The German advertising market is facing another year of stagnation in 2026
The JOM Group’s latest advertising market forecast shows that the continuing economic uncertainty means that companies only have limited growth potential for increasing advertising investments.
Hamburg, 3 December 2025 – The German advertising market is expected to close 2025 with a slight decline and will not achieve much growth in 2026 either. As stated by the JOM Group in its new forecast, the market turned out to be significantly less robust in the current year than was predicted at the end of 2024. Alongside the repeated downward revisions to expectations for overall economic growth and the consumer climate, advertising companies were noticeably less willing to invest. Issues such as customs policies and the crisis in the automotive industry once again illustrate how sensitive the market is in reacting to external disrupting factors.
The JOM Group anticipates continued uncertainty from companies with regards to economic recovery and rising private consumer spending for 2026. Against this backdrop, the forecast expects advertising expenditure to remain virtually static. If the economic situation improves as forecast, the advertising market could achieve a slight increase of around 0.5% and thus reach a volume of just over EUR 28 billion.
The structural change towards a digital media landscape that has been in progress for years now will continue in 2026. The shift of budgets from linear TV to digital moving image platforms is particularly dynamic in the way it is developing. Providers such as YouTube, Amazon, Netflix and media libraries such as RTL+ or Joyn are now an integral part of the big screens in living rooms and are attracting a steadily growing share of advertising investment.
Keywords
Contacts
Simone Heitmann
simone.heitmann@jom-group.comwww.jom-group.comSubscribe to releases from JOM Group
Subscribe to all the latest releases from JOM Group by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from JOM Group
JOM Group: The German advertising market will continue its growth in 202517.12.2024 11:54:12 CET | Press release
The JOM Group’s forecast for the German advertising market in 2025 indicates sustained growth of around 3.2 per cent. This means the market is continuing its positive trend for the second consecutive year.
Recession to slow Germany's advertising market in 2023 / The annual growth forecast by the JOM Group foresees an increase of just 0.5 per cent for the 2023 advertising market in Germany.12.1.2023 08:55:15 CET | Press release
Hamburg, January 11, 2023. The German advertising market could have succeeded in returning to its pre-Covid-19 level as early as in 2022, and then pushed on to new heights in 2023. However, as is generally well known, external factors like the Ukraine conflict and persisting supply bottlenecks have prevented this development. The experts from the JOM Group, agency for hybrid marketing communication, therefore assess that net advertising investment in 2022 only increased by some 1.2 per cent. After a good start to the year, investments fell significantly below the level of the previous year, especially during the second half of the year. The JOM Group is forecasting even weaker growth of around 0.5 per cent for 2023. That would bring the total volume in the market to around 22.7 billion euro. Stronger focus on sales in communication In a weak economic environment, household consumption will also continue to decline in the coming year. In combination with continued high inflation rates,