Video ads statistics show one obvious thing: video marketing keeps changing (doesn’t everything else?). It’s kind of funny because what once was images, and banners and simple product photos now is more about motion, sound, humor, and fun stories.
Video marketing is becoming very important now that it has reached many new platforms including Connected Televisions (CTVs), live streaming, and social media.
Today digital video advertising includes advertising within website players, mobile apps, streaming sites, online media, games, social media, etc., etc.
Projections around video ads statistics
We’re starting with projections because they create context for everything else.
Why? We think that an article about video ad statistics in 2026 should not begin with historical numbers alone. Projections show future direction, and we believe that that helps frame all later sections.
- The majority of global digital video advertising spending is thought to go more toward mobile ads than desktop ads in 2026. On paper, it might read as “mobile wins.” But what we think it really means is that videos aren’t necessarily linked to environments where they can have your full attention anymore. Because they are now consumed in fragments, interruptions, and micro-moments in a sense. Video watching is now characterized by shorter attention, and vertical viewing, faster decisions, and more impulse decisions.
- $181 billion is calculated to go to mobile video ads, and $56 billion is expected to be spent on desktop video ads. The main thing to remember here is that brands need 2 separate strategies: mobile for reach and emotional engagement, desktop for comparison and support.
- TikTok is projected to generate close to $44 billion in ad revenue by the end of 2026. TikTok has proved that short-form viral videos is not a content format, it’s a mental shortcut. Users don’t “browse” TikTok, they react to it. That is why so many video marketers have become infatuated with short videos, even when their actual video marketing content doesn’t fit that pace or platform naturally. And also…the example of TikTok shows how ads should not distract from but instead fit into the natural flow of native content creation. The platform has managed to teach companies how to make their ads entertaining before first, and promotional second.
- Global digital video advertising spending is projected to surpass 236.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2026.
- CTV advertising revenue worldwide is expected to increase by more than $10 billion between 2024 and 2026 alone. Note that this doesn’t mean that people are totally abandoning TV. It just means that they’re just switching to different screens. In a way it is an odd time when ads seen online act as both television commercials and social media content at the same time. How come? Thanks to Connected TV which offers advertisers the large-screen format that they always wanted but also the ability to reach more people (which is not easy in traditional TV.)
- Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) has been growing, as more viewers cut the cord from subscription-based services. FAST ad spending worldwide between 2023 and 2029 will nearly double, hitting an estimation of $16.5 billion by 2029. Apparently, viewers are now accepting commercials if it allows them to watch the content without paying for it. Something that seemed archaic years ago is making a comeback, only better.
Adoption & formats: latest video marketing statistics about what marketers actually do
- Video ads are the fifth-most-popular use of video marketing in 2026. Video advertisements aren’t an automatic choice despite the popularity of videos with many advertisers preferring organic content creation. Generally, advertisers are still distinguishing between “content” and “ads,” despite people being exposed to both on their feed screens.
- 41% of marketers have spent money on video ads in 2025 (up 5% from 2024), while 48% of marketers have created videos for ads. This again shows a split mindset. Many are still producing video content first and deciding later if it can be used as an ad. This is incredibly inefficient and is probably to blame for the increased video marketing costs. Instead of planning video campaigns with some kind of purpose in mind, marketers try to fit or shoehorn their content into video advertisements. Meaning more edits and worse performance of video content campaigns are a result.
- Social media ads account for the largest share of global mobile advertising investment, with over $140 billion spent on them. Companies are almost renting people’s attention within closed systems (without implementing video marketing strategies), where an algorithm dictates if their advertisements will be seen or “just a passing trend.”
- In a global late-2025 survey, video marketing experts agreed and found that YouTube was the most efficient video marketing platform, followed by Instagram and Facebook. Apparently, longer, educational videos and search-oriented traffic are YouTube’s strengths, while Instagram and Facebook are better suited to distribute short-form content socially.
- Short-form video is the most popular format used by marketers. No further comment is needed here.
- Google holds the top spot among leading digital ad sellers worldwide, followed by Meta. Of course the advertising industry is still controlled by a few large ecosystems.
- In 2025, YouTube’s global advertising revenues amounted to $40.37 billion, up from 2024. These YouTube marketing statistics reinforce a pattern seen more and more in video ads statistics: intent above reach. That’s how you make money. And it proves once again another important trend from video ad statistics – that long form videos, presentation videos, how to videos, and structured video marketing content are still the best monetized ones.
- The most used video ad types are testimonial videos and explainer videos.
- Connected TV is the device with highest digital video advertising viewability rates. This suggests that bigger screens still hold attention better.
- 11.7% of gaming and 40.73% of non-gaming in-app video advertising creatives are under 15 seconds. This explains how aggressive the reduction of attention spans is becoming. In non-gaming settings, the advertisement is made to create maximum impact right away, and that’s the main focus (not creating a story).
Source: Wyzowl, 2026
Video ads statistics about the US
- The United States is leading the ranking by ad spending in the ‘Video Advertising’ segment, and following closely behind is China and the UK.
- The US and Canada are important markets for Facebook, as their average revenue per user (ARPU) is well above the average of global internet users.
- Social media has certainly become one of the biggest drivers of mobile video consumption and ad growth, thanks to the number of users and their attention and time spent in such platforms.
- Around 2 in 3 video-on-demand payers would accept ads in exchange for a lower-cost video streaming subscription.
- Over half of Americans (7 out of 10) say that funny ads are their favorite type of Super Bowl commercial.
- 1 out of 5 Americans watches the Super Bowl because of the commercials.
- Another ad video report shows that with no subscription fees and expanding content libraries, the usage of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) in the US is growing on a quarterly basis.
- Older age groups tend to like ad-supported streaming content due to cost-saving reasons than younger gens.
- In the US, 53 % of people say that TV ads are the type of commercial with the most influence on what they buy, where they eat and shop, and the movies and TV shows they watch.
- Meanwhile, specifically Gen Z, believes that social media features the type of video ads that had the greatest influence on their buying decision process. This is followed by TV commercials and ads on free websites.
The latest video ads statistics shows that the US continues to remain the largest market for video ad spends, overtaking China and the UK. On the other hand, television remains to be the medium that holds the most power when it comes to emotions. This is proven through the Super Bowl advertisements, where the joke IS the product, not the brand or company or the product itself.
On the other hand, videos that pop up through social media channels have been subtly swaying consumer decisions. Gen Z, especially, bases their purchase decisions on immediate access to short videos.
Streaming has its own dynamics as well. Two-thirds of the audience is not bothered by advertisements that provide reduced rates for subscriptions.
So, the US does not transition from old television to new television, in a sense. Instead, it keeps both types of TVs, using the former for culture and power, the latter for everyday decision-making and motivation to buy.
The growth of video advertising in 2026 marks a clear progression from interruption to integration. As audiences continue to trade their time watching advertisements for reduced prices when streaming entertainment content, the line between the two becomes increasingly blurred.
In order to maintain relevancy, advertisers need to do more than simply “rent attention” through algorithms and instead produce content that aligns with the organic flow of the platform itself.
This entails not only producing content that will fit into an advertisement slot but also designing platform-appropriate content that takes into consideration the viewer’s context, whether it be a large CTV or a small mobile screen.
Capping off
Looking at all these video ads statistics, one thing becomes clear: this is not just a story about video marketing growth, it is a story about attention being redistributed across every screen humans use.
Mobile dominates budgets, short-form video dominates behavior, and CTV dominates viewing quality. At the same time, platforms like YouTube still hold trust, while social media videos in general are better for fast influence. There’s no single winner, only different roles inside the same (bigger) ecosystem.
Despite all that, despite scaling to hundreds of billions of dollars, the effectiveness of digital video advertising has not been increasing at the same speed.
As a matter of fact, a common trend in the video marketing industry is producing so much video content with no hook, bad pacing, poor production value, no message, and then pointing fingers at the algorithm.
But, they cannot only produce additional marketing videos in order to keep up-to-date. There needs to be more than just an increase in the number of marketing videos. Better video marketing efforts, better processes for creating videos, better tools and software, better output.
And if that sounds like a lot to manage in-house, partners like Vidpros make it easier without overloading your team. You can even start with a simple $100 trial and get professional editing support for either 10 short-form videos or 1 long-form piece. Curious about pricing? Check it out here!
Let’s make sure your video content is actually built for how people watch today through effective video editing.
