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July 08, 2026
Video ad spend is climbing, AI is now building most of it, and the format keeps beating static across almost every metric that matters. In 2026, US digital video ad spend is on track to top $81.9 billion, nearly 90% of advertisers are using or planning to use generative AI to build video creative, and video ads drive roughly 3.4x higher ROAS than display. Below you'll find 45+ current, sourced statistics on video advertising in 2026, organized by theme: market size and spend, performance, short-form and vertical, CTV and streaming, AI-generated and UGC ads, and cost. Every figure links to its source.
This roundup is ad-specific. If you want the broader picture, see our AI video statistics roundup for the whole category, and our AI video generation statistics roundup for the technology side (models, speed, quality). Here, it's all about the ads.
Let's break this down.
A quick note on how to read this. Video advertising stats come from a mix of forecasters (IAB, eMarketer, Statista), survey houses (Wyzowl), and platform and vendor reports. Methodologies differ, so figures on the "same" metric can vary between sources. We've noted the source on every stat so you can weigh it yourself, favored primary reports where possible, and flagged where a number reflects a specific study rather than a universal benchmark. Treat these as directional signals, not guarantees for your own account.
The money is moving to video, and fast. Traditional TV budgets are being reallocated toward digital and streaming, short-form is pulling in tens of billions on its own, and the "linear vs digital" crossover most forecasters predicted for years finally lands in 2026. Here's where spending stands.
US digital video ad spend is forecast to reach $81.9 billion in 2026, up 11% year over year, according to the IAB's 2026 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy report. (IAB)
Digital video is growing nearly 20% faster than the total ad market in 2026. (IAB)
Digital video will account for more than 60% of total TV and video ad spend for the first time in 2026, roughly 61% digital vs 39% linear. (eMarketer, IAB)
Social video ad spend is growing 13% in 2026, and CTV is growing 11%, per the IAB. (IAB)
Video's growth has cooled from its post-COVID peak: 21% year over year in 2022, 15% in 2025, and about 11% in 2026, signaling a maturing market rather than a fading one. (IAB, thedesk.net)
Mobile video ads account for about 73% of all US digital video ad spend in 2026, roughly $78.5 billion. (greenfroglabs)
Short-form video ad spend hit $111 billion globally in 2025, the fastest-growing category in digital advertising. (Kapwing)
Short-form video ad spend is forecast to reach $145.8 billion by 2028, a 9.52% CAGR from 2025. (Kapwing)
Global CTV ad revenue is expected to nearly double between 2023 and 2026 as viewers keep shifting from traditional TV to internet-connected devices. (Statista)
The takeaway: video isn't a line item anymore, it's the center of the media plan.
This is where video earns its budget. Across click-through, recall, and purchase intent, video consistently outperforms static, though static still has its place.
Video ads deliver about 3.4x higher ROAS than display ads (median). (shno.co)
Video ads increase brand recall by 71%, vs 45% for display ads. (shno.co)
Video ads improve brand recall by roughly 80% compared to static ads. (shno.co)
Video ads show 74% higher purchase intent than static ads. (shno.co)
Video and carousel formats can outperform static on CTR by up to 3x. (shno.co)
Feed video posts on Instagram average a 0.88% CTR vs 0.61% for single-image ads, a 44% gap. (shno.co)
Short-form video ads see about 58% higher CTR than static formats across platforms. (shno.co)
93% of marketers say video delivers strong ROI, the highest figure Wyzowl has recorded. (Wyzowl via searchlab)
Video isn't always cheaper per customer, though: one analysis found video earns 73% more clicks, but static acquired customers about 28% more cheaply. (askneedle)
Static ads still hold an edge for B2B lead gen on LinkedIn, with average CTRs around 0.6% to 0.7%. (velacore)
Here's the thing about that last stat: "video beats static" is a strong general rule, not a law. The good news is you can test both cheaply now, which we'll get to in the cost section.
Ads under 15 seconds hit an average 79.4% completion rate, vs 51.8% for ads over 30 seconds. (shno.co)
6-to-10-second "micro-ads" record the highest unaided brand recall at 68.7%. (shno.co)
On mobile, 10-second-or-shorter ads achieve the highest completion rate at 75.44%, followed by 30-second ads at 72.26%. (shno.co)
Multi-screen campaigns see 41% better recall and 13% higher purchase intent than single-platform approaches. (shno.co)
Vertical, sound-optional, and short is the default shape of a modern video ad. The numbers explain why.
81% of short-form video is consumed in the vertical 9:16 format. (Kapwing)
Vertical video completion rates run about 22 points higher than horizontal. (Kapwing)
Vertical video ad viewability reaches about 90%, vs 14% for horizontal. (medianug)
TikTok leads short-form engagement at roughly 3.7%, well ahead of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. (autofaceless)
TikTok holds about a 40% share of the short-video platform market, with Reels and Shorts around 20% each in many markets. (Kapwing)
Videos under a minute average about a 52% engagement rate. (Kapwing)
Over 75% of all video views happen on mobile devices. (greenfroglabs)
About 85% of mobile videos are watched without audio. (Digiday)
Captioned video ads see an 18.4% skip rate, vs 41.3% for non-captioned. (shno.co)
Videos with captions get about 16% higher reach and 15% longer view times. (shno.co)
Mobile video ads see about 28% higher engagement than desktop. (greenfroglabs)
Bottom line: if your video ad only works with the sound on, most viewers will never hear your message.
Reels, Shorts, and TikTok collectively account for about 58% of time spent on social media. (digitalapplied)
Short-form video delivers the highest ROI of any video format, cited by about 41% of marketers. (Sprout Social)
91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2026 (Wyzowl). (Sprout Social)
TikTok holds about 72% completion on sub-30-second content, vs about 61% for Instagram Reels and 54% for YouTube Shorts. (digitalapplied)
Meta platforms absorb roughly 41% of total social ad spend, while TikTok's share is growing fastest at about 34% year over year. (sqmagazine)
TikTok ad revenue is forecast to grow about 40% year over year, into the $30-billion-plus range. (marketingltb)
Connected TV is where video advertising crosses over into the living room, and 2026 is the year it overtakes some big linear milestones.
US CTV ad spend is projected at roughly $37.95 billion in 2026, up about 14.5% year over year. (StreamTV Insider, StackAdapt)
In 2026, US CTV upfront ad spend ($17.73 billion) will exceed primetime linear TV upfront spend ($16.98 billion) for the first time. (eMarketer)
By 2028, CTV ad spend is projected to reach about $46.89 billion and surpass traditional TV advertising for the first time. (StackAdapt)
By 2029, US CTV ad spend is forecast to top $52.53 billion. (StackAdapt)
CTV completion rates run between about 90% and 97.2% on ad-supported streaming, because most CTV inventory is non-skippable and full-screen. (amraandelma)
Non-skippable CTV pre-roll ads hit roughly a 98.6% completion rate. (amraandelma)
CTV ad viewability sits above 97%. (amraandelma)
UK CTV ad spend is projected at $3.25 billion in 2026 (up 16.9%), Canada at $1.29 billion (up 16%), and China at $3.47 billion (up 11.5%). (StackAdapt)
Here's why that matters for a small business: a video ad that runs on CTV gets watched to completion far more often than a scrollable social ad, on the biggest screen in the house. For a deeper forecast, see our CTV advertising forecast for 2026.
Most video ads are bought programmatically now, and YouTube alone is bigger than several legacy TV networks combined.
Global programmatic ad spend is projected to clear about $821 billion in 2026, roughly 90% of all digital display investment worldwide. (searchlab)
Video makes up roughly 50% of all programmatic spend. (searchlab)
Video ad viewability averages about 78.6%, 6.2 points higher than display. (searchlab)
In-stream video viewability reaches about 83.1%, vs 68.2% for out-stream. (searchlab)
In-stream video CPMs typically run $12 to $25, while CTV CPMs start around $25. (shno.co)
YouTube generated about $40.4 billion in ad revenue in 2025, more than the combined ad total of Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. (shno.co)
The average YouTube ad view rate is about 31.9%. (shno.co)
YouTube Shorts ads accounted for about 22% of total YouTube ad revenue in 2025, up from 15% in 2024. (shno.co)
The pattern holds across programmatic too: video wins on viewability, and the in-stream, full-attention placements (CTV, in-stream YouTube) beat scrollable out-stream slots.
This is the fastest-moving story in the roundup. Generative AI has gone from experiment to default in about two years.
Nearly 90% of advertisers are using or planning to use generative AI to build video ad creative (about 86% of buyers). (IAB)
Buyers project generative-AI creative will make up about 40% of all video ads by 2026. (eMarketer)
Smaller brands expect 45% of their digital video to be built with generative AI, midsize brands 42%, and the largest brands 36% by 2026, so SMBs are adopting faster than enterprises. (IAB)
Cost efficiency is now the #1 cited benefit of gen-AI video, named by 64% of respondents, up from fifth place in 2024. (IAB)
Advertisers use gen AI to create audience-specific versions (42%), visual style changes (38%), and contextual relevance (36%). (IAB)
On agentic AI specifically, about two in three buyers are already live (21%), testing (20%), or planning to use it (25%), with another 28% investigating. (IAB)
A perception gap remains: 82% of ad executives think Gen Z and Millennial consumers feel positive about AI-generated ads, but only about 45% of those consumers actually do. (IAB)
That gap is the practical caution here. AI can build your video ad, but the ad still has to feel real to the person watching. For more on the tech behind these numbers, see our AI video generation statistics roundup.
Ads featuring user-generated content see about 4x higher CTR and 50% lower cost-per-click. (archive.com)
UGC-style video ads show about 35% higher watch-through rates than polished brand ads. (archive.com)
User-generated videos generate roughly 6x higher engagement than branded videos. (Kapwing)
92% of consumers trust UGC more than traditional advertising. (taggbox)
70% of Gen Z and 68% of Millennials say UGC videos help them discover new products. (Kapwing)
The UGC platform market is projected to reach about $8.48 billion in 2026, up from $7.1 billion in 2025. (autofaceless)
Video used to be the expensive format. That's changed, and the numbers show how much.
AI video tools can cut per-video production costs by 70% to 90% vs traditional production by removing crew, equipment, and studio costs. (magichour)
One analysis found AI cut average production cost by about 91%, from roughly $4,500 per minute to about $400 per minute. (magichour)
Traditional social-style video ad clips typically cost $1,500 to $5,000, with full projects running $1,500 to $50,000-plus. (novoads)
The average time to produce a 60-second marketing video dropped from about 13 days to about 27 minutes with AI tools. (magichour)
Companies using AI video report about 68% faster time-to-publish for video campaigns. (magichour)
AI video tools save the average marketing team roughly 34 hours per week previously spent on production and editing. (magichour)
On the delivery side, CTV CPMs generally run higher than social, but come with completion and viewability rates most channels can't match (see the CTV section above).
The pattern across every cost stat is the same: the barrier to making a video ad has collapsed. That reshapes the whole calculus, because you can now afford to test five versions where you used to shoot one.
Read the 70-plus stats above together and a few clear patterns emerge.
Video is the format, and short and vertical is the shape. Digital video crossing 60% of TV-and-video spend, short-form pulling $111 billion, and 81% of short-form watched vertically all point the same direction. If you're producing a video ad in 2026 and it's horizontal, sound-dependent, and 45 seconds long, you're building for how ads worked in 2019.
Attention is the real currency, and it's unevenly distributed. CTV completion rates near 97% and in-stream viewability above 83% aren't accidents, they come from full-screen, non-skippable placements. Out-stream and muted mobile feeds are cheaper but leak attention. The stat pairs that matter most are completion rate and viewability, because a "cheap" impression nobody finishes isn't cheap at all.
AI has moved from edge to center in about 24 months. When nearly 90% of advertisers are using or planning generative AI for video creative, and cost efficiency jumps from the fifth-ranked benefit to first, the question stops being "should we use AI video" and becomes "how do we use it well." The 82%-vs-45% perception gap is the guardrail: AI can build the ad, but authenticity still has to be earned, which is exactly why UGC-style creative keeps outperforming polished spots.
Cheaper production changes strategy, not just budgets. A 70% to 90% cost cut and a drop from 13 days to under 30 minutes doesn't just save money, it changes what's possible. Testing many variants, refreshing creative weekly, and reaching channels (like streaming TV) that used to require a five-figure production budget all become realistic for a small business.
Bottom line: the winning 2026 video ad is short, vertical or full-screen, captioned, produced fast and cheap, and placed where attention is highest. That's a very different playbook from the one most brands still run.
Here's the part most roundups miss. The same collapse in production cost that made AI video ads cheap has quietly opened up the one channel that used to be off-limits to small businesses: television.
You can create a finished video ad with an AI video generator like Wavemaker, then run it as a real streaming TV commercial through Adwave, on 100+ premium networks starting from $50 (plus Google, YouTube, Meta, Reddit, and display). The CTV completion and viewability numbers above (90% to 97%-plus) are exactly why that combination is compelling: you make the ad in minutes, and it lands full-screen on a real TV, watched to the end. When your video's ready, that's the bridge from MP4 to living room.
How much is spent on video advertising in 2026? US digital video ad spend is forecast to reach about $81.9 billion in 2026, up 11% year over year, per the IAB. Digital video will make up more than 60% of total TV and video ad spend for the first time this year, with mobile accounting for roughly 73% of digital video spend.
Do video ads really outperform static ads? In most consumer contexts, yes. Video ads deliver about 3.4x higher ROAS than display, roughly 80% higher brand recall than static, and 74% higher purchase intent. That said, static ads can be cheaper per customer acquired and still win for some B2B lead-gen on channels like LinkedIn, so it's worth testing both.
How much of video advertising is now made with AI? Nearly 90% of advertisers are using or planning to use generative AI to build video ad creative, and buyers project AI-made creative will account for about 40% of all video ads by 2026. Smaller brands are adopting fastest, expecting 45% of their digital video to be AI-built.
Why do CTV video ads perform so well? CTV inventory is mostly non-skippable and full-screen, so completion rates run between roughly 90% and 97.2%, with viewability above 97%. Viewers watch on the biggest screen in the room in a lean-back mindset, which is why CTV upfront spend is overtaking primetime linear TV upfronts in 2026.
How much cheaper is making an AI video ad than a traditional one? AI video tools can cut per-video production costs by 70% to 90%. One analysis found costs dropping about 91%, from roughly $4,500 per minute to around $400, while a 60-second video that once took about 13 days now takes about 27 minutes to produce.
Does short-form or vertical video really matter for ads? It does. About 81% of short-form video is watched vertically, vertical completion rates run about 22 points higher than horizontal, and over 75% of video views happen on mobile. Since around 85% of mobile video is watched muted, captions are essential, they cut skip rates from 41.3% to 18.4%.
Ready to make one? You can create your first video free with Wavemaker (75 credits, enough for your first video). Type an idea, paste a URL, or upload a document, and get a finished ad in minutes. When it's ready, Adwave can put it on streaming TV from $50.
