15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Advertising

The future of advertising will be personalized, automated, immersive, experiential, and measurable. It won’t feel like advertising. We have the stats—where we are now and where we are heading—to back it up.

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Advertising

The future of advertising will be personalized, automated, immersive, experiential, and measurable. It won’t feel like advertising.

We have the stats—where we are now and where we are heading—to back it up.

  1. Total media ad spending worldwide will rise 7.4% to $628.63 billion for 2018. Digital media will account for 43.5% of investments. By 2020, digital’s share of total advertising will near 50%. (Source: eMarketer)
  2. Mobile will make up the bulk of this spend, garnering 67.3% of digital and 29.2% of total media advertising this year. (Source: eMarketer)
  3. In the U.S., specifically, digital advertising will reach $107.3 billion for 2018, an 18.7% increase from $90.39 billion in 2017. (Source: eMarketer)
  4. Advertisers are expected to spend a combined $66 billion globally on sponsorship this year, up 4.9% year over year. When compared with paid media, sponsorship is the second-fastest growing advertising channel behind Internet formats. (Source: WARC)
  5. Advertising is certainly becoming more automated, as well. In fact, spending for marketing/advertising automation is expected to reach $25.1 billion annually by 2023. (Source: MarTech Today)
  6. When it comes to TV advertising, the majority of inventory is still bought manually. Less than a third (28%) of brands have integrated digital audience data into their TV ad buys, though 68% plan to do so in the next 12 months. (Source: Adobe)
  7. Product placement in various media and over-the-top (OTT) video advertising are projected to post double-digit gains due to increased cable cord-cutting and binge OTT video watching. (Source: PQ Media)
  8. Two-thirds of all the growth in global advertising expenditure between 2017 and 2020 will come from paid search and social media ads. (Source: Zenith)
  9. Half of Generation Z (50%) and 42% of Millennials said ads in social media are most relevant to them, while Generation X and Baby Boomers said they still prefer TV advertising. (Source: Adobe Digital Insights)
  10. More than 70% of advertisers believe their ads are relevant to the audience they are targeting. Yet only 8% of people think ads they see online are always relevant. (Source: Adobe Digital Insights)
  11. Retail is expected to make up the largest chuck on the digital advertising pie this year, with an estimated 21.9% of total digital ad spend. Automotive (10.4% of total spend), financial (10.3%), pharmaceutical products/medicine (9.8%) and travel and tourism (9.3%) will round out the top five digital advertising spenders. (Source: Marketing Charts)
  12. On average, advertisers will spend more than $10 million annually for their brands’ digital and mobile video advertising, a 53% increase from two years ago in 2016. (Source: IAB)
  13. Eighty-four percent of advertisers said they would increasingly bring more advertising functions in-house this year, advertising direct to the consumer. (Source: IAB)
  14. 2018 has been the year of experiential marketing, with nine in 10 marketers recognizing its importance in driving brand engagement. (Source: Freeman)
  15. Social media advertising revenue is forecast to reach $51.3 billion for 2018. That’s $17.24 per user. Revenue is set to grow 10.5% annually. (Source: Hootsuite)