Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?

• According to eMarketer, across all industries, Travel will see the fastest growth in US digital ad spending of any industry in 2023, according to our forecast. Growth for total US digital ad spending this year will reach 7.8%, its slowest pace in 14 years. The growth rate will pick up from 2024 through to the end of our forecast period in 2027, when growth will be more than 10% each year. Travel has led the country’s digital ad spending growth since 2021, and will continue to 2024. Although travel is growing quickly, it’s starting from a relatively small base of just $6.79 billion. Retail is the industry with the highest US digital ad spending in 2023 at $73.55 billion, according to our forecast. The top three highest-spending industries—retail, consumer packaged goods, and financial services—will account for more than half of all US digital ad spending this year.
• On a related report by eMarketer, US retail digital ad spending will grow by 12.2% this year— significantly above the overall digital ad spending rate of 7.8%—to reach $73.55 billion and account for 27.9% of all digital ad spending.
• Social media has evolved to become one of the most widely used marketing channels, while also occupying almost 30% of all ad spend in the US. Navigating social media marketing can be a complex undertaking, so which features of a platform are most important for marketers? Recently released research from Capterra reveals some opinions. In surveying more than 280 marketers, Capterra found that three features were considered most important for marketing and advertising. 53% of respondents allocate their resources fairly evenly across multiple platforms or apps, while the remaining 47% share tend to focus a sizable portion of their resources on one or two main ones. Marketers who concentrate their spending on one or two platforms see the number of active users of a platform as a bigger reason for choosing it than those who spread their resources across multiple platforms.