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Digital Marketing 2026: Six trends shaping the year ahead

Download the full report to discover how advertisers, publishers, and platforms are adapting to another pivotal cycle of change.

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Marketing in 2026 will be defined by connectivity – connecting data with signals, activation with measurement, and performance with real business outcomes.

This year’s report explores how advertisers, publishers, and platforms are adapting to another pivotal cycle of change. With AI moving from experimentation to everyday execution, Super Signal Aggregators emerging as a new way to translate disparate data into meaningful intelligence and Commerce Media expanding beyond its Retail origins, the rules of engagement are shifting once again.

One constant remains: trusted data and scalable identity are the connective tissue that ties every channel, signal, and outcome together – enabling smarter decisions, optimised targeting, and more accountable performance in an increasingly complex – yet exciting – marketing ecosystem.

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In this report, we explore six trends shaping 2026

These are the six trends we think marketers need to be on the lookout for in 2026. In this report, we’ll unpack each trend in more detail – and what this means for marketers.

AI is only as good as its data

AI has moved from hype to execution, but its effectiveness hinges on data quality, transparency, and governance. Marketers are realising that the smartest algorithms are only as strong as the data that fuels them.

Rise of Super Signal Aggregators

2026 will see the emergence of Super Signal Aggregators – privacy safe ecosystems that connect fragmented datasets to restore accuracy and audience understanding and provide a clearer, more accountable path from insight to outcomes.

Data Collaboration is more important than ever

As the digital ecosystem becomes more fragmented, collaboration between data partners, platforms, and publishers becomes critical. Effective collaboration is now fundamental to driving greater efficiency, transparency, and performance across the supply chain.

Commerce Media expands beyond Retail

Commerce media is expanding across all verticals. Auto, Financial Services, and Travel brands are increasingly adopting Retail like models to link audiences, media investment, and sales outcomes in more measurable ways.

Household level targeting is the gold standard

With CTV already trading exclusively at the household level, 2026 will see household level targeting gain further traction across programmatic, striking the ideal balance between precision, scale and privacy.

Curation continues to build momentum

Curation will keep growing in 2026 as programmatic buyers embrace curated marketplaces to streamline activation, improve efficiency, and drive greater relevance, personalisation, and precision through higher quality supply paths.

A sneak peek into:

Digital Marketing 2026: Six trends shaping the year ahead

Trend 1

AI is only as good as its data

As AI moves from hype to implementation, marketers are realising its success depends less on the algorithm, and more on the integrity of the data behind it.

In 2026, data quality will become the true differentiator. Not just accuracy, but freshness, interoperability and privacy-safe. Good data fuels responsible automation, predictive insight, and personalisation that feels human. Without it, even the most advanced models will simply automate bad decisions faster.

In fact, in our 2025 Media Buying in Transition Report – 83% of marketers said data quality was the most important factor when choosing a third-party data provider.

At Experian, we believe AI should make marketing more human – not less – by truly understanding how best to reach, engage and personalise. “Human” in practice means more than personalisation. It also means transparent, non-biased and guided by ethical governance.

To do that, marketers need data that’s accurate, privacy-first, and intelligently connected – now, more than ever before.

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Digital Marketing 2026: Six trends shaping the year ahead

The trends in this report each point toward a more connected, data‑driven marketing ecosystem. But it’s the interplay between them – AI that depends on high‑quality data, commerce media and curated PMPs strengthened by richer connected signals, and household identity acting as the stable foundation beneath it all – that will truly shape how marketers succeed in 2026.

In the year ahead, marketing advantage will come from connection. Experian enables this connectivity through rich and diverse consumer data, signal‑agnostic identity resolution, and a broad network of media partners and activation pathways – empowering marketers to move seamlessly from insight to execution, and from connection to conversion.

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