Meta is expected to surpass Alphabet (Google’s parent company) in global digital advertising revenue for the first time in 2026, reports eMarketer. Meta’s ad business is forecast to generate around $243.46 billion, slightly ahead of Google’s estimated $239.54 billion during the same period.
The shift is mainly driven by faster growth at the social media behemoth. According to the report, forecasts suggest that the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is expected to grow its advertising revenue by around 24.1% in 2026, significantly outpacing the Sundar Pichai-led firm’s projected growth of around 11.9%.
A major reason behind Meta’s strong growth is the rising popularity of short-form video ads, especially on Instagram Reels. Reels has become one of Meta’s most powerful earning tools because it allows ads to be shown inside short videos in a highly personalized way. This format is especially effective for brands that want to reach younger people and users who mostly use mobile phones.
Another important factor is the growing use of AI in Meta’s advertising system. The company now uses AI tools that help create ad campaigns, choose where ads should appear, and target the right audience more effectively. This makes advertising easier for businesses and improves the results they get from their spending, which encourages them to invest more. At the same time, Meta is expanding beyond Facebook and Instagram by increasing its focus on WhatsApp for business communication and customer service, and developing Threads as a new social platform. These additions give the company more places to show ads and create new long-term sources of revenue beyond traditional social media feeds.
Meanwhile, Google’s advertising business, although still larger in absolute terms for now, is experiencing a more mature phase of growth. The company’s primary revenue driver remains search advertising, a segment that is already highly optimized and saturated in many global markets. While search ads continue to generate huge revenue due to high commercial intent, their expansion potential is structurally limited compared to newer, engagement-driven formats. Additionally, user behaviour is gradually shifting toward discovery-based consumption on social media platforms and video feeds, which reduces the pace of incremental growth in traditional search advertising.
The latest projection becomes even more notable as in 2025, the digital advertising market was still led by Google, which reported about $303.9 billion in total ad revenue (~ 14.8% increase from 2024), while Meta generated around $196.2 billion in advertising revenue, showing a much faster 22.1% year-on-year growth.
However, despite Meta’s projected lead, the global digital advertising market remains heavily concentrated among a small number of major technology companies. By 2026, Meta, Google, and Amazon are expected to collectively control around 62.3% of global digital advertising spending.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
