In 2025, the marketing and technology services M&A market was defined by high-impact consolidation and sharpening buyer priorities. The headline merger of Omnicom and IPG signals a new era of scale-driven competition, while strategic and private equity buyers continue to pursue focused acquisitions that enhance platform capabilities across performance, measurement, and vertical depth. Despite valuation pullbacks, activity remains healthy where integration value and operational leverage are clear.
At the same time, deal selectivity is rising. Buyers are gravitating toward firms with embedded AI, cross-platform analytics, and recurring revenue — particularly in sectors like B2B, creator commerce, and MarTech. As economic pressures normalize and capital availability improves, the stage is set for disciplined but sustained momentum heading into 2026.
Key M&A Trends
1. AI Investment Shifts from Creative Tools to Strategic Infrastructure:
M&A interest continues to center on AI, but with greater emphasis on infrastructure and outcomes, not experimentation. Buyers prioritize agencies and platforms where generative and predictive AI power media planning, measurement, and workflow automation, enabling both creative scale and performance optimization.
2. Cross-Platform Measurement and Attribution Become Strategic Anchors:
As global ad spend rises and digital formats multiply, buyers are targeting firms that solve measurement fragmentation, including cross-screen attribution and unified audience analytics.
Scalable, cross-platform data stacks are now critical for acquirers pursuing deterministic ROI in increasingly complex digital ecosystems.
3. Mid-Market and Regional Specialists Gain Strategic Appeal:
Amid the backdrop of mega-mergers, dealmaking has favored mid-market and regional specialists – agencies with sticky client relationships and deep vertical or geographic focus. These businesses offer buyers resilience, nimble execution, and footholds in markets where localization matters.
4. Private Equity Neutralizes Volatility with Operational Value Plays:
PE firms have returned to the M&A market with focused strategies. Sponsors are prioritizing recurring revenue, operational leverage, and consolidation-ready platforms over scale alone. Add-on and buy-and-build approaches remain dominant heading into 2026.
5. Creator-Economy and Commerce Integration Remain Consolidation Themes:
While traditional retail media valuations have disciplined slightly, strategic buyers are still active on the creator-commerce frontier, acquiring boutique digital agencies and content-platform hybrids that tie creator audience reach to shoppable outcomes. This trend reflects broader shifts in advertising dollars toward commerce-linked engagement and performance measurement..