The 2026 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report provides a comprehensive view into the evolving U.S. TV and digital video marketplace—examining not only where ad dollars are flowing, but how buyer expectations around performance, measurement, transparency, and AI (including agentic and generative) are reshaping video investment strategies.
Key insights from this report:
- Digital video ad spend will surpass $80B in 2026, continuing to outpace the broader ad market
- Targeting and audience reach now rank alongside business outcomes as top decision-making criteria for video investments
- Confidence in inventory quality remains a challenge across all buying methods, driving greater demand for accountability and trust
- Nearly all buyers see a role for agentic AI, but the industry lacks consensus on governance, explainability, and human oversight
- GenAI adoption for video creative continues to accelerate, though many advertisers want more proof of performance and easier workflow integration
