What To Expect for Digital Marketing in 2026

2025 proved to be a crazy time for brands trying to keep up with the digital trends and emerging technology, and there are no signs of slowing down in 2026! Digital marketing has been a constant evolution since its inception in the 90s, but today, it moves much quicker. Brands that anticipate change and adapt early are the ones who prove to have more staying power. Now that the new year is upon us, we wanted to review key trends, shifts, and best practices to keep your strategy not just relevant but also ahead of the curve. 

What to Expect for SEO in 2026: Visibility Factors Will Continue to Be Reshaped

Search Engine Journal’s State of SEO 2026 report, along with Search Engine Land’s “New Realities of Search,” make it clear: Search is no longer a neat, linear path. Discovery is happening in more places with deeper connection, so relying solely on top-of-the-funnel content is no longer a viable option. Successful visibility means having established authority and trust signals as well as engagement on 3rd party sites, which will allow you to show up as a reputable source in AI Overviews, Generative Search, and Answer Engines. With this in mind, you should expect declining click-through rates for surface-level terms, tougher competition for mentions, backlinks, and trust, and the pressure to scale content to heat up.

So, what can you do to stay relevant and enhance your visibility?

Original Content Creation

While original content creation remains one of the hardest tasks to scale, according to recent SEO survey data, it also will be the most crucial for visibility. Original content that will aid your efforts vary by industry, but case studies, FAQs, how-to-guides, and independent research are categories that make sense for nearly all businesses.

You can ease this burden by using AI and automation to produce more content, but remember that human oversight including editorial standards, brand voice, and factual accuracy continue to be essential. 

Brand Authority & E-E-A-T Are Non-Negotiable

As AI continues to infiltrate every aspect of our lives, trust and credibility are amplified. User dependence on AI to filter and summarize searches means it's no longer enough to simply publish your original content: Your brand needs recognition, consistency, and genuine authority. In short, you need to work on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) and getting your brand mentioned and cited on reputable channels. Make a concerted effort to grow these signals to enhance your visibility where users are actually searching.

Differentiate Your Content Formats

Written content alone won’t cut it. You need to present information in the format that users expect it in, whether that be voice, visuals, or video. Search is no longer “just Google it.” Discovery happens in apps, chats, social media, and more. When reviewing your content topics consider, “What is the best format to deliver this information?” If it is a quick fix you are providing, maybe a reel would be most powerful. If you are providing an in-depth overview with supporting research, a written guide would likely be a better format. When in doubt, you can search your topic and see what formats are ruling the results.

Thoughtfully Consider New Tools + Platforms

New tools will continue to be introduced, offering solutions for AI search, content scaling, reputation-building, and more. Be thoughtful of what tools you share your information and data with, especially when the tools are promising the impossible. Look at their reputation signals and the history of the tool. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. There is no harm in testing tools out - just be cautious when doing so. 

What to Expect for Paid Search in 2026: Maximizing Available Tools

Similar to what we will see in the SEO space, quality and connection will be what wins traffic and conversions in paid search (including social media). By offloading time-consuming tasks, like bidding, query mapping, budget pacing, and asset rotation, you can put more focus on what is truly moving the needle - creative strategy, funnel optimization, experimentation, and data quality. Most major ad platforms are already offering automation options, so be sure to familiarize yourself with those setups. To fuel your strategy direction, there a couple of emerging trends to consider:

Declining Traditional SERP Real Estate

The same SERP shifts that are affecting SEO are also affecting paid search. Therefore, having multiple types of content available for your campaigns will be beneficial. Google has been testing out different SERP landscapes and will likely continue to refine the experience for users, blending different AI modules. This means competition will be high and zero-click searches will affect paid search as well.

Keyword Matching Is Out, Intent Matching Is In

Long gone are the days of simple keywords and key phrases. You need to be thinking about the intent of the user and match your ads to the intent. Spend less time on generating long lists of keywords and more time on the actual ads and landing pages that you are driving users to, to provide true value. 

Personalized Ad Experiences

AI enables you to adapt to individual users. Work towards creating conversational ads that are relatable to your audience’s tone, goals, and past behaviors. Ads should be more personalized and dynamic, making static ads feel generic and dated. Make this possible by enabling the built-in functionalities of your ad platforms, uploading customer lists, and having robust content libraries that include images, videos, and user-generated content (UGC). Be sure to measure the performance of creative assets and copy and adjust accordingly.

Be Prepared for Changes in Reporting Data

Several factors have contributed to the decline of black and white insights into how campaigns are performing, including the depreciation of third-party cookies and the rise of AI-search experiences. With that in mind, instead of solely relying on click-through-rate, focus more on impression share and ad appearance in AI summaries, ad engagement, and brand mentions/citations.

Embrace a Holistic Approach to Your Campaigns

We have already discussed that high-quality content and creative assets are essential, but the assets you create should feel consistent across your channels. Likewise, you need to integrate your digital marketing strategies across paid, social, organic, and other touchpoints along the customer journey. Instead of relying on paid search for every stage of the funnel, it may make more sense to shift your campaign budget to be bottom-of-the-funnel so your budget goes further for the users that are ready to commit.

What to Expect for Social in 2026

From how content is being presented and what the content is to the organic reach, it is evident that social feeds are changing. Individual feeds will also look completely different, with content being ranked based on predicted emotional resonance and not engagement alone. Success on social media will rely on paying attention to user-behavior and expectations and being able to shift quickly. Here are some tactics to consider:

High-Quality Short-Form Video

Short-form videos are no longer just an entertainment tool; they are a workhorse for education and discovery. Enhance the discoverability of your videos with written transcripts, alt text, and treating captions/content like meta data. 

Embrace Built-In AI Functionalities 

All platforms are introducing new AI functionalities like AI suggested scripts, captions, variations, and more. These tools can help you improve and scale your content, but you should always keep your brand and audience in mind. Additionally, you can create real-time community management with auto-generated responses that match your brand tone, so you are not only showing up in the feeds, but you are also interacting with your audience.

Curate Communities + UGC

Due to the declining organic reach, brands need to leverage partnerships, user-generated content, and curated communities. These tactics not only help your reach and establish trust, but they also give you a direct line of communication to your audience so you can learn more about what your customers are seeking. This allows your audience to feel more personally connected to your brand.

Leverage Social Commerce

The United States is quickly adapting to social media shopping. Native checkouts are emerging everywhere. This eases the barrier to entry for customers who are ready to buy now. Keep up with the competition by enabling AI-powered product tagging, connecting your shop to your social channels, and creating personalized storefronts for your social media channels. Further, you can leverage your partnerships by creating shoppable livestreams.

TL;DR

2026 trends will continue to evolve as the year progresses.These tactics are tested and platforms are updated. December 2026 is going to look a lot different than January 2026, so regardless of what emerges, being adaptable and listening to what your audience wants will be key in staying relevant. Across the board, you need to focus on developing strong content, credible brand signals, and being AI-aware to thrive.