firm participants told Digiday they anticipate to take an in a similar way traditional method in 2026 Virtually fifty percent of study respondents (48 %) said that they anticipate clients’ budgets to continue to be the same in 2026 In comparison, more than one-third of respondents (38 %) claimed they expect budgets to enhance in 2026, while 15 % claimed they expect to see budget cuts.

IPG Mediabrands’ Corry claimed that, while costs may see a small uptick next year due in big part to international showing off occasions, overall growth will certainly be moderate. “It must be up, however it’s mosting likely to be unnaturally driven by points like the World Cup and the Olympics,” he stated. “Those tend to push financial investment up. The most effective we can inform, it appears like it would certainly moderate development if you took that out.”

“There are still a great deal of uncertainty and unanswered inquiries regarding significant nations as it relates to tariffs,” Corry added. “We’ve seen some consumers and some firms pull ahead investing, but on the back fifty percent, whether that’s required, the court is still out.”

“If the upfront is any kind of indication, the marketplace for 2026 looks somewhat more powerful than 2025,” said Mike O’Connor, evp and head of financial investment at Horizon Next. “Broadly speaking, it really feels a little rosier, a little sunnier than 2025”

Study participants agreed. Amongst respondents who said spending plans will raise in 2026, the bulk (62 %) said boosts will certainly remain in the conservative 10 %- 19 % array.

Assembly Global’s Montano claimed companies’ assumptions for customer investing in 2026 may vary depending on whether their clients are national or worldwide brands. “Component of it likewise depends upon your customer lineup– multiregion customers, or real global customers,” Montano stated. “We’re a bit more optimistic [about 2026 spending] because the worldwide GDP is looking a little bit stronger. If that could continue, I assume in the united state, we’ll be a little bit extra favorable about it.”

Surprisingly, Rob Davis, head of state and CMO at Novus, and Scott Shamberg, head of state and CEO at Mile Pen, both told Digiday that customers have actually said their 2026 budget plans will not raise a lot, yet that they anticipate them to invest large in 2027

“A couple of brand-new business pitches have actually noted the 2026 budget plan is X [amount], yet the 2027 spending plan is already projected to be X times, plus 50 %,” Davis stated.” [The message is] ‘we’re still going to wait and see, however after that the following year– 18, 24 months out– is when [we’ll spend]’ It was virtually like [hearing], ‘our budget plans aren’t that big, but depend on us, they’re increasing when we think things will really resolve, which is the following year.’ I had never ever seen that before.”

“We have actually seen that as well, and I had never seen that prior to either,” Shamberg added. “I’m translating that as, ‘I recognize the allocate following year is not exactly what you would want, however the following year, I vouch, is mosting likely to be significant.’”

Digital networks will be the large winners when it involves where clients increase their investing in 2026, according to Digiday’s study outcomes. The top channels in which agencies claimed they expect to see spending plan rises in 2026 are: streaming video clip and CTV (72 % of respondents); social media (66 % of participants); search advertising and marketing (55 % of participants); and retail media (45 % of respondents).

Throughout durations of financial unpredictability, digital networks are fairly very easy to scale up, and just as simple to pull back on. They additionally have a tendency to be more economical than conventional networks.

The exact same impulse driving customers’ overall budget fluidity is likewise directing where they invest. Customers intend to stay active and not obtain boxed in, according to Mile Pen’s Shamberg. “What I’m listening to [from clients], and it goes back to the economic uncertainty, is just how much flexibility can we construct right into what we’re discussing devoting,” Shamberg said. “There was uncertainty entering into 2025 certainly, yet going into 2026 that’s an also bigger ask in advance. … They’re looking for as much flexibility as they can potentially obtain.”

“As budget plans end up being extra digital, where there is naturally extra versatility … knowing that a lot of your bucks now remain in electronic channels that are inevitably flexible has actually offered some sense of convenience in a market that has been, from a monetary viewpoint, so turbulent,” added Perspective Next’s O’Connor. “There might be uncertainty and concern, but due to the fact that we do have versatility to enhance on an ongoing basis, the customer moves towards digital and the budgets that complied with, make that a little bit extra workable.”

Customers are additionally changing media network costs due to the existing political environment, according to Mile Pen’s Shamberg. “We are obtaining genuine concerns from our direct mailers concerning one, the expense of shipping, and 2, what is the future state of the USPS,” Shamberg claimed. “Is that going to obtain privatized or go away? Political influence to those kinds of concerns and choice making flow down into, ‘do I draw my direct mail, spend back, go a lot more right into digital?’”

Amongst the media channels included in Digiday’s survey, streaming and CTV was the No. 1 network in which companies said they anticipate customers to raise costs next year. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72 %) claimed that they anticipate customers to increase their streaming and CTV invest in 2026

Over the previous year, advertisement prices have actually boiled down on streaming and CTV platforms– driven by Amazon’s launch of its Prime Video ad-supported tier– which most likely make up even more advertisement dollars changing into the channel. Netflix CPMs dropped from $ 42 14 in Q 1 2024 to $ 31 05 by Q 2 2025, for instance. And Amazon CPMs glided from $ 35 25 to $ 28 01 throughout the same time period.

“Consumption has actually grown tremendously and there are extra advertisement possibilities with Netflix and with Amazon,” stated Perspective Next’s O’Connor. “While need has been there, rates has actually been a lot more beneficial from a customer’s viewpoint. … Most of us continue to see streaming rates boil down essentially, greatly due to a lot more options from a supplier viewpoint.”

“The supply has captured up, as has the demand,” IPG Mediabrand’s Corry concurred. “We saw CTV as a location a lot of our customers wanted to buy this year. You can still see the disintegration on the straight side, however a great deal of that was noticed the digital side.”

Clients also have a far better understanding of CTV advertising’s advantages than in the past, according to Mile Marker’s Shamberg. “There’s even more education for the brand names for CTV, and understanding what they can get– not simply from a supply perspective, however from a measurement viewpoint– and from brand-new technologies like [elastic container registry] ECR,” Shamberg claimed. “Prior to, [CTV] was an intense, glossy item. Now, [clients are asking] ‘what component of my media mix should it be.’”

Streaming platforms have actually remained to boost the quantity of online sports configuring they lug also, which attract clients who want to reach enormous sporting activities target markets. Yet it also produces competitors in the market.

“There’s a whole lot more possibility than made use of to exist for customers that generally seemed like they couldn’t break through with adequate significance and budget plan,” claimed Stephan Indich, evp and head of integrated financial investment at Mediahub. “At the same time, due to the fact that the sports market is so hot, the demand exists. Customers who have bigger budgets are coming in quicker to lock in what they want.”

“This year has actually been wild,” Indich included. “It’s been nice to see that increase in passion. But, naturally, it produces a really unpredictable market.”

Setting up Global’s Montano claimed she’s additionally seeing a crossover in between streaming and CTV and retail media advertising and marketing in terms of both customer information collection and the use of interactive shoppable ads. For example, Roku partnered with Instacart on shoppable retail media action ads. In addition to providing first-party client data for ad targeting, the collaboration helped CPG brands measure whether their advertisements drove sales on the grocery store distribution platform.

Retail media was the fourth-most important media network in which firms stated that they expect to see enhanced client spending in 2026– 45 % of survey participants claimed this.

“I love exactly how now it’s [CTV] being attached to collaborations with retail media networks,” Montano claimed. “It’s the partnership of the linked TV … using that shoppable data. It remains in this sweet area because, as a strategist, I think about how it flexes as brand name equity and additionally flexes to drive performance. Now, if you have the very best of both worlds, it’s mosting likely to continue to significantly grow, which will certainly be amazing to see and, in regards to making use of that data, will certainly pay off for customers.”

At market events from Cannes to the Digiday Media Acquiring Top , the topic of AI has penetrated executives’ discussions over the previous year. By now, a lot of agency execs and their customers know with generative AI, which remains to gradually penetrate even more corners of the media organization– developing efficiencies across web content, manufacturing, research study, information and media preparation and buying. But much less customers know AI representatives and how they can be used within media acquiring.

Unlike conversational generative AI devices like chatbots, AI representatives can act on users’ behalf They can complete jobs, communicate with other software systems, make decisions and act individually. Nevertheless, when Digiday asked companies about their customers’ knowledge with agentic AI, almost three-quarters of firm respondents (73 %) said their customers do not recognize what agentic AI is and just how it can be made use of to optimize advertising campaign.

Digiday’s focus group individuals said that customers have concerns about exactly how AI representatives are made, what they’re capable of doing and what they can not do.

“One [question] is simply how and where are you [the agency] using it,” Novus’ Davis said. “How are you mosting likely to reduce fees by saving time and energy? Exactly how is what you’re doing mosting likely to make us smarter than the competition? After that, there’s an extremely specific question that I do not assume I’ve spoken with a client in the last four to six weeks that they have not asked, ‘just how is it influencing both paid and organic search?’”

Davis claimed some clients are seeing site web traffic decreases of as long as 30 % and they are associating most of the decrease to agentic AI’s effects on search results page. For instance, Google’s AI Overviews feature has actually been credited with tanking search web traffic to author and brand name sites given that it was launched in the united state on May 14, 2024 The attribute shows users AI-generated recaps on top of their search questions, ahead of web links to posts and websites. And, according to research published in December by consultancy Bain, 80 % of customers settle 40 % of their searches without going additionally than the search results web page.

Marketers stress that if organic traffic’s being influenced, the search website traffic they try to draw in with paid media spend may likewise be in risk. However it’s not all trouble for clients when it comes to agentic AI. AI search site visitors themselves transform at 4 4 times the rate of ordinary natural search site visitors, according to Semrush

And Mediahub’s Indich said dips in website traffic triggered by agentic AI are compeling agencies and their customers to think outside of package when it pertains to look material. “The good idea is that when clients are seeing that it is impacting their web traffic then they’re likewise a lot more focused on what actual web content is being drawn in when they are taking a look at particular questions,” Indich said. “How do they start to cover their heads around [gaining] much more control over that to make certain it’s the best details? … Just how do we think about more of a curated atmosphere that customers can have a hand in, and just how can we support them? It’s complicated. … However that’s the expertise development. That belongs to the understanding contour.”

In spite of their clients’ absence of knowledge concerning agentic AI, almost half of participants to Digiday’s survey (47 %) stated their clients are considering utilizing agentic AI in the following 12 months. This may be because marketing experts aspire to experiment with the most recent model of AI getting sector interest. However, the adoption of agentic AI is grabbing pace throughout media agencies.

• Almost fifty percent of firms (45 %) claimed clients have reduced their media budget plans in 2025– a significant change from in 2015, when 39 % companies told Digiday their customers had increased their budget plans in 2024 Much less than one-third of companies claimed that spending plans either continued to be the very same (32 % of respondents) or increased (22 % of respondents) in 2025
• Among respondents that stated spending plans have actually decreased in 2025, over half (53 %) stated budgets have actually lowered by much less than 20 %. Inflation and the hazard of tolls usually result in marketplace complication, customer hesitancy and pullbacks in media invest.
• Agencies expect a similar traditional strategy to customer costs next year. Almost fifty percent of study participants (48 %) stated that they anticipate customers’ spending plans to remain the same in 2026 Greater than one-third of participants (38 %) said they expect budget plans to raise in 2026, while 15 % stated they expect to see budget plan cuts.

• Digital networks will certainly be the large champions when it concerns where clients raise their spending in 2026 Agencies picked CTV (72 % of respondents), social networks (66 % of respondents), search marketing (55 % of respondents) and retail media (45 % of respondents) as the leading 4 channels in which they expect to see boosted investing.
• Company customers are moving more advertisement bucks into streaming video and CTV due to CPM price decreases. Numerous systems have actually additionally boosted the amount of live sporting activities material they relay, which appeals to clients that want to get to those huge sports target markets.

• While generative AI continues to continuously infiltrate more edges of the media organization, agentic AI stays an enigma to lots of clients. Nearly three-quarters of company respondents (73 %) stated their customers do not comprehend what agentic AI is and exactly how it can be made use of to enhance marketing campaign.
• In spite of their clients’ absence of understanding regarding agentic AI, almost half of agencies (47 %) claimed their customers are considering utilizing agentic AI in the following 12 months. Yet, clients are bothered with agentic AI’s results on search engine result.