How the Trump presidency will influence digital ad spending, regulation, and traditional media

Now that the election outcome is certain, we explore how Trump’s proposed tariffs, big-business agenda, and media influence will affect key areas of digital marketing and advertising.

1. What happens to high-growth digital advertising channels like CTV and retail media?

The primary impact on digital ad spending under a Trump administration is likely to be inflation. Trump has proposed imposing tariffs as high as 60% on foreign goods, deporting illegal immigrants, and cutting the corporate tax rate—all policies that leading economists believe could send inflation soaring.

However, an inflation spike could make retail media a more valuable ad channel. Inflation would restrict ad budgets and encourage marketers to spend more on high return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) channels like retail media. Advertisers who deal with essential goods are unlikely to be affected by pullbacks in consumer discretionary spending, which means they might still spend ad budgets freely.

But for advertisers late to the retail media game, a high-inflation environment could make the barrier to entry greater. New entrants to retail media might struggle to see immediate results, as it typically takes time to optimize campaigns. In an inflationary landscape, companies with tighter profit margins might hesitate to allocate resources toward these channels without prior experience, potentially hurting retail media growth among smaller and less established advertisers.