Digital marketing trends in 2026

Staying up-to-date in the world of digital marketing is essential to reaching your audience, connecting with them authentically, and ensuring they choose your brand. To achieve this, it’s crucial to understand the digital marketing trends of 2026 , which are driven by artificial intelligence, personalised content, and providing value to audiences. 

That’s why in this article we explore the main digital marketing trends that will dominate 2026. Are you ready to discover them? Let’s get up to speed.

What are the digital marketing trends for 2026?

Think with Google has already made its marketing predictions for 2026, and everything points to a year marked by advances in artificial intelligence and new technological discoveries. The result? A profound change in the way people interact with brands.

These are the trends that will help you connect better with your consumers and build more effective strategies: 

The colour of the year 2026

The visual identity for 2026 now has a name. Pantone has revealed the colour that will define the design aesthetic, and it’s PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer. 

This soft, luminous tone responds to a global need for calm, clarity, and balance in an increasingly saturated environment. It’s time to consider including this colour in your brand’s palette and keep it in mind when designing social media content, creating packaging, or developing websites.

From generative AI to Agentic commerce

Artificial intelligence continued its evolution throughout 2025, expanding its capabilities to include advanced image and content generation. In 2026, this development will take another step forward and play a key role in the rise of Agentic Commerce , a new commerce model powered by autonomous AI agents.

This will be the year these agents begin making entire purchases on behalf of users. They will analyse needs, compare products, select the best option, and complete the purchase with an unprecedented level of autonomy. This transformation promises to drastically reduce friction in the buying process, optimise decision-making, and save time for both consumers and brands.

Buy now via video

According to Cyberclick, video is becoming an essential sales format . Why? Shoppable videos allow users to interact with products and make purchases without leaving the content or the original platform. 

The key to the success of these videos is that they combine entertainment while informing about the product, allowing the incorporation of clickable tags, pop-ups or links, and boosting purchase interest due to the low friction in the buying process . 

Furthermore, each interaction generates valuable data for optimising the conversion funnel. Interactive videos offer immersive experiences that connect emotion and functionality.

The power of data 

Data will become a fundamental pillar of digital marketing in 2026. Real-time data analysis will be the industry trend due to the precision it allows in optimising campaigns and making them more effective. 

Understanding the audience and thus personalising messages , monitoring the performance of content or campaigns, and making adjustments to redirect strategies and improve results are some of the advantages of analysing data.

Furthermore, having data is synonymous with having information and can help anticipate needs. It allows for predictive marketing, that is, predicting consumer actions to segment and offer a unique experience to each individual. 

Nostalgia in campaigns 

One of Google’s predictions for 2026 is based on the power of nostalgia as a central element in advertising campaigns. Due to daily chaos and stress, consumers “seek comfort and identity,” and data shows that it really works. Campaigns that have tapped into nostalgia have been shown to increase brand affinity by up to 20% (Pulse Advertising).

How can you translate this into an advertising campaign? For example, you can review your brand’s history to identify the memories that resonated most with your audience. This could be a logo, a product or service, a slogan, a song… Revisit it and adapt it to your current business. Among other things, you can make a newly launched product or service feel familiar to your audience

An audience that wants to participate

Interactive content has always been an important part of connecting with audiences and making them feel like they belong to the brand. Google points out that by 2026, the public’s desire to participate will go much further, as young audiences have grown up with technology. They call this creative maximalism. 

This type of consumption means that consumers do not only want to experience stories, but also take part in them. This implies creating a universe that users can enter and discover the brand; simply creating a campaign is not enough. Instead of offering pre-packaged content, brands should provide resources such as sounds, characters, or creative tools so that users can construct their own narrative. 

From SEO to GEO 

With platforms like ChatGPT surpassing 700 million weekly active users, the way people search for and consume information has changed radically.

SEO is evolving and integrating with GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The goal is no longer just to appear on the first page of results, but to ensure that your brand and its content are cited as references and sources , for example, in Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews.

In this new ecosystem, traditional keywords are giving way to prompts and direct queries. SEO is becoming more conversational, contextual, and multimodal, integrating text, images, and voice. To stand out, brands must focus on in-depth, useful, and authoritative content, reinforcing experience, credibility, and trust using the EEAT approach. 

Community on social media 

By 2026, according to Cyberclick’s estimates , the public will be seeking more closed and personalised spaces. Faced with the saturation of traditional social networks, users are shifting towards micro-communities on platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord, looking for more meaningful connections and a genuine sense of belonging.

The trend indicates that brands will leverage these environments to generate authentic interactions and build deep loyalty through segmentation . In this ecosystem, direct communication and trust will be paramount. Therefore, by 2026, a key metric will be return on investment (ROI) from user engagement.

User-generated content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) will solidify its position as a key advertising channel. According to HubSpot’s Consumer Trends Survey, social media is the primary channel for product discovery, and 63% of users value authentic content. 

Therefore, the relevance of UGC and personal content remains significant and will continue to evolve in 2026 with the integration of artificial intelligence. This gives rise to AI-UGC (AI-assisted User-Generated Content) , an approach that combines the authenticity of content created by real people with the speed and scalability of AI, enabling more efficient content creation without sacrificing credibility. 

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing will continue its growth in 2026 and will solidify its position as a key component of content strategy. According to Marketing Directo ‘s 2026 SAMY trends study, 48% of marketing professionals will increase their investment in this channel. 

In this scenario, micro-influencers are gaining prominence thanks to their ability to build trust and engagement within niche communities. However, as Sparktoro points out in a report, as AI becomes more prevalent, influencer content that focuses on sharing knowledge will stand out and build stronger trust with audiences.

Undoubtedly, social listening and understanding what your audience is looking for will be key to connecting with them. Want to prepare your e-commerce site for these digital marketing trends? At Redegal, we develop omnichannel strategies to reach the right audience at the right time to buy. Shall we talk?