Why smarter businesses are rethinking their advertising budgets for 2027.
Imagine spending $10,000 a month on advertising.
Google Ads are running. Facebook campaigns are active. Your marketing dashboard looks impressive.
Thousands of impressions. Hundreds of clicks. Plenty of colourful graphs.
But when you ask the most important question — “How much actual business did we generate?” — the room gets surprisingly quiet.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth.
Your advertising budget might not be the problem. Where you’re spending it could be.
And recent marketing research suggests that advertisers are beginning to rethink exactly that.
The advertising shift most businesses haven’t noticed
A global survey of more than 11,000 marketers revealed some interesting intentions for advertising investment.
- 89% planned to increase remarketing spend.
- 81% planned to increase podcast advertising.
- 63% planned to increase connected TV and streaming advertising.
- 54% planned to increase influencer marketing.
Meanwhile, traditional banner advertising faced the greatest proportion of planned budget reductions.
These figures reflect spending intentions reported in late 2024, not guaranteed performance or actual spending in 2026.
But the direction is worth paying attention to.
Advertisers were looking beyond conventional advertising placements and exploring ways to reconnect with interested audiences, build familiarity and reach customers in different environments.
The question is no longer simply, “How much should we spend on advertising?”
It’s “Where will our next marketing dollar make the greatest difference?”
Remarketing: Why your next customer may already know you
Let’s say someone searches for a commercial builder in Sydney.
They click your advertisement, browse your website, review two projects and leave.
No enquiry.
Was that advertising money wasted?
Not necessarily.
They might be comparing options, discussing budgets or waiting for approval.
This is where remarketing can become valuable.
Remarketing allows businesses to reconnect with eligible people who previously interacted with their website, advertising or brand.
Instead of constantly paying to introduce yourself to strangers, you’re reconnecting with people who have already shown interest.
Consider a dental clinic.
A visitor explores its dental implant services but doesn’t book.
A carefully planned follow-up campaign could show helpful information about treatment options, consultations or patient experiences.
It’s not about chasing people around the internet.
It’s about remaining relevant while they’re making a decision.
The goal isn’t to show more ads. It’s to create more opportunities from the attention you’ve already earned.
Of course, effective remarketing also requires appropriate consent, privacy compliance, audience eligibility and sensible frequency controls.
Podcast advertising: The overlooked opportunity
Here’s an interesting question.
When was the last time you heard a podcast host recommend a product or service?
Did it feel like a typical advertisement?
Or more like a recommendation from someone whose opinions you already value?
That’s what makes podcast advertising interesting.
A podcast often reaches people while they’re commuting, exercising, cooking or concentrating on a subject they care about.
And unlike a social media advertisement that can disappear with one swipe, podcast messages can be integrated into longer, more focused listening experiences.
Research published in 2025 also found that podcast advertising can deliver competitive returns compared with several established advertising formats.
That doesn’t mean every business should immediately sponsor a podcast.
A Sydney engineering consultancy probably doesn’t need to advertise on a general entertainment show reaching listeners across the world.
But a carefully selected industry podcast, business programme or niche community could introduce the consultancy to relevant decision-makers.
A smaller, relevant audience can sometimes be more commercially valuable than a large, uninterested one.
Connected TV: Advertising is moving into the living room
Remember when television advertising was mainly for businesses with enormous marketing budgets?
Streaming has changed the landscape.
Connected TV (CTV) advertising allows brands to reach audiences through advertising-supported content on internet-connected televisions and streaming devices.
And marketers are paying attention.
Additional industry research published in 2025 found that 56% of surveyed marketers intended to increase their spending on streaming and connected TV advertising.
For Australian businesses, this presents an opportunity worth evaluating as targeting, inventory and measurement capabilities develop.
Imagine a premium home renovation company using video advertising to build familiarity with homeowners, then supporting that awareness through Google Search, customer testimonials and remarketing.
The television advertisement creates awareness.
Search captures interest.
The website builds confidence.
Follow-up marketing supports the decision.
That’s what an integrated advertising strategy should look like.
Not five disconnected campaigns competing for the same budget.
Influencer marketing: Popularity doesn’t automatically equal profitability
Influencer marketing is another channel attracting investment.
But let’s challenge one assumption.
A million followers don’t necessarily mean a million potential customers.
For many businesses, relevance matters more than popularity.
A local fitness studio might gain more meaningful enquiries through a trusted Sydney fitness creator than through a national celebrity with an enormous but unrelated audience.
The same applies to restaurants, healthcare businesses, retail brands and specialist services.
Before investing, businesses should examine audience relevance, credibility, engagement quality, commercial outcomes and advertising disclosure requirements.
Because reach without relevance is simply an expensive popularity contest.
The biggest marketing mistake? Treating every channel separately
Here’s where things become interesting.
Imagine someone discovering your business through a podcast.
A week later, they search for your services.
They visit your website, read a case study and leave.
Two days later, they see a relevant remarketing advertisement.
Finally, they enquire.
Which channel generated the customer?
The podcast? Google? Your website? Remarketing?
Potentially, all of them contributed.
This is why businesses need to move beyond judging every marketing channel purely by its last recorded click.
Research on advertising effectiveness has repeatedly highlighted the importance of balancing brand-building activity with performance marketing.
A channel that’s easy to measure isn’t necessarily the channel creating the most value.
Good marketing isn’t about winning on one platform. It’s about making every touchpoint work together.
What should Australian businesses do before increasing advertising spend?
Start with three questions.
1. Where are our best customers coming from?
Look beyond leads. Examine customer quality, acquisition costs, conversion rates and lifetime value.
2. What happens after someone clicks?
If your website is confusing, your landing page lacks credibility or nobody follows up promptly, increasing advertising spend could simply increase waste.
3. Are we testing new channels intelligently?
Don’t abandon an effective Google Ads campaign because podcast advertising is trending.
Protect what works. Allocate a controlled test budget. Measure outcomes before scaling.
And remember that customer journeys increasingly involve multiple platforms, including search engines, social media, video, streaming and AI-assisted discovery.
Your strategy needs to reflect how customers actually research and buy.
Before you spend another dollar on advertising…
Ask yourself whether your marketing is generating genuine business opportunities or simply impressive reports.
The future of advertising isn’t necessarily about bigger budgets.
It’s about understanding your customers, choosing channels with a clear purpose and building a connected journey from discovery to conversion.
Because the businesses that grow won’t always be the ones advertising everywhere.
They’ll be the ones investing where it matters.
Is your advertising budget working as hard as it should?
At Digiware Digital, we help Australian businesses make smarter marketing decisions.
From Google Ads and Meta advertising to SEO, AI search visibility, high-converting websites and marketing automation, we connect your marketing activities to real business objectives.
We look beyond clicks and impressions to understand where opportunities are being created, where potential customers are dropping off and what could improve performance.
Before increasing your advertising budget, let’s examine whether you’re investing it in the right places.
Talk to Digiware about your digital marketing strategy
Think Marketing. Think Digiware.
