US Digital Ad Spending Will Surpass Traditional in 2019

For the first time in industry history, advertisers will be spending more on digital initiatives than traditional channels. According to eMaketer, in the next 4 years the digital spending dollars will be outspending traditional media by nearly 2/3rds. 2019 ad spending sees that digital advertising is 54% of overall media dollars. This year also marks the first for digital giants Google and Facebook as this is the first time that shares for both companies has declined as digital revenue grows. This decline could be due to the growing privacy concerns that has haunted Facebook over the last year. The biggest winner in the digital spending war has been Amazon. According to eMarketer, the revenue share has increased by 2% from 2018. The company has seen a recent boom in revenue because of the rich behavioral data is has to offer due to its constant traffic of online customers.

Traditional media has declined across the board except for OOH spend which could be attributed to the digital capabilities the channel has been integrating in recent years. From last year alone, the overall ad spending dollars is projected to decrease by nearly 6%. This can be explained by the shift of how people are consuming media in today’s age. The world is becoming more connected and online media is leading the environment of change.  Traditional media has been slower to adapt and needs to be more innovative to maintain relevancy & impact in the media space. Television spending will see a decrease by over 2% from last year because of less culturally relevant lean-in moments taking place (i.e. Olympics, elections, etc.)

What is key for brands is to adapt to the changing media landscape and to place their dollars effectively based on where the audience is gravitating. By understanding the exact audience, brands have the ability to effectively place budget into channels that make sense. The shift to digital media could be explained by the younger generation being much more receptive to online advertisements than previous generations. As the younger generation shapes the future of where media trends will go, it is important for brands to keep up with the trends to grow their audience base as well has competitively conquest potential customers.