Global advertising market grows 23.8% in 2021
New advertising spend forecasts for 100 markets worldwide show that the global ad market grew 23.8% in 2021 reaching $771 billion and is on course to reach a value of $1 trillion in 2025, according to WARC.
This year marks the strongest growth in the last four decades, with ad investment forecasted to rise 12.5% in 2022 and 8.3% in 2023.
Data reveals that more than half of ad spend is going to just three companies: Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon. According to a recent WARC survey, two out of three marketers who have already committed budgets to Amazon are intending to increase that spend.
Social media platforms are also forecasted to see increased ad investment with ad professionals planning to increase spending on TikTok (66%), YouTube (61%), Instagram (60%), and Google (57%) next year.
Social media was the fastest-growing online sector in 2021 with ad spend rising by 41.9%. Instagram grew to become the largest social media platform in 2021 after overtaking the core Facebook platform for the first time and is forecasted to control over one-third of the global social media market in the next two years. TikTok’s ad revenue increased 51.5% this year and is expected to record growth of 75.4% in 2022.
With podcasts and music streaming increasing in popularity, ad spend on online audio rose by one-third to $5.4 billion in 2021, with podcast spend up 50.9% and streaming up 28.4%. Both formats are expected to continue to grow with the online audio sector’s worth increasing to $8.3 billion by 2023.
Advertising spend on print and online news brands dipped by 4% this year, while the magazines market was down 6.6%.
