Where marketers expect growth to come from in 2026 looks different from 2025. This survey of 300 companies plots expected growth contribution by channel for both years, and several shifts stand out. GEO has moved from a minor allocation to the top-ranked growth channel. Influencer marketing has risen significantly. CRO and retention have gained priority. Meanwhile, some traditionally dominant channels show stable or declining priority. The data maps which bets the market is placing heading into the second half of 2026.

Essential Statistics

• GEO ranks first among growth channels for 2026 with 17 percent of respondents citing it as a primary growth source, up from a much smaller share in 2025.
• Other, which includes a range of emerging and miscellaneous channels, ranks second for 2026 at 22 percent, up from 21 percent in 2025.
• Paid ads ranks third for 2026 at 10 percent, down from 15 percent in 2025, indicating a shift of budget priority away from paid toward other channels.
• Social media rises to rank 14 for 2026 at 14 percent, up from 12 percent in 2025.
• Influencer marketing increases from 8 percent to 5 percent priority rank, showing meaningful growth in channel confidence.
• CRO rises from rank 6 to rank 8 in priority, reflecting growing recognition of conversion optimization as a growth lever alongside traffic acquisition.

Key Takeaways

• GEO reaching the top-ranked growth channel position for 2026 reflects the market’s rapid recognition of generative engine optimization as a primary traffic and lead source. This is a structural shift in where marketers expect digital discovery to occur, not a temporary experiment.
• CRO rising in priority confirms what the companion CRO charts in this batch show: companies are increasingly recognizing that improving conversion rates on existing traffic is a more efficient growth lever than acquiring additional traffic at higher cost.
• Influencer marketing gaining priority reflects the continued shift in brand discovery toward social-mediated channels, consistent with the buyer discovery data showing social media as the leading brand discovery channel.
• The 22 percent other category remaining large signals that experimentation with emerging channels, including connected TV, community platforms, and newer social formats, is absorbing a meaningful share of growth investment without yet consolidating into named channel commitments.

Actionable Insights

• If GEO is not already in your growth plan for 2026, start building the case for it now. The market has moved GEO to the top-ranked expected growth channel in one year. Companies not yet investing in GEO are increasingly behind peers who are, and the first-mover advantage in AI citation authority compounds over time in ways that make delayed entry progressively more costly.
• Review your paid media allocation against the 10 percent priority benchmark for 2026. The market is collectively reducing paid media’s share of expected growth contribution in this dataset. Evaluate whether your paid dependency is appropriate for your growth model or whether it reflects a lack of viable alternatives.
• Add CRO explicitly to your growth channel plan as a named investment area, not just an optimization activity. The rise in CRO priority reflects a recognition that conversion rate improvement generates revenue from traffic you already have, without requiring additional acquisition spend. A one percentage point conversion rate improvement on existing traffic produces the same revenue impact as a significant traffic increase at a fraction of the cost.
• Evaluate influencer marketing as a demand generation channel if brand discovery is a growth priority. The rising influencer priority in this data is consistent with social media’s leading role in first-brand-contact. Influencer investment that reaches audiences before they have articulated a search query operates at the top of a discovery funnel that traditional search and paid channels reach later.
• Use the other category’s size as a prompt to run one emerging channel experiment in the second half of 2026. The 22 percent other allocation represents a collective market bet on channels that have not yet consolidated into standard planning. Identifying one emerging channel where your audience is present and running a controlled 90-day pilot captures potential early-mover returns before that channel becomes standard and more expensive.

”GEO went from a footnote to the top-ranked expected growth channel in one year. That is how fast the market is moving. The companies that positioned early are already compounding their AI citation authority. The companies starting now are behind but not out. The companies that wait another year will find a significantly harder market to enter.” – Neil Patel’