INFOGRAPHIC

Quarterly Global Advertising Spend Trends: Q1 2026

Q1 2026 Advertising Trends By Industry Vertical

PubMatic’s Quarterly Ad Spend report was created to provide both publishers and advertisers with insights into the changing trends of the advertising industry. Here are the key digital trends from Q1 2026’s advertising spend data.

AD SPENDING CHANGE BY ADVERTISER CATEGORY

Q1 2026, YoY

Programmatic ad spend continued its steady growth in Q1, with mobile out front.

Careers (+125% YoY) saw the strongest growth, maintaining momentum from Jan to Mar (+135%), as online job boards are scaling ad budgets aggressively to target job seekers.

Hobbies & Interests more than doubled its year-over-year ad spend growth in Q1, skipping the typical January slowdown entirely and growing steadily through the quarter. The driver: a surge in new online games and gambling titles entering the market.

Law, Government & Politics ad spending surged in Q1 2026 as the U.S. gears up for a midterm election year – already more than double the total seen during the same period during the last midterms in 2022.

LARGEST ADVERTISER AD SPEND INCREASES DURING Q1, BY CATEGORY

Careers: Strong early-year growth, typically peaking mid-year as hiring and career transitions drive consistent seasonal investment.

Law, Gov’t & Politics: Highly cyclical with major spend spikes in election years, reflecting surging campaign activity.

Home & Garden: Steady seasonal growth (+54% Jan to Mar) fueled by spring and summer home improvement activity.

SMALLEST ADVERTISER AD SPEND INCREASES DURING Q1, BY CATEGORY

Family & Parenting: Notable decline from January to March, with limited advertiser activity outside key moments like back-to-school and holiday family seasons.

Arts & Entertainment: Early-year dip despite Q1 award season events, highlighting weaker momentum beyond major cultural spikes.

News: Minimal overall growth, with spend concentrated around major news and election cycles, leaving non-event periods comparatively flat.

MORE INSIGHTS

Explore the latest trends in video ad inventory, or check out our rolling 4 quarter lookback on select categories for seasonal trends.

PubMatic’s data analytics team analyzes over 1 trillion global advertiser bids on a daily basis, utilizing the company’s best-in-class analytics capabilities. This snapshot is based on PubMatic-sourced operational data. Advertiser category definitions are aligned to IAB’s content taxonomy categories​

To inquire about these insights,
please reach out to our Press team: