China Advertising Market 2026: Advertisers Expect 10% Higher Marketing Spend
Updated
The China advertising market enters 2026 with more confidence than it has shown in three years. Advertisers surveyed by Miaozhen Marketing Science Academy (秒针营销科学院) expect their total marketing spend, digital plus traditional, to grow by 10% on average this year. That is a real pickup after three straight years of slowing growth, and it lines up with what we see in client budgets in Shanghai.
The headline number is correct, but it is an expectation, not a result. The report also says where the money is going, which matters more for a smaller brand than the average. Below I go through the survey, add the official market data released since, and say what I would do with a modest budget.
By Jon Wang, founder of SEO Agency China, a small Shanghai team that runs Chinese marketing for foreign SMEs on tight budgets.
I read these advertiser surveys every year because our clients’ media plans are built on the same platforms the respondents are buying.
Who ran the survey, and is the 10% figure right?
The study is the 2026 China Digital Marketing Trends Report (《2026中国数字营销趋势报告》) from Miaozhen Marketing Science Academy, the research arm of the ad measurement firm Miaozhen. China Daily covered it on 21 January 2026: 198 marketing decision makers across more than 20 industries, from food and beverage and beauty to healthcare, apparel, auto and 3C. Other write-ups mention 200 advertisers plus interviews with 17 senior marketing scientists.
The 10% is real. Expected growth in company marketing spend (traditional and digital) for 2026 is 10%, against an actual 8% in 2025. Two caveats. First, it covers all marketing spend, not digital alone. Second, it is what advertisers plan, and plans in China get cut by the second quarter when sales disappoint.
Advertiser sentiment: 30% now positive
About 30% of advertisers now hold a positive investment outlook, up 8 percentage points year over year, while negative views dropped from 54% to 47%. The mood is improving, but almost half of the market still expects to spend less.
From where I sit, helping foreign brands get a positive ROI in a crowded market, this rebound feels real but uneven. Confidence is strongest in pharma and healthcare and beauty and personal care, especially among high-budget advertisers where management drives the decision. Auto and food and beverage are more cautious, and so are low-budget companies, which is the group most of our clients belong to.
My take: brands know that pure performance tactics stopped paying once traffic got expensive. Everyone agrees brand building drives long-term growth, but short-term sales pressure keeps pulling budgets back to performance ads. The report captures this tension well.
The China advertising market in numbers: official data vs. the survey
A survey tells you intent. The regulator’s figures tell you what was billed. The State Administration for Market Regulation and China Economic Information Service published the China Advertising Industry Development Index Report (2026) in June: national advertising business revenue reached 2,050.21 billion yuan in 2025, up 32.6%, the first time it crossed 2 trillion yuan.
The first half of 2026 kept going. Head advertising companies booked 1,037.38 billion yuan of revenue, up 11.3% year on year, and internet ad placement revenue rose 25.3% to 612.1 billion yuan, about 86% of all placement revenue (CCTV News, 7 August 2026). The two scopes differ, so do not compare the full-year and half-year numbers directly. The direction is clear though: the money is online, and it is growing faster than the total.
Miaozhen’s own estimate for the narrower digital marketing market is growth of 12.6% in 2025, with internet advertising and marketing passing 1.6 trillion yuan. Head platforms take more than 70% of that. For a foreign SME, that concentration is the real constraint: you are bidding for attention against the largest advertisers in the country on the same few apps.
Survey results at a glance
| Question | Answer | Share of advertisers |
|---|---|---|
| Expected growth in total marketing spend, 2026 | 10% (2025 actual: 8%) | Average |
| Positive investment outlook | Up 8 points | 30% |
| Top growth lever | Stronger brand building | 48% |
| Top media for more spend | Mobile internet | 62% |
| Top platform type for more spend | Seeding (种草) platforms such as Xiaohongshu | 76% |
| Top ad format | KOL collaborations | 67% |
| Say AI in marketing is urgent | Yes | 85% |
| Top challenge | Results are hard to measure | 52% |
Top growth levers for 2026
When advertisers were asked where the biggest opportunities lie, the answers were practical:
- Stronger brand building topped the list at 48%. No surprise: trust and emotional connection cut through the noise better than another discount.
- New product launches followed at 47%.
- Youth-focused strategies came in at 42%, well ahead of premiumization (24%). Young consumers still drive trends, and we see the biggest lifts when brands talk to Gen Z through short video and KOLs.
- AI strategy implementation ranked fourth at 38%.
Overseas expansion sits at 25%, reflecting Chinese brands’ outbound push. Meanwhile lower-tier city penetration lost 11 points in importance. The “sinking market” story is quietly losing steam. The report also names rising-income groups, seniors and young consumers as the core targets, with emotional consumption, symbolic consumption and going global as the three growth drivers.
Where the money is flowing
By media type, mobile internet leads for increased investment at 62%, then content marketing at 44% and out-of-home at 29%.
Platform winners in China
- Seeding and community platforms (Xiaohongshu style): 76% plan to increase spend
- Short video: 56%
- AI-native apps: 47%, a sign that search is moving toward generative AI answers
- WeChat Channels: 41%; WeChat and Moments: 35%
Ad formats: KOL collaborations lead at 67%, followed by performance ads (46%), native content placement (40%), search and brand zone ads (34%) and video feeds (33%). App open-screen video is at 21%. Immersive formats are earning budget again.
In content, sports events lead at 31%, with micro-dramas right behind at 30%, ahead of variety shows (19%) and TV dramas (15%). Both winners are emotional and easy to share, which is why they travel on Chinese social apps.
If 76% of advertisers are adding money to seeding platforms, KOL prices on those platforms will not fall this year. Before you sign anyone, read what a Chinese KOL really costs and how to budget for it.
AI: everyone wants it, few know how to use it
85% of advertisers say using AI tools or large models in marketing is extremely urgent for their company. Yet “we don’t know how to apply AI” is now cited by 25% as a challenge, ranking seventh.
Where AI is used, it is mostly in creative generation (67% of users), creative design (66%) and marketing insight (52%). But its share of the actual work stays low: about 35% in creative generation, 33% in design, 30% in insight. We use AI a lot internally at SAC, for brainstorming, copy variants, spotting trends in comments and quick moodboards, and it is still a copilot. Humans do the taste, the cultural read and the final call. That is not changing soon.
Among advertisers who don’t see AI as urgent, the reasons are telling:
- No good success stories yet (42%)
- Can’t fully trust the output (33%)
- Worries about the security of company data (33%)
- The organisation isn’t set up for it (29%)
The 47% figure for AI-native apps is the one I would act on first. When Chinese users ask DeepSeek or Doubao “which brand should I buy”, the answer is built from public content. We wrote a practical guide on how to appear in DeepSeek AI answers for brands starting from zero, and we run the same work as a DeepSeek GEO service.
Measurement is the real headache
The top challenges are not about channels. 52% of advertisers say results are hard to measure, 48% that ROI is hard to improve, 45% that media is too fragmented. When budgets get squeezed, fewer companies just chase “the highest ROI channel” or cut across the board. More look inside:
- Tying marketing KPIs directly to business growth (66%)
- Investing in digital talent (51%)
- Cutting management costs (37%)
Splitting up and downsizing marketing departments? Down 12 points. Turns out randomly cutting people doesn’t fix things.
For a small brand, this is the useful part of the report. You can’t outspend Alibaba’s or ByteDance’s biggest customers. You can measure better than them on a small scale: one platform, one product, one conversion you can count. Our budget guide for SMEs marketing in China breaks down what a realistic first year costs.
What a 10% budget increase looks like for a small brand
Picture a hypothetical European skincare brand, call the marketing lead Anna, with 600,000 yuan for China in 2026, 10% more than last year. Her 2025 plan split the money between Tmall search ads and a few large KOL posts. Sales came in, but she could not say which post sold anything, and cost per order kept rising.
The obvious move would be to add the extra 10% to search ads. That buys more of the same expensive traffic. What works better is following the survey: move about a third of the budget to seeding on Xiaohongshu with 30 to 40 small creators (KOCs) instead of three big names, track each note with its own search keyword, and keep search ads only for the brand terms those notes create. The reason is simple. Small creators cost less per post, and a branded search that follows a note can be counted, which fixes the measurement problem the survey ranks first.
A credible outcome after six months: fewer impressions, a lower cost per order, and a clear list of which notes drive branded searches. That list is the asset. It tells Anna where the next 10% should go.
So yes, 2026 looks like the year to stop chasing new tactics and get serious about balance again: short-term numbers and long-term brand equity, AI speed and human taste, young consumers and real product news. The traffic era’s easy wins are gone. The next phase rewards brands that understand consumers well and measure what they do. It is also why the big 4A networks keep losing ground here, as I explained in why the big 4A agencies are struggling in China.
Questions we get about the China advertising market
How big is the China advertising market?
According to the market regulator, national advertising business revenue reached 2,050.21 billion yuan in 2025, up 32.6%, the first year above 2 trillion yuan. In the first half of 2026, head advertising companies earned 1,037.38 billion yuan, up 11.3%, and internet placement made up about 86% of placement revenue.
How much will China marketing spend grow in 2026?
Advertisers surveyed by Miaozhen Marketing Science Academy expect total marketing spend, traditional plus digital, to grow 10% on average in 2026, after 8% in 2025. It is the first rebound after three years of slowing growth. It is a plan, not a result, and 47% of advertisers still expect overall market spend to fall.
Which channels are advertisers backing in China for 2026?
Seeding platforms like Xiaohongshu lead, with 76% of advertisers planning to spend more, followed by short video at 56% and AI-native apps at 47%. By format, KOL collaborations lead at 67%, ahead of performance ads at 46%. By media type, mobile internet leads at 62%.
How are Chinese advertisers using AI?
85% say AI in marketing is extremely urgent, and most use it for creative generation, design and insight. Its share of the work stays low, about 35% even in creative generation. The main reasons for doubt are a lack of success stories (42%), distrust of the output (33%) and data security (33%).
Putting your 2026 China budget where the survey points
We plan small-budget campaigns on the platforms this survey ranks first, starting with creator seeding on Xiaohongshu that you can measure note by note. Our digital marketing agency service in China covers media planning, creators and measurement for SMEs. If you want a second opinion on your 2026 split, send us your plan.