Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- Digital media quality generally trended in the right direction last year in some areas, according to Integral Ad Science’s latest Media Quality Report. Viewability rates continued to reach new highs, worldwide reaching an all-time high of 76.1% in H2 2023, up from 74.8% during the first half of the year and from 73.6% during the year-earlier period. They were highest on connected TV (92%), followed by mobile web video (80.4%) and desktop video (79.8%), and trailed by mobile app display (77.4%), desktop display (72.2%), and mobile web display (66.9%).
- The streaming video market grew on the back of its lack of ads. But a lot has changed since the ascent of streaming video ecosystems, and having drawn in subscribers, services appear to be retaining them despite introducing ads, according to a study from Hub Entertainment Research. Among TV viewers who use ad-supported or subscription video-on-demand services that currently offer both ad-supported and ad-free tiers, 21% share used only ad-free tiers in Q1, down from 30% share in Q4 2023.
- US online retail spending posted another strong year in 2023, with spending up by 18.8% year-over-year to $1.29 trillion. The top-grossing digital commerce category – and also one of the fastest-rising – was Online Grocery (Grocery/Baby/Pet), according to a report from Comscore. With $266 billion in spending, the Grocery/Baby/Pet category easily led the way in digital commerce spend, outpacing the next-largest grossing category, Apparel & Accessories ($204 billion). These were the only 2 to exceed $200 billion in spending, together accounting for roughly 36% share of total digital commerce spending (at about 20% share and 16%, respectively).
- TikTok’s age profile of its weekly user base in the US is shifting, according to a report from YouGov. This year, some 21% of US adults use the app on a weekly basis, almost doubling the share (11%) from just 2 years ago, and quadrupling the share (5%) from 2021. As the app gains more widespread usage, it’s attracting a more varied user base, too. YouGov’s data indicates that 45% share of weekly TikTok users this year are ages 35 and older, up from 35% share in 2022.
