Digital dominates advertising, but traditional channels are still relevant for some sectors

Key stat: Over 80% of ad spending in the US for technology and electronics (87.1%), retail (82.9%), and consumer packaged goods (80.2%) is directed toward digital media, according to EMARKETER’s August 2024 forecast.

Beyond the chart:

• Most industries we track now favor digital advertising over traditional channels. Technology and electronics has almost abandoned traditional media, allocating just 12.9% of ad spending to channels like print, radio, TV, and out-of-home. Retail shows a similar trend, with less than one-fifth (17.1%) of its ad budget going to traditional formats.
• In 2024, 77.7% of total media ad spending in the US—amounting to $302.77 billion— will go to digital channels, according to our March 2024 forecast. In contrast, traditional media ad spending is forecast to reach $86.72 billion this year.

Use this chart: Marketers can use this chart to argue for more strategic allocation of their advertising budgets to channels based on digital penetration.

Related EMARKETER reports:

• US Ad Spending by Industry 2024 (EMARKETER subscription required)
• US Healthcare and Pharma Ad Spending 2024 (EMARKETER subscription required)

Note: Digital ad spending includes banner ads and other (static display ads such as Facebook's News Feed Ads and X's Promoted Posts), classified ads, email (embedded ads only), mobile messaging (SMS, MMS, and P2P messaging), rich media (including in-stream and outstream video ads), search ads (including contextual text links, paid inclusion, paid listings, and SEO), sponsorships, lead generation (referrals); rich media data for 2017-2022 includes in-stream and outstream video ads; data prior to 2017 includes only outstream video ads. Directory ad spending includes yellow pages and other. Magazine ad spending includes B2B, consumer, local, and Sunday. Newspaper ad spending includes classified, national, and retail. EMARKETER benchmarks its US newspaper ad spending projections against Newspaper Association of America (NAA) data, for which the last full year measured was 2013. Out-of-home spending includes alternative, billboards, cinema, street furniture, and transit. EMARKETER benchmarks its US out-of-home ad spending projections against Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) data, for which the last full year measured was 2017. TV ad spending includes broadcast TV (network, syndication, and spot) and cable TV.

Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of various elements related to the ad spending market, including macro-level economic conditions, historical trends of the advertising market, historical trends of each medium in relation to other media, reported revenues from major ad publishers, estimates from other research firms, data from benchmark sources, consumer media consumption trends, consumer device usage trends, and EMARKETER interviews with executives at ad agencies, brands, media publishers, and other industry leaders.