Spend Trend: Retail Media Ad Spend Growing Faster Than Search and Social (New Report)

In terms of biggest ad-spending channels, there’s search, there’s social … and, slowly but surely, there’s retail.

Recent Insider Intelligence forecasts have retail media ad spend growing faster than the channels ahead of it, making up more than one-fifth (21.8%) of total ad spending in the United States by 2027.

(Source: Insider Intelligence)

“The battle for second may come down to which channel can grab more dollars from slower-growing or declining legacy channels (like linear TV),” says Insider Intelligence, which says retail media will also account for most of the upcoming search ad spending growth as well. While 26.7% of this year’s search ad spending is on retail media, that number will jump to 37.2% by 2027.

“As generative AI’s influence over the search market grows, so will a crop of thorny issues: increased ad costs, assimilation of new infrastructures, diminished user interactions, and more,” says Insider Intelligence. “But retail media search will thrive.”