The official numbers for 2014 provided by IAB are out, and they are quite impressive. While most everyone knew that digital ad spend would continue to grow, many were surprised at the specific numbers. In total, the US market spent $49.5 billion in 2014, which is a significant jump from $42.8 Billion in the previous year. What is perhaps most impressive is that mobile growth shot up by 76% year over year and 110% from 2010. It went from $7.1 Billion to $12.5 Billion.
Social media advertising also made some huge gains, shooting up by 57% last year. This is due in large part to the fact that many social networks began to greatly expand the advertising options they were offering. In addition, Facebook made some significant changes that helped to improve the overall ad performance for the year.
Search ads only grew by 3% during the year, but that is a much more established market so it is to be expected. It remains the largest single segment with 38% of the total ad spend in the US. Despite the 3% growth in spend, the percentage of the total market dropped from 43% in 2013 to 38%. This is because there are more ‘pieces in the pie’ than ever before, and social and mobile ads are starting to share the revenue.
The bottom line here is that no matter what type of digital advertising you look at, there was growth over the last year. More and more businesses are starting to realize the importance of this type of advertising, and shifting a greater portion of their total budget in this direction.
You can see the full report from IAB HERE.