SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AdRoll, an AI-powered connected advertising platform, today released the Q4 2025 edition of its State of Digital Advertising Report. The report reveals that retargeting cost per mille (CPM) surged 11% year over year as an unusually early holiday shopping season and widening economic inequality intensified competition across digital channels.
Based on data from more than 20,000 online businesses, the report shows that both display retargeting and prospecting costs climbed sharply from September to November, surpassing 2024 levels by 11% and 2% respectively. Account-based marketing (ABM) campaign CPMs also rebounded, narrowing their year-over-year decline to just 10% in November after hitting a 23% drop in August. Together, the trends reflect a market where brands are pushing harder and earlier to capture consumer demand amid economic pressure.
Much of the spike can be traced to a holiday season that began nearly two months ahead of schedule. Brands pulled promotions forward to hedge against an uncertain economic outlook, while shoppers moved early to secure deals and spread out spending as inflation worsened. This concentrated ad spend and pushed CPMs sharply upward, especially across high-intent retargeting inventory.
Economic polarization further amplified the surge. With higher-income households driving a disproportionate share of spending and lower-income households pulling back, advertisers concentrated budgets on smaller, more affluent segments. That shift intensified competition for limited premium inventory, with higher-income verticals seeing the steepest CPM increases.
“Marketers are entering one of the most complex holiday seasons we’ve seen in years,” said Vibhor Kapoor, chief business officer at AdRoll. “When demand pulls forward and AI reshapes discovery paths, brands can no longer rely on last-minute spend or single-channel strategies. Success now depends on full-funnel visibility, experimentation, and tight orchestration across every team influencing the customer journey.”
U.S. inflation reached its highest level of 2025 in September, while consumer sentiment fell to a three-year low during the prolonged federal government shutdown. Yet consumer spending remained resilient through September and October, creating a market defined by volatility rather than clarity and requiring marketers to plan for agility as much as performance.
Looking ahead to 2026, AdRoll identifies three forces that will shape marketing strategies: persistent economic uncertainty that requires nimble budget allocation; AI agents that will increasingly mediate product discovery, comparison, and recommendations; and the growing necessity of coordinated cross-functional teams to deliver efficient, full-funnel performance.
For more information and actionable insights, visit https://www.adroll.com/state-of-digital-advertising-report.
About AdRoll
AdRoll is a connected advertising platform built for growth-minded marketers. With powerful AI, flexible campaign tools, and seamless integrations, AdRoll helps mid-sized businesses turn complexity into clarity and clicks into customers. The AdRoll platform delivers full-funnel performance through multi-channel advertising, audience insights, and cross-channel attribution, supporting marketers across industries including ecommerce, technology, financial services, education, and more. For B2B teams, AdRoll ABM extends these capabilities with account-based precision, multi-touch campaigns, and real-time buyer intelligence. Backed by nearly 20 years of data and award-winning support, AdRoll enables marketing teams to advertise smarter, move faster, and achieve more, all from one place.
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Public Relations for AdRoll
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