Social Rocket
AI search and connected TV appear higher on the growth list than social media in a new Digiday survey. 89 percent of the agency representatives surveyed each report rising client investment in AI search and streaming/CTV. For creator marketing and social media, it is 78 percent each. The figures show where budgets are shifting at some of the surveyed agencies. They do not show market share or a growth rate for total advertising spend.
The methodological caveat is significant: the Media Agency Report published on 5 October 2026 is based on a survey of 30 agency professionals in the third quarter and a discussion round with five executives. It is not a representative survey of the German advertising market.
What the 89 percent actually measure
The Digiday report asks which channels clients, in the respondents' assessment, are spending more money on. The result cannot be translated into "AI search grows by 89 percent" or "89 percent of all companies book AI ads."
In addition, 40 percent of respondents also report declining spend on social media, creator marketing and streaming/CTV. This is not a calculation error: an agency can see budget increases with some clients and cuts with others. Client mix and comparison period are decisive.
For total client budgets, 36 percent of the agency representatives surveyed see stagnation and 32 percent see increases. Growth in one channel can therefore come from reallocation just as well as from additional advertising.
How big is AI search as an advertising market yet?
The strong agreement in the agency survey contrasts with a second measure. WPP Media forecasts in its Midyear Outlook 2026 worldwide about 5,1 billion US dollars in advertising revenue from generative search in 2026. According to the forecast, this corresponds to only about 0,4 percent of total advertising revenue.
A small new channel can therefore become relevant for many media planners without yet holding the largest budget pools. WPP expects strong long-term growth for generative search. However, forecasts of future billion-dollar revenues are not ads that have already been billed.
A second distinction matters: a brand can also improve its visibility in AI answers through content and organic mentions. That is not the same as a purchased ad. How differently Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT cite social media content is shown in our analysis of the SE Ranking study.
Creator advertising can no longer be cleanly separated from social
Digiday observes that creator content is often used simultaneously for brand channels and paid social campaigns. Budget categories therefore overlap. The agencies surveyed by Digiday cite community building, amplified paid distribution and content production, among other things, as goals of creator collaborations.
An independent classification comes from the Interactive Advertising Bureau: for the US it forecasts around 44 billion dollars in creator advertising spend 2026. The IAB counts targeted brand investments in creator partnerships and associated ad placements, not all creator earnings. The definitional boundary is central. What one company files under influencer budget may appear as paid social at another.
That the channel still has a problem with measurement and uniform standards in creator marketing despite higher investment remains unaffected by this.
New channels, the same old question about economic results
The agency survey also contains a warning against a purely technological view of media planning. 31 percent report that implementing AI was more expensive than expected. 70 percent observe efficiency gains. Both can be true at the same time: a shorter production time does not guarantee a cheaper client order.
The shift towards AI-supported work places demands on token costs, audit logs and agency billing. There is also the pressure on CMOs to combine short-term results with lasting brand impact, which we placed in context using the CMO Outlook 2026.
For German media plans, the report is therefore an indicator of sentiment and practice, not a binding budget recommendation. More useful than a blanket shift to a supposed winner channel is a comparison of net reach, incremental impact, actual costs and measurable demand.