NZ Digital Marketing Trends: September 2026
NZ Digital Marketing Report — September 2026: AI Search, Video & Ad Spend
A monthly read on New Zealand's NZ$2.967 billion digital advertising market. This month: the video surge, the programmatic shift, and the rise of zero-click AI search
The headline figure is clear enough: NZ$2.967 billion in digital advertising revenue for 2025, up 12% on the year before. But the headline obscures what matters. Strip out search — which grew solidly but unremarkably — and you find a video market that accelerated at more than twice that rate. That divergence is the real story, and it has direct implications for where marketing budgets, skills investment, and strategic attention should be pointing right now.
New Zealand's digital advertising market reached NZ$2.967 billion in 2025, growing 12% year-on-year, with digital now representing 72.1% of all NZ advertising revenue. Video was the standout format, up 27% to NZ$653.8 million. In 2026, the defining shifts are video-led programmatic buying and zero-click AI search.
In This Edition
New this month. Full-year CY2025 revenue detail from IAB New Zealand, including programmatic buy-type and advertiser-category breakdowns published for the first time in this series. Four New Zealand campaign case studies across public sector, B2B, ecommerce and brand. A new standing section on zero-click search and generative engine optimisation, prompted by the first NZ-specific data on AI use in business research.
Carried forward. The NZ$2.967 billion market total, the 27% video growth rate, 96.2% internet penetration and the ecommerce CAGR projection remain the baseline figures for the series until their source bodies publish again.
Watching next. The next IAB New Zealand quarterly release, further NZ measurement of AI-assisted search behaviour, and whether connected TV growth holds its trajectory as TVNZ+ and Sky inventory matures.
Executive Summary
New Zealand's digital advertising market posted NZ$2.967 billion in revenue for calendar year 2025, growing 12% year-on-year according to IAB New Zealand's independently compiled report. Full-year baselines are maintained in IDNZ's 2026 Digital Marketing Report & Statistics for New Zealand. Digital now commands 72.1% of all advertising revenue in the country. Search remained the largest single format at NZ$1.44 billion, but video grew at 27% to reach NZ$653.8 million — accounting for 22% of total digital spend and representing the sharpest acceleration of any major format. Classifieds and directories added 7% to reach NZ$389.5 million, while display excluding video was flat for the year. Connected device revenue grew 20% to NZ$63.2 million and connected devices now command a 50% share of programmatic revenue at NZ$40.6 million.
The international picture is consistent. IAB Australia confirmed the Australian market reached AUD$18.4 billion growing 11.5%, and IAB UK reported £40.5 billion growing 10% — placing New Zealand marginally ahead of both on growth rate, with video the standout format in all three markets. Advertiser demand remains concentrated: recruitment led all categories at 24.4% share, with real estate close behind at 23.2%.
The structural story sits underneath those numbers. Globally, over 1 billion people now use AI monthly, and search behaviour is changing with it — searches that trigger an AI Overview show an average zero-click rate of 83%. In New Zealand specifically, independent research commissioned by Auckland agency Pead found 48% of New Zealanders under 45 already use AI tools when researching a business, product or service, and a third of that group had changed their opinion of a business based on what an AI tool told them. For NZ marketing professionals, the practical implication is straightforward: the skills gap between practitioners who understand AI-assisted analytics, video-first planning and generative engine optimisation and those who do not is widening faster than most organisations have planned for.
NZ Digital Advertising Data: Charts and Visual Insights
Where Every NZ$100 of Digital Ad Spend Goes
New Zealand digital advertising revenue split by format, CY2025 — expressed per NZ$100 spent
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
Bar lengths are scaled to the largest format (search). Every value is labelled, so the chart does not rely on colour to convey meaning.
New Zealand Digital Advertising Revenue by Format, CY2025
Revenue in NZ dollars for key digital advertising formats, full calendar year 2025
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
Year-on-Year Growth by New Zealand Digital Ad Format, CY2025
Year-on-year percentage growth for key NZ digital advertising formats in CY2025
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
New Zealand Digital Advertising Revenue Share by Format
Proportional share of NZ$2.967 billion total digital advertising revenue in CY2025
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
Digital Ad Market Growth Compared: New Zealand, Australia and the UK
Year-on-year growth in digital advertising revenue for CY2025 across three comparable markets
Sources: IAB New Zealand, IAB Australia and IAB UK full-year 2025 reports, all released March 2026
| Format | CY2025 Revenue (NZ$) | YoY Growth | Share of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search | $1.44 billion | 12% | 48.5% — largest format |
| Video | $653.8 million | 27% | 22% — fastest-growing |
| Display & other | $483.7 million | Flat | 16.3% |
| Classifieds & directories | $389.5 million | 7% | 13.1% |
| Connected devices (device cut) | $63.2 million | 20% | Strongest device growth |
| Programmatic via connected devices | $40.6 million | 2% | 50% of programmatic revenue |
| Total Digital | $2.967 billion | 12% | 72.1% of all NZ ad spend |
| Indicator | Current reading | Period covered | Update cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZ digital ad revenue | NZ$2.967 billion (+12%) | CY2025 | Quarterly — IAB New Zealand |
| Digital share of all NZ ad spend | 72.1% | CY2025 | Annual — ASA New Zealand |
| Video advertising revenue | NZ$653.8 million (+27%) | CY2025 | Quarterly — IAB New Zealand |
| Connected device revenue | NZ$63.2 million (+20%) | CY2025 | Quarterly — IAB New Zealand |
| NZ internet penetration | 96.2% (5.06m users) | October 2025 | Annual — DataReportal |
| NZ ecommerce market | US$3.94 billion, 9.21% CAGR | 2025, projected to 2029 | Annual — ECDB / Statista |
| Zero-click rate with AI Overviews | 83% (vs ~60% without) | 2026 | Rolling — Similarweb |
| NZers under 45 using AI to research businesses | 48% | February 2026 | Ad hoc — Pead commissioned research |
| Market | CY2025 Revenue | YoY Growth | Reporting Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | NZ$2.967 billion | 12% | IAB New Zealand |
| Australia | AUD$18.4 billion | 11.5% | IAB Australia |
| United Kingdom | £40.5 billion | 10% | IAB UK |
| United States | US$294.6 billion | 13.9% | IAB / PwC |
Key Takeaways
Video is the format to bet on, not just to watch
NZ video advertising grew 27% to NZ$653.8 million in CY2025 — more than double the overall market growth rate of 12%. At 22% of total digital ad revenue, it is no longer a secondary format. Marketers who treat video strategy as optional are ceding ground to competitors who do not.
Digital has won the share battle in NZ
At 72.1% of total advertising revenue, digital is not gaining on traditional media — it has already won. NZ$2.967 billion in digital ad spend against a total market where less than a third remains offline. The strategic question is no longer whether to invest in digital, but how to invest more intelligently within it.
AI literacy is now a baseline expectation, not a differentiator
Over 1 billion people globally use AI tools monthly. The platforms NZ marketers rely on — Google Ads, GA4, programmatic networks — have AI embedded at the core. Practitioners who cannot interpret and act on AI-generated insights are running slower, costlier campaigns than their upskilled peers.
Ecommerce growth creates a long measurement runway
NZ ecommerce is projected to grow from US$3.94 billion in 2025 to US$8.42 billion by 2029 at a 9.21% CAGR. That trajectory means the organisations that build rigorous digital measurement frameworks now will compound those advantages for years. GA4 and AI-assisted attribution are the foundation.
ANZ markets are aligned — skills developed here travel
NZ's 12% digital ad market growth and Australia's 11.5% are closely matched, with the UK at 10%. The strategic logic, platform ecosystems, and measurement frameworks are effectively identical across both ANZ markets. Digital marketing skills built in New Zealand are directly applicable to the AUD$18.4 billion Australian market.
Ranking without traffic is now a normal outcome
Searches that trigger an AI Overview show an average zero-click rate of 83%, against roughly 60% for those that do not. In New Zealand, 48% of under-45s use AI tools to research businesses. Being cited by the AI has become as commercially relevant as ranking beneath it.
Programmatic in NZ is now a video-and-screens business
Video accounts for 86% of Programmatic Guaranteed revenue, and connected devices command a 50% share of programmatic revenue at NZ$40.6 million. Teams still treating programmatic as a display-banner discipline are describing a market that no longer exists.
Two categories account for nearly half of NZ digital spend
Recruitment led all advertiser categories at 24.4% share for CY2025, with real estate at 23.2%. That concentration means the national growth figure is heavily influenced by two cyclical, economically sensitive sectors — worth remembering before treating 12% as a universal benchmark.
1. Why NZ's 12% Digital Ad Growth Understates the Video Shift
New Zealand's digital advertising market grew 12% in 2025, but that single figure hides a two-speed market: video grew 27% while display excluding video was flat. Twelve percent is a solid number. It is not the interesting number.
When IAB New Zealand released its Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report in March 2026 — compiled independently by Baker Tilly Staples Rodway — the 12% overall growth figure landed without much controversy. A market at NZ$2.967 billion, growing reliably. Good news.
But aggregate figures are where strategic insight goes to die. The formats underneath that number grew at very different rates, and those differences tell you something meaningful about where attention and budget are actually migrating.
Search held its position as the dominant format at NZ$1.44 billion. It also grew at exactly 12% — dead in line with the market average. Solid, predictable, structurally tied to intent-driven behaviour that is not going anywhere soon. But search is not where the acceleration is.
Video grew at 27%. That is more than double the market average. It reached NZ$653.8 million for the year and now accounts for 22% of all digital advertising revenue in New Zealand. Connected TV grew 20% to NZ$63.2 million — a smaller absolute number, but one that is compounding off a low base in a category with significant structural tailwinds as streaming displaces linear TV.
The practical read: if your media mix still treats video as an experimental line item or a lower-funnel brand play, the market has moved on without you.
2. How Does New Zealand Compare to Australia and the UK?
New Zealand's digital ad market grew faster than both comparison markets in 2025: NZ at 12%, Australia at 11.5% and the UK at 10%. Three IAB bodies released full-year results in March 2026, which gives an unusually clean comparison across markets that share platforms, agency structures, and buying conventions.
IAB Australia confirmed the Australian digital ad market grew 11.5% year-on-year to AUD$18.4 billion. IAB UK's full-year Digital Adspend Report put the UK at £40.5 billion, growing 10%. New Zealand's 12% sits marginally ahead of both.
More significant than the ranking is the pattern. Video was the standout growth format in all three markets, and commentary from both IAB UK and IAB Australia pointed to the resilience of digital advertising investment against a backdrop of economic uncertainty. That consistency matters: it suggests the video shift is structural rather than a local anomaly or a one-year budget quirk.
2025 was a market that is growing, but selectively — driven primarily by video and search
, while other display environments moved more modestly.
New Zealand's numbers reflect that description precisely: video up 27%, and display excluding video flat for the year. The growth is not evenly distributed across the market — it is concentrated in specific formats, and averaging across them hides the signal.
NZ's 72.1% digital share of total advertising is a striking figure in its own right. It means nearly three in every four advertising dollars spent in New Zealand now flows through digital channels. For marketing professionals advising clients or internal stakeholders who still think of digital as a supplement to traditional media, that statistic is the reframe.
Australia at AUD$18.4 billion represents roughly a six-times larger market in absolute terms; the UK at £40.5 billion is larger again. Those scale differences matter for platform investment and local inventory depth. But for capability-building purposes — understanding the strategic logic of digital channels, interpreting GA4 data, running AI-assisted campaign optimisation — the skills transfer completely.
3. How Does Programmatic Advertising Work in New Zealand in 2026?
Programmatic advertising in New Zealand is predominantly a video and connected-screen business bought through direct publisher deals, not an open-exchange display market. Format-level revenue tells you what was bought; the programmatic and category detail in the IAB report tells you how it was bought and by whom — and that is where several assumptions common in NZ marketing teams turn out to be outdated.
Start with buy type. Programmatic Guaranteed remains the dominant buy type in the New Zealand market, and video accounts for 86% of Programmatic Guaranteed revenue. Programmatic in New Zealand is not primarily an open-exchange display business bidding for remnant banner inventory. It is overwhelmingly a video business transacted through guaranteed deals with named publishers.
That has direct practical consequences. If your team's programmatic knowledge was built around open real-time bidding, viewability disputes, and display CPM optimisation, it is calibrated to a shrinking slice of the market. The skills that matter now are video creative specification, publisher deal negotiation, and frequency management across screens.
Device data reinforces the point. Connected devices now command a 50% share of programmatic revenue at NZ$40.6 million for the full year, up 2%. Half of every programmatic dollar in New Zealand is now being delivered to a connected screen rather than a desktop or mobile browser.
The Anatomy of NZ Programmatic in 2026
Two structural facts that reshape what programmatic buying actually means in New Zealand
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
The advertiser category breakdown adds a caveat that is easy to miss. Recruitment led all categories in CY2025 with 24.4% share, and real estate held steady at 23.2%. In Q4, real estate lifted to 24%, a three-point quarter-on-quarter movement in share.
Two Categories Carry Almost Half the Market
Share of New Zealand digital advertising revenue by advertiser category, CY2025
Source: IAB New Zealand — Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, March 2026
Nearly half of New Zealand's digital advertising revenue therefore comes from two categories that are directly exposed to the labour market and the property cycle. That is worth holding in mind before treating 12% as a benchmark your own category should be matching. A retailer, a SaaS business, or an education provider is operating in a very different demand environment from the two sectors carrying the national average.
4. What Does 96.2% Internet Penetration Mean for NZ Marketers?
New Zealand had 5.06 million internet users as of October 2025, representing 96.2% of the total population, according to DataReportal's Digital 2026: New Zealand report. For marketers, that means digital reach is now effectively equivalent to national reach — and the strategic challenge has moved from access to segmentation.
That figure effectively ends the conversation about whether digital is mainstream. At 96.2% penetration, you are not reaching an early adopter segment or a digitally-savvy subset — you are reaching New Zealand. The remaining 3.8% represents structural barriers (age, disability, remote geography) rather than preference.
The strategic implication is subtler than it first appears. High penetration does not mean homogeneous behaviour. Five million users with near-universal access still fragment across platforms, devices, and intent states in ways that require genuine segmentation to reach effectively. What 96.2% does remove is the excuse for deprioritising digital channel fluency in any marketing role.
For ecommerce specifically, the numbers are directionally encouraging. New Zealand's ecommerce market generated US$3.94 billion in revenue in 2025, with a projected CAGR of 9.21% through 2029 — forecasting a US$8.42 billion market by end of the decade, according to ECDB and Statista data cited by IDNZ. That trajectory puts significant pressure on businesses to have their digital acquisition, retention, and measurement capability in order before that growth wave arrives.
Nearly universal internet access combined with a fast-growing ecommerce market means the commercial stakes of digital marketing competence are higher than at any previous point in NZ's marketing history.
5. How Are New Zealanders Using AI to Research Businesses?
Almost half of younger New Zealanders now use AI tools to research businesses: 48% of New Zealanders under 45, with a third of that group changing their opinion of a business based on what an AI told them. The global context is equally striking. Over 1 billion people now use AI tools every month, according to We Are Social's Digital 2026 report. That is not a niche behaviour. It is mass adoption at a pace that most enterprise technology categories have never achieved.
Until recently, the honest answer to "but what about New Zealand?" was that no reliable local number existed. That has changed. Independent research commissioned by Auckland communications agency Pead, reported in February 2026, found that 48% of New Zealanders under 45 already use AI tools when researching a business, product or service — and that a third of that group had changed their opinion of a business based on information provided by an AI tool.
Read those two figures together and the implication is uncomfortable. For roughly half of the under-45 market, an AI system is now part of the consideration stage. And for a substantial minority of those people, what the AI said actively moved their opinion. That is a channel most NZ organisations have no visibility into, no measurement for, and no strategy to influence.
AI answers can be influenced if you understand the right levers to pull.
What remains genuinely unavailable is a figure for NZ AI marketing spend separated from general digital ad spend. IAB New Zealand's revenue report does not break AI out as a line item, and anyone citing a precise local AI marketing budget number right now is extrapolating rather than reporting.
On the supply side the direction is unambiguous. The platforms NZ marketers rely on most heavily — Google's ad ecosystem, Meta, programmatic DSPs — are all integrating AI into their core product layers. GA4 itself is built on a machine learning foundation that behaves fundamentally differently from Universal Analytics. Marketers who cannot read and act on GA4's AI-generated insights are operating a more expensive, slower version of the same campaigns their AI-fluent competitors are running.
The global industry view matches. Reporting record digital revenue of US$294.6 billion for 2025, up 13.9%, IAB global CEO David Cohen noted that artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from theory into practice
as a driver of efficiency across the ecosystem.
This is precisely why structured, practitioner-led digital marketing education has become a genuine strategic investment rather than a training line item. Learning GA4 properly, understanding how AI tools integrate with search and social channels, and developing a coherent measurement framework are skills that compound. They are also skills that are genuinely in short supply in the current NZ market.
6. What Is Zero-Click Search and How Is It Affecting NZ SEO?
Zero-click search is a search where the user gets their answer directly on the results page — from an AI Overview, featured snippet or knowledge panel — and never visits a website. It is the most consequential change in search since Google launched, and it does not show up anywhere in the IAB revenue figures.
Searches that trigger an AI Overview now show an average zero-click rate of 83%, according to Similarweb data. Traditional queries without an AI Overview sit at around 60%. Pew Research found that when an AI summary appears, users click a traditional result just 8% of the time, compared with 15% when no summary is present.
The practical effect for a New Zealand business is that position-one rankings can now produce materially less traffic than they did eighteen months ago, with no change in ranking, content quality, or technical health. The relationship between visibility and sessions has been decoupled.
What Happens to 100 Google Searches
Zero-click rate when an AI Overview is present, compared with searches where one is not
Source: Similarweb zero-click search data, 2026
The gap between the two grids is traffic a page can lose without its ranking, content or technical health changing at all.
This is where the Pead research becomes operationally important rather than merely interesting. If 48% of under-45 New Zealanders are consulting AI tools during research, and close to 90% of citations in AI answers come from third-party online resources — media coverage, industry commentary, social platforms — then a brand's AI visibility depends heavily on material outside its own website.
Generative engine optimisation, usually shortened to GEO (or answer engine optimisation, AEO), is the emerging discipline addressing this. The tactical fundamentals are unglamorous and largely familiar: lead each section with a clean, extractable answer; own the definitional queries in your category; use structured formats such as comparison tables and numbered lists that machines can parse; and implement Organisation, Product, FAQ and Author schema so an AI system can verify who you are.
Five Steps to Being Cited by AI Search
The practical generative engine optimisation sequence for a New Zealand website
Compiled by IDNZ from published GEO/AEO practice, 2026
There is a counter-intuitive commercial note here worth taking seriously. Ahrefs research indicates AI search visitors convert substantially better than traditional organic traffic — a smaller, warmer stream of people who have already been pre-qualified by an AI summary before arriving. A traffic decline is not automatically a revenue decline. But you cannot manage what you are not measuring, and most NZ analytics setups currently log an AI-sourced customer as "direct" with no record of the first touchpoint.
The measurement adjustment is straightforward and most teams have not made it: track branded search volume as a proxy for AI-driven awareness, monitor AI Overview triggers in Search Console, and add a single intake question — how did you first hear about us, and did you use any AI tools while researching — to capture what analytics cannot.
7. What Did Q4 2025 Confirm About NZ Video Advertising?
Q4 2025 confirmed the full-year pattern: NZ digital ad revenue reached NZ$813.8 million, up 12%, with video up 24% to NZ$186.9 million. Q4 is worth examining separately because it is the highest-spend quarter in most markets and tends to confirm or challenge the annual trend.
In Q4 2025, NZ total digital advertising revenue reached NZ$813.8 million — up 12% year-on-year, consistent with the full-year rate. Video led the quarter at NZ$186.9 million, growing 24%. That is nearly a third of the full-year video figure landing in a single quarter, which reflects the weight of Q4 retail campaigns and the platform shift toward video-first formats.
Digital audio, from a very small base, recorded the strongest proportional momentum of the quarter at NZ$4.0 million, up 22%. At that scale it is not yet a budget consideration for most advertisers, but it is a format worth watching — particularly as podcast and streaming audio inventory in New Zealand becomes programmatically accessible.
New Zealand's results mirror global markets, where digital advertising continues to grow despite challenging economic conditions
and video leads that growth.
For planning purposes, this quarterly concentration matters. If your organisation is building video capability or testing AI-assisted video creative, Q4 is not the time to experiment — it is the time to execute against a playbook you have already refined in Q2 and Q3. The organisations that will outperform in 2026's Q4 are already making capability and platform investments now.
The NZ$63.2 million connected device figure also rewards closer examination. It is small relative to search or total video, and it is worth being precise about what it measures: IAB New Zealand reports it as a device cut rather than a format, so it overlaps with the video and display figures rather than sitting alongside them. But connected TV is structurally different from other digital environments — it delivers premium, lean-back viewing with demographic targeting precision that broadcast TV cannot match and standard display cannot replicate. At 20% growth, it is not yet a must-have for every NZ advertiser. It is, however, an environment that brand-focused marketers should be testing while inventory is still relatively accessible and CPMs are not yet priced at scale.
8. NZ Digital Marketing Case Studies: What Worked in 2026
Market-level data establishes where budget is moving. Campaign-level evidence shows what happens when it lands well. The four examples below are drawn from published New Zealand case work across the public sector, national B2B, ecommerce and brand advertising — each with results reported by the organisation or agency involved.
A standard caution applies: these are self-reported by the parties who ran the work, and none is independently audited in the way the IAB revenue figures are. Read them as illustrative of what the channels can do, not as benchmarks you should be held to.
Turning a Policy Change Into Compliance
NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), with Vistar Media and MBM
The challengeWhen the Government introduced road user charges for EVs and plug-in hybrids, NZTA had a narrow window to educate affected owners and drive registrations before the deadline.
The approachProgrammatic digital out-of-home placed near EV charging stations, transport hubs and high-traffic routes, combined with rideshare-app device targeting to reach drivers likely to be operating EVs. Creative updated dynamically with live countdowns to the deadline, and device ID passback extended the campaign into online retargeting.
Why it mattersA clean demonstration that precision targeting plus dynamic creative can move a behavioural outcome, not just an awareness metric. As MBM's Georgia McNaught put it, we turned awareness into action
.
Source: Vistar Media / IAB New Zealand Members' Hub case study
National Brand, Regional Intent
Alsco Uniforms New Zealand, with AIIMS
The challengeA national B2B uniform and workwear business needed its brand system to convert regional demand across multiple New Zealand service areas, rather than generating undifferentiated national awareness.
The approachThe national website, local search presence, SEO, paid media, social and email were connected into a single consistent rollout. Regional intent was addressed through local profiles, service-area discovery, New Zealand-specific language and imagery, and community stories routed back to the website and service team.
Why it mattersThis is the practical answer to the segmentation problem created by 96.2% internet penetration — near-total reach is worth little without local relevance layered on top.
Source: AIIMS Group published case study, 2026
Profitable Growth in a Thin-Volume Market
Made4Baby, NZ natural skincare brand
The challengeGrowing online sales without sacrificing profitability, against two constraints familiar to almost every NZ ecommerce operator: limited local search volume and pronounced seasonal swings.
The approachA hybrid funnel across Google Ads and Meta remarketing, CRO-led landing pages built for mobile conversion, product feed optimisation covering both seasonal and core SKUs, and GA4 audience syncing to enable cross-platform retargeting.
Why it mattersThe GA4 audience layer is the detail worth noting. This is the measurement-literacy argument made concrete — the analytics configuration is what made the cross-platform retargeting possible at all.
Source: Agency case study reported in a 2026 NZ agency review; results self-reported
What Kiwi Audiences Actually Remember
One NZ "Let's Get Connected" — TRA Favourite Ads study
The studyThe Research Agency surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 New Zealanders between 11 February and 22 March 2026, asking an unprompted question: what is your favourite ad on TV at the moment?
The findingOne NZ's "Let's Get Connected" platform took top spot, followed by Turners' long-running "Tina from Turners". Every campaign in the top five used humour as a central creative device.
Why it mattersWith video spend growing 27%, the creative question becomes as commercially significant as the media question. TRA's Phil Mecredy observed that humour is doing much of the heavy lifting
in New Zealand's most effective advertising — a specific, testable creative insight rather than a generic call for better storytelling.
Source: The Research Agency (TRA) Favourite Ads study, April 2026
Read across the four, a pattern emerges that the revenue data alone would not surface. None of these results came from simply spending more in a growing channel. They came from precision — targeting a specific behaviour, a specific region, a specific product feed, or a specific emotional register. In a market of five million people, precision compounds faster than budget does.
9. What Should NZ Marketing Professionals Do Next?
Five priorities define what NZ marketing teams should act on in 2026: GA4 literacy, video as a core channel, AI-assisted campaign management, AI search visibility, and an updated understanding of programmatic. The market is growing at 12% per year. Video is growing at 27%. AI adoption globally has crossed a billion monthly users. NZ ecommerce is on a nine-year compounding growth trajectory. These are not abstract trends — they are conditions that define whether a marketing team is adding value or falling behind.
The practical priority list is short.
First, GA4 literacy is non-negotiable. The platform's event-based model, AI-driven insights, and cross-platform attribution logic require deliberate learning. Organisations that transitioned from Universal Analytics without up-skilling their teams are now making decisions from data they do not fully understand.
Second, video strategy needs to be treated as a core channel, not a content format. A 27% growth rate sustained over a full calendar year in a market the size of New Zealand's represents significant budget migration. If your competitors are increasing video investment and you are not, the audience attention gap compounds year on year.
Third, AI integration into campaign management and analytics is a capability to build now, not to monitor from a distance. The tools exist, the training resources exist, and the practitioners who invest time now will be the ones organisations are competing to hire within 18 months.
Fourth, audit your AI search visibility this quarter. With 48% of under-45 New Zealanders consulting AI tools during research, and close to 90% of AI citations drawn from third-party sources, the question is no longer only whether you rank. It is whether you are the source an answer engine cites — and most organisations currently have no idea. Start with the basics: implement Organisation, FAQ and Author schema, lead each page section with a clean extractable answer, and add a "did you use AI while researching us" question to your intake process.
Fifth, revisit what your team believes about programmatic. If the internal mental model is open-exchange display bidding, it is out of date in a market where video makes up 86% of Programmatic Guaranteed revenue and connected devices take half of all programmatic spend.
The NZ digital advertising market at NZ$2.967 billion is large enough that marginal improvements in measurement, targeting, and creative effectiveness translate to real commercial outcomes. Structured education — whether through IDNZ's digital marketing courses or other credible providers — is the most efficient path to closing the capability gap before the market widens it further.
The window to build these skills ahead of the curve is open. It will not stay open indefinitely.
Methodology & Data Notes
Publication cadence. This report is published monthly. Each edition re-verifies the eight indicators in the series tracker above against their primary sources, carries forward figures whose source bodies have not published since the previous edition, and adds analysis of whatever has genuinely changed. Figures are not re-estimated between official releases, so a reading may remain unchanged across several editions — that is the intended behaviour, not an oversight.
Corrections. Where a later edition revises a figure published in an earlier one, the change is stated explicitly in the In This Edition block rather than silently amended.
Primary revenue data. All New Zealand advertising revenue figures come from the IAB New Zealand Q4 and full-year CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report, released 11 March 2026 and developed with an independent third party. Australian, UK and US comparisons come from the corresponding IAB bodies' own full-year 2025 reports.
Formats versus devices. The NZ$63.2 million connected device figure is reported by IAB New Zealand as a device-level cut, not a format. It therefore overlaps with the video and display format revenues rather than adding to them, and the format charts in this report exclude it to avoid double-counting. The NZ$483.7 million "display and other" figure is derived by subtracting the three named formats — search, video, and classifieds and directories — from the NZ$2.967 billion total.
Category concentration. Recruitment (24.4% share) and real estate (23.2%) together account for close to half of NZ digital advertising revenue. National growth rates should not be read as a benchmark for categories outside those two.
Zero-click and AI figures. AI Overview and zero-click rates are drawn from Similarweb and Pew Research panel data reflecting predominantly US search behaviour; the underlying products are live in New Zealand but no equivalent NZ-panel measurement is currently published. The 48% under-45 AI research figure is New Zealand-specific, from research commissioned by Pead and reported by IT Brief New Zealand in February 2026. AI search metrics move quickly and vary by industry, device and query type — treat them as directional and validate against your own Search Console and CRM data.
Case studies. Campaign results in section 8 are self-reported by the organisations and agencies that ran the work, and are not independently audited in the way the IAB revenue figures are. Where household connected-TV reach estimates conflict across published NZ sources, this report cites only IAB New Zealand's revenue-based figures rather than attempting to reconcile third-party penetration claims.
NZ Digital Marketing Outlook: 2025 to 2029 Timeline
Key Digital Marketing Trends in New Zealand for 2026
Video Advertising's Sustained Acceleration
NZ video advertising grew 27% in CY2025 to NZ$653.8 million — the fastest growth of any major format. Connected TV added 20% growth on top of that. The shift from display and static formats to video-first is structural, not cyclical, driven by audience attention patterns and platform algorithm preferences.
GA4 and AI-Driven Measurement Becoming Baseline
With Universal Analytics retired and GA4 now the standard, organisations that have not properly migrated and up-skilled are operating with compromised data. AI-generated insights within GA4 require practitioners who understand the event-based model well enough to question, validate, and act on machine-generated recommendations.
NZ Ecommerce on a Decade-Long Growth Curve
A projected CAGR of 9.21% through 2029 means NZ ecommerce will more than double from US$3.94 billion to US$8.42 billion. Businesses that build digital acquisition and retention capability now are positioning for a market that will reward that investment for years — those that delay face structurally increasing catch-up costs.
Digital Dominance Makes Channel Mix Decisions Higher Stakes
At 72.1% of all NZ advertising revenue, digital is not one channel among many — it is the primary channel with others in support. Marketing strategies that are not digitally-led are operating against the allocation of every dollar in the market. This shifts the required skill set for senior marketers significantly toward digital channel fluency.
Near-Universal Connectivity Raises the Floor on Digital Expectations
With 96.2% internet penetration across 5.06 million NZ users, digital reach is effectively equivalent to total population reach. This removes the last strategic argument for treating digital as a subset channel — and raises the floor on what audiences expect from digital experiences in terms of personalisation, speed, and relevance.
Zero-Click Search Decouples Ranking From Traffic
Searches triggering an AI Overview show an average zero-click rate of 83%, against roughly 60% without one. Position-one rankings now produce materially less traffic than they did eighteen months ago, with no change in content quality. Generative engine optimisation — being the cited source rather than the ranked link — has become a distinct discipline.
Programmatic Has Become a Video and Screens Business
Programmatic Guaranteed is the dominant buy type in New Zealand, and video accounts for 86% of its revenue. Connected devices now take a 50% share of all programmatic revenue at NZ$40.6 million. Teams whose programmatic knowledge is built on open-exchange display bidding are calibrated to a shrinking slice of the market.
Two Sectors Carry Almost Half the Market
Recruitment led all advertiser categories at 24.4% share in CY2025, with real estate at 23.2% and lifting to 24% in Q4. Nearly half of NZ digital ad revenue is therefore exposed to the labour market and the property cycle — a structural caveat for anyone treating the national 12% growth rate as a benchmark for their own category.
Key Digital Marketing Terms Explained
- Connected TV (CTV)
- Television content delivered via internet-connected devices such as smart TVs and streaming sticks, sold to advertisers through programmatic or direct digital channels rather than traditional broadcast.
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
- Google's current analytics platform, which replaced Universal Analytics in 2023 and uses an event-based data model designed for cross-platform measurement including app and web traffic.
- CAGR
- Compound Annual Growth Rate — the annualised rate at which a market or metric grows over a defined period, accounting for compounding effects.
- Programmatic advertising
- The automated buying and selling of digital advertising inventory using real-time bidding and data signals, as opposed to direct insertion-order deals with publishers.
- Programmatic Guaranteed (PG)
- A programmatic buy type in which price and inventory volume are agreed directly with a named publisher in advance, then executed through automated pipes. It is the dominant buy type in the New Zealand market.
- Zero-click search
- A search where the user gets their answer on the results page itself — via an AI Overview, featured snippet or knowledge panel — and never visits an external website.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
- The practice of structuring content, schema and third-party presence so that generative AI systems can extract, verify and cite a brand in their answers. Also referred to as answer engine optimisation, or AEO.
- BVOD (Broadcast Video on Demand)
- Streaming catch-up and on-demand content delivered by broadcasters through their own platforms, sold to advertisers as premium video inventory alongside or instead of linear television.
NZ Digital Marketing FAQs for 2026
How often is the NZ Digital Marketing Report updated?
Monthly. Each edition re-checks the same eight indicators — market revenue, digital share of ad spend, video revenue, connected device revenue, internet penetration, ecommerce size, zero-click search rates and NZ AI adoption — against their primary sources, then adds analysis of what has changed. Because the underlying bodies publish quarterly or annually, individual figures may carry forward unchanged between editions; the analysis and case studies are new each month.
Is digital marketing still a growing field in New Zealand in 2026?
Yes, and the data is unambiguous. NZ digital advertising revenue reached NZ$2.967 billion in CY2025, growing 12% year-on-year, with digital now representing 72.1% of all advertising revenue in the country. Demand for practitioners who can plan, execute, and measure across digital channels continues to grow alongside that spend.
What do digital marketing courses in New Zealand actually teach you — is it worth the investment?
Credible NZ digital marketing courses cover channel strategy, GA4 analytics, search advertising, and increasingly AI-assisted campaign management. Given that NZ's digital ad market grew 12% in 2025 and video advertising accelerated at 27%, practitioners with current, platform-specific skills command genuine commercial value. The return on a structured short course compounds across an entire career.
Do I need a formal qualification to work in digital marketing in New Zealand?
Formal qualifications are not universally required, but structured training has become increasingly important as platform complexity grows. GA4's AI-native model, programmatic buying, and video strategy all require deliberate learning that on-the-job exposure alone rarely provides systematically. Short courses from recognised NZ providers like IDNZ offer practical, up-to-date skills without multi-year commitment.
Is SEO still worth investing in if AI Overviews are reducing clicks?
Yes, but the objective has shifted. Searches triggering an AI Overview show an average zero-click rate of 83%, so ranking alone no longer guarantees traffic. The goal now is to be the source an AI system cites, which requires clean extractable answers near the top of each page, strong schema markup, and a citation footprint across third-party sources — close to 90% of AI citations come from sites other than the brand's own. AI-sourced visitors also tend to arrive better qualified, so lower traffic does not automatically mean lower revenue.
How much of my budget should go to video in the New Zealand market?
There is no universal figure, but the market provides a reference point: video reached 22% of all NZ digital advertising revenue in 2025 and grew 27%, while display excluding video was flat. If your video allocation sits materially below a fifth of digital spend, you are underweight relative to where the market has moved. Note also that recruitment and real estate account for close to half of NZ digital revenue, so national averages should be treated as directional rather than as a target for your specific category.
What does programmatic advertising actually look like in New Zealand now?
It is predominantly a video and connected-screen business transacted through direct publisher deals. Programmatic Guaranteed is the dominant buy type in the NZ market, with video accounting for 86% of its revenue, and connected devices command a 50% share of all programmatic revenue at NZ$40.6 million. Marketers whose programmatic training centred on open-exchange real-time bidding for display inventory are working from an out-of-date picture of how the local market operates.
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Data Sources and Research Citations
- 1 IAB New Zealand. (2026). Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue Report. Compiled independently by Baker Tilly Staples Rodway. https://www.iab.org.nz/news-resources/q4-cy-2025-iab-new-zealand-digital-advertising-revenue-report
- 2 IAB New Zealand / ASA. (2026). New Zealand Advertising Industry Revenue Report 2025, cited in Campaign Brief. https://campaignbrief.co.nz/2026/07/02/2026-iab-new-zealand-digital-advertising-awards-launches-call-for-entries/
- 3 DataReportal / Kepios. (2025). Digital 2026: New Zealand. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-new-zealand
- 4 IDNZ. (2026). 2026 Digital Marketing Report & Statistics for New Zealand. Institute of Digital New Zealand. https://www.id.ac.nz/blog/2026-digital-marketing-report-amp-statistics-for-new-zealand
- 5 IAB Australia. (2026). Internet Advertising Revenue Report CY2025, cited by Mad Daily. https://www.mad-daily.com/iab-reports-another-year-of-growth/
- 6 We Are Social / DataReportal. (2026). Digital 2026 Global Overview Report. https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2025/10/digital-2026/
- 7 IAB New Zealand via Scoop. (2026). Q4 CY2025 Digital Advertising Revenue data. https://info.scoop.co.nz/IAB_New_Zealand
- 8 M+AD. (2026, March). NZ digital ad market grows 12% to reach $2.967 billion — including comment from IAB New Zealand CEO Angelina Farry. https://www.mad-daily.com/iab-reports-another-year-of-growth/
- 9 IT Brief New Zealand. (2026, February 11). Pead launches GEO service to shape AI brand answers — includes Pead-commissioned independent NZ research on AI use in business research. https://itbrief.co.nz/story/pead-launches-geo-service-to-shape-ai-brand-answers
- 10 Vistar Media / IAB New Zealand Members' Hub. NZTA programmatic DOOH case study — 89% EV policy compliance. https://www.iab.org.nz/members-hub/vistar-media-nzta-case-study
- 11 The Research Agency (TRA) via Campaign Brief NZ. (2026, April 20). One NZ's 'Let's Get Connected' tops New Zealand's Favourite Ads. https://campaignbrief.co.nz/2026/04/20/one-nzs-lets-get-connected-tops-new-zealands-favourite-ads-the-research-agency/
- 12 AIIMS Group. (2026). Alsco Uniforms New Zealand case study — marketing and insights. https://aiims.group/case-studies/alsco-uniforms-new-zealand-case-study-marketing-and-insights-new-zealand/
- 13 numero®. (2026, April 13). Should Zero-Click Search Scare You? 2026 SEO Guide — citing Similarweb, Pew Research, Bain and Ahrefs data. https://numeroagency.co.nz/blog/zero-click-search-2026-guide
- 14 IAB / PwC. (2026, April 16). IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2025 — includes comment from IAB CEO David Cohen. https://www.iab.com/news/digital-ad-revenue-climbs-to-nearly-300b-as-iab-celebrates-30-year-anniversary/
- 15 IAB New Zealand Digital Advertising Awards. (2026). Market context — digital as 72.1% of total NZ advertising revenue, citing the ASA New Zealand Advertising Industry Revenue Report 2025. https://awards.iab.org.nz/about
