Global advertising spend is expected to grow 4.4 percent in 2023 (taking ad spend to $963 billion this year) and 8.2 percent in 2024, a growth that will see the ad market surpass $1 trillion for the first time ever, according to a study by global market research firm WARC.
The South Asia ad market is growing rapidly, helped by a strong Indian market. Ad spend in India is forecast to grow by double digits over the next 18 months to reach a total of $13.7 billion in 2024.
“High interest rates, spiraling inflation, military conflict and natural disasters have made for a bitter cocktail over the preceding 12 months, but the latest earnings season shows that the ad market has withstood this turbulence and has now turned a corner,” said James McDonald, director of Data, Intelligence and Forecasting at WARC.
Five big tech firms – Alibaba, Alphabet (owner of Google and YouTube), Amazon, ByteDance (owner of TikTok and Douyin) and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) – will together take over half of global advertising spend this year. These five companies are expected to see ad revenue rise 9.1% this year and 10.7% in 2024.
Major world events like a US presidential election, Olympics, and the UEFA men’s Euros all in 2024, are expected to boost growth, with certain channels – social media, retail media and Connected TV expected to lead. As per the report, social media will be the fastest-growing medium, with spend rising to a total of $227.2 billion next year – a fifth (21.8 percent ) of total spend. Meta is set to take 64.4 percent of this. Retail media spend is set to rise 10.2 percent this year and 10.5 percent next year to a total of $141.7bn – 13.6 percent of all spend, with Amazon expected to take 37.2 percent.
Connected TV (CTV) is projected to grow +11.4 percent this year and next year +12.1 percent, reaching a total of $33.0 billion – only 3.2 percent of all spend but 16.2 percent of premium video spend (CTV and linear TV combined).