Local advertising has always been about change, but the pace we’re seeing now feels different.
Not long ago, local advertising followed a relatively familiar rhythm. Today, audiences are everywhere, and platforms keep multiplying. Local advertising is no longer about a single channel or a familiar playbook. Buyers and sellers alike are having to rethink how they plan, activate, and measure campaigns. According to our U.S. Local Advertising Forecast, we project the local advertising market will reach $182 billion in 2026, and the competition for those dollars will be intense.
Major platforms are pushing deeper into local. National brands are behaving more like local advertisers. Digital channels including CTV, digital out-of-home (DOOH) and streaming audio are reshaping how campaigns are built and evaluated. And layered on top of all of this, Generative AI and Agentic AI are beginning to change how creative is produced, how campaigns are optimized, and how decisions are made in real time. In many ways, we’re still in the early innings, but the impact is already hard to ignore.
In moments like this, it’s easy to focus on speed, scale, or the next new technology. What stands out to me, though, is that clarity has become the real competitive advantage. Knowing where growth is coming from, which media and categories are driving it, and how those dynamics vary by market matters more than ever.
That’s why I asked our analyst team to step back and identify the ten trends that will shape opportunity in local advertising in 2026. The result is BIA’s annual trends report, The $182B Local Advertising Opportunity: Ten Trends for 2026.
The report focuses on where growth is actually taking hold across media, markets, and verticals. It examines cross-platform video strategies, the continued acceleration of digital out-of-home, the evolving role of political advertising, the expanding influence of social video and audio, and the business categories reshaping local media investment.
My biggest takeaway as we head into 2026 is that innovation alone isn’t enough. The companies that win will be the ones that pair innovation with disciplined, market-level insights built on data and local intelligence to make smarter decisions, not just faster ones.
We’ve made the report free to download, and I hope that it helps you see the new year with a little more clarity and a little more confidence.
— Tom Buono
CEO & Founder, BIA Advisory Services
