According to a recently released report from ZenithOptimedia, web based advertising continues to grow at a very rapid pace. While that is not surprising in itself, what many might not have expected is that the report predicts that by 2020, digital ad spend will surpass that of television ads. TV has long been the largest medium for ad spend.
According to Steve King from ZenithOptimedia, “The internet is quickly establishing itself as the dominant advertising medium, and on current trends will overtake television by the end of the decade.”
In 2014 TV got about 39% of total ad spend. While the total dollars being directed toward TV is expected to continue to grow at about 2%, it will be overtaken by the rapid growth of web ads. In 2017 TV ads are expected to be just 36.8% of the market. Right now TV is getting about 11% more money in ads than the web, but by 2017 that is expected to just be 4%.
King went on to comment saying, “The amount of time viewers spend watching online video on their laptops, tablets and Smartphone’s is increasing rapidly and advertisers are shifting their budgets to follow them. The spread of internet devices and new advertising technology will give advertisers new opportunities to communicate with and learn from customers, and to do so more effectively than ever before.”
From 2014 to 2017 all ad types grew in total ad spend with the exception of newspaper and magazine, both of which lost millions in total ad revenue. That loss is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
Not surprisingly, the biggest growth area for web ads is with mobile ads. From 2014-2017 mobile advertising grew by 4.8 billion, compared to 1.3 billion in growth with TV and 1.3 billion for desktop internet.
You can see the full report HERE.
