(Updated July 15, 2026) Sarah runs a landscaping company outside Barrie. Every January she sits down with last year’s numbers and asks the same question: where does next year’s marketing budget go?
This year the answer looks different than it did in 2023. The channels that used to work reliably, a boosted Facebook post here, a mailer there, don’t stretch as far. Meanwhile new formats, tools, and rules have shown up that didn’t exist a few years ago.
Here’s the short version. Ontario businesses are now operating in one of the most active digital marketing markets the country has seen. Canadians spent about $18.9 billion on digital advertising in 2025, and 95.2% of the country is online (Made in CA, 2025). That’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to plan on purpose instead of by habit.
Seven trends are shaping where that planning should go in 2026. None of them require betting the whole budget. Think of them the way you’d think of a portfolio: you don’t need to put everything into one trend, but ignoring any of them leaves you exposed.
1. AI Is Doing the Repetitive Work, So People Can Do the Rest
AI tools now handle a lot of what used to eat up a marketer’s week: writing ad variations, segmenting audiences, running A/B tests, answering routine customer questions through chatbots.
The numbers back this up. Across the US and Canada, 73% of marketing agency executives named AI-powered personalization the most impactful trend of 2025 (Statista, 2025). Globally, 86.4% of marketers now use AI tools, most often for content creation and personalization (HubSpot, 2026). And 86% of marketers say AI saves them more than an hour a day on creative work (HubSpot).
Here’s the part that matters for a business Sarah’s size: companies using AI in marketing report 22% higher ROI, and their campaigns launch 75% faster than ones built entirely by hand (AllAboutAI, 2026). That’s not about replacing your team. It’s about giving them back the hours they used to spend on busywork.
2.Short-Form Video Is Still Winning, and Authenticity Beats Polish
TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts aren’t a passing phase. Instagram adoption in Canada jumped 12 points to 63% since 2022, with monthly engagement up 15 points to 60%, one of the largest gains of any major platform (Social Media Lab, 2025). Short-form video has delivered the highest ROI of any content format for two years running (HubSpot, 2026), and 49% of marketers in a joint Canada-US survey called it a critical trend for their business (Statista, 2025).
The businesses winning here aren’t the ones with the biggest production budgets. They’re the ones posting quick, unscripted clips: a behind-the-scenes look at a job, a customer story, a quick answer to a common question. Platform algorithms are increasingly rewarding this kind of creator-style content over polished, corporate video. Interactive formats like polls, quizzes, and augmented reality (AR) filters add another layer of engagement on top.
3. Shopping Now Happens Inside the App
Social platforms let customers buy without ever leaving Instagram or TikTok. Canadian e-commerce sales are projected to pass $100 billion in 2025 (Expert Market Research), and social commerce is a growing share of that number.
Micro and nano influencers, creators with smaller but more engaged followings, are doing more of the heavy lifting here than big-name partnerships. HubSpot’s research found that micro-influencers under 100,000 followers deliver the highest ROI of any influencer tier. One CMO reported 5x more impressions and 6x higher engagement from a single micro-influencer pilot (HubSpot, 2026). For Canadians aged 16 to 34, social media has now overtaken both search engines and TV as the top place to discover new brands (DataReportal, Digital 2026: Canada).
4. Local and Voice Search Are Where Small Businesses Can Actually Compete
Mobile is no longer a channel businesses need convincing about. Canada had 41.6 million active mobile connections in early 2025, 104% of the population (Digital Dot, 2025). What’s newer is how much of that mobile activity runs through voice, on devices like Alexa and Google Nest, and how local that search behaviour has become.
This is genuinely good news for small and mid-sized Ontario businesses. Digital ads now make up 76.7% of all advertising spend in Canada (Made in CA, 2025), and geo-targeted, community-specific campaigns are one of the most cost-effective ways to reach the people already searching nearby. eMarketer expects more than 157 million voice assistant users in the US alone by the end of 2026, a trend playing out in Canada too. Optimizing your site for conversational, local phrasing, the way someone would ask a question out loud, matters more than it did even two years ago.
5. Data Privacy and Compliance
Ontario businesses currently operate under PIPEDA, Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law. Bill C-27 which would have replaced it, lapsed when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025. But new legislation is expected in late 2025 or 2026, with penalties of up to $25 million or 5% of global revenue (Osler, 2025)
If you don’t operate in Quebec, Law 25, the province’s strict data-consent law requiring clear opt-in for sensitive data and privacy impact assessments, doesn’t apply to you directly. But it’s a preview. New federal rules with real penalties are coming, and the businesses that will handle them best are already collecting first-party and zero-party data, meaning information customers hand over directly through email sign-ups, loyalty programs, and preference centers, rather than data gathered indirectly through third parties. Being upfront about how you collect and use customer data isn’t just compliance. In a privacy-conscious market, it’s one of the more reliable ways to earn trust.
6. Customers Expect Mobile-First and Consistent Across Every Channel
With 95.2% internet penetration and 33.0 million social media users, 82.1% of the population (DataReportal, Digital 2026: Canada), a mobile-optimized campaign isn’t optional anymore. It’s the baseline.
The businesses ahead of the curve are building marketing that moves with the customer: in-store, online, and mobile all feel like the same brand, backed by loyalty programs and automation that make those transitions easy instead of clunky. Connected TV (CTV), meaning ad-supported streaming on smart TVs, is projected to make up 38% of total TV time in Canada by 2026 (We Are Other, 2025). You don’t need a national buy to test it. A small, geo-targeted CTV campaign can already reach viewers who’ve moved on from linear TV. The average Canadian spends 6 hours and 5 minutes a day on digital media (Made in CA, 2025). An omnichannel approach just means showing up consistently wherever that time is spent.
7. Real Beats Polished, Especially Now
Social media is now the top brand discovery channel for Canadians under 35 (DataReportal, Digital 2026: Canada), and what performs best there is personal and a little unscripted: staff stories, honest customer reviews, behind-the-scenes footage.
Frequent, responsive posting consistently beats overproduced campaigns that took three weeks to approve. Authenticity is already the third-highest value Canadian and American consumers say they look for in a brand (Gartner). That’s only going to matter more as more of every feed fills up with AI-generated content. Real, specific storytelling is one of the few things AI can’t easily copy, which makes it a genuine advantage rather than a nice-to-have.
What This Means for Your 2026 Budget
You don’t need to run all seven of these at once. Start with the one or two that map most directly to where your customers already spend their time, then build from there.
A reasonable starting point for most Ontario businesses:
- Put one AI tool to work on a task that’s currently eating hours, like ad copy variations or customer FAQ responses.
- Build a short-form video habit: one unscripted clip a week beats one polished video a quarter.
- Optimize your Google Business Profile and site copy for the way people talk when they search out loud.
- Start collecting first-party data now, through email sign-ups or a simple loyalty program, before new privacy rules make it harder to do later.
- Test one CTV or social commerce placement at a small budget before committing more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI marketing hype, or is it delivering real ROI for Ontario businesses? It’s already measurable. Businesses using AI in marketing report 22% higher ROI and campaigns that launch 75% faster than manual builds (AllAboutAI, 2026), and 86% of marketers say it saves them more than an hour a day on creative tasks (HubSpot).
Should I prioritize AI tools or influencer partnerships first? They solve different problems. AI handles the operational work: segmentation, analytics, ad testing. Influencer partnerships build the trust AI can’t manufacture. Most Ontario businesses get more from starting with one AI workflow and one micro-influencer pilot than going all in on either.
Do I need to comply with Quebec’s Law 25 if I only operate in Ontario? Only if you collect data from or serve customers in Quebec. Ontario-only businesses currently fall under PIPEDA, though new federal legislation is expected in late 2025 or 2026, with penalties of up to $25 million or 5% of global revenue.
Is Connected TV worth testing for a small business? Yes, and you don’t need a big budget to start. CTV is projected to account for 38% of total TV time in Canada by 2026. A small, geo-targeted campaign can already reach viewers who’ve shifted away from traditional TV.
What’s the first move if I don’t have an internal marketing team? Pick the one or two trends above that match where your customers already spend time, and bring in a partner to execute those first, rather than trying to run all seven at once.
Where This Leaves You
Sarah still runs her landscaping company outside Barrie. She hasn’t rebuilt her marketing from scratch, and she doesn’t need to. She picked two things from a list like this one: a short-form video habit, and a first-party email list she now builds through every job she quotes.
That’s the whole approach. You don’t need every trend on this list. You need the two or three that match where your customers already are, and a plan to act on them before the year gets away from you.
If you want help figuring out which ones matter most for your business, Wild Mango Marketing is happy to talk it through. Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll help you build a plan around what’s working, not just what’s trending.