Efficiency over expansion: what the latest Bellwether tells us
January 2026
After a year of tentative recovery, the latest IPA Bellwether report shows UK marketing budgets flattening again — with the so-called ‘golden quarter’ falling short of expectations. While spend hasn’t disappeared, confidence in near-term growth has clearly softened.
Speaking to Performance Marketing World, our Director of Strategy, Brenda Imeson, explains why AI hasn’t yet unlocked a new wave of expansion. Instead, it’s being deployed to squeeze more efficiency from existing activity — a win for performance marketers, but one that risks limiting future growth if brand investment continues to stall.
“AI is being used to make current activity more efficient, rather than to create new headroom for growth,” Imeson says. “With brand spend stalled for a third consecutive quarter, there’s a growing risk of long-term brand erosion feeding back into weaker performance.”
Brenda outlines why ‘other online’ is the only channel showing real momentum, how sharper competition is pushing prices up in performance environments, and why progress in 2026 will depend less on bigger budgets and more on stronger creative, clearer measurement and confidence in what truly drives incremental value.
