Meta’s ad share is nearly 3 times the share of time spent on its platforms

Key stat: Meta will nab a far bigger share of US digital ad spend (21.3%) than YouTube (5.6%) or Netflix (0.3%) this year, despite accounting for a nearly equal share of US time spent with digital, according to our June 2024 forecast.

Beyond the chart:

• Despite gripes from users about the increasing number of ads on its platforms like Instagram, Meta reported that Q2 usage was on the upswing. The number of users across Meta’s apps grew 7%, while impressions and price per ad each grew 10%.
• In contrast, connected TV (CTV) spend on platforms like Netflix and YouTube—where consumers also spend a considerable amount of digital time—isn’t keeping up with the consumer shift from linear to digital.
• Meta has built an outsized ad spend share by facilitating trackable ROI and easy ad placements. Meanwhile on CTV, the ad industry has been slow to meet consumer time spent

Use this chart:

• Identify underserved platforms with high engagement.
• Balance digital ad spending with user engagement.
• Consider the ROI of platforms based on time spent.

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• Netflix generates more ad revenues per viewer than other streamers, but gap narrows
• TikTok leads time spent on social for most US adults
• US Time Spent With Media H2 2024 Update (EMARKETER subscription required)

Note: Time spent with each medium includes multitasking; for example, 1 hour of multitasking on a mobile phone while watching TV is counted as 1 hour for mobile phone and 1 hour for TV. Figures are rounded to the nearest minute. Estimates of average time spent with media are based on the number of users of each medium. 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. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube digital ad spending numbers are EMARKETER estimates.

Methodology: Time spent estimates are based on the analysis of estimates from other research firms, consumer media consumption trends, device adoption trends, company reports, primary research, and interviews. Ad spending 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 of 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.