Digital makes up over three-quarters of total ad spend in the US

Key stat: Total media ad spend in the US will reach $389.49 billion this year, according to our forecast. Over three-quarters (77.7%) of that will go toward digital channels like mobile, desktop/laptop, and connected TV (CTV).

Beyond the chart:

• Ad spend has grown faster than GDP every year since 2019, when digital first exceeded half of total ad spend, according to our Ad Spending Benchmarks: Q3 2024 report.
• The retail industry leads in digital ad spend, spending $88.13 billion this year, per our forecast. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) comes next with $48.79 billion in digital ad spend, followed by financial services at $33.81 billion.
• Though traditional search’s share of digital ad spend has peaked, display’s share is growing thanks to video formats like CTV.

Use this chart:

• Make the argument for prioritizing digital ad channels.
• Justify making mobile a central focus of digital ad strategy.
• Highlight growth potential of CTV advertising.
• Illustrate the importance of differentiating ad strategies by device and medium.

More like this:

• Viewers are streaming to CTV far faster than ad dollars are
• Google will remain the top destination for ad spend in the generative AI era
• Mobile is still strong with advertisers, but CTV poised to grow
• Traditional search will draw the largest amount of US ad dollars in 2024

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.Less

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.