Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- The ad market is “healthy and maybe unsustainably strong” this year, according to the Madison and Wall principal Brian Wieser, who published the advisory firm’s latest ad spend report on Wednesday. Per the report, the advertising industry has enjoyed an unusual three consecutive quarter trend of near double-digit growth, including 9.6% growth in Q2 this year. In 2025 things will naturally decelerate in the back half and eventually level out to a more typical, mid-single-digit growth rate – down from 7.2% overall in 2024 to 5.3%.
- Wieser’s report also states that digital advertising accounted for almost two thirds of the industry’s ad revenue during the past quarter and grew 16.4% in Q2 – almost double its 2023 Q2 rate of 8.7%, in fact. However, digital growth will slow down with the rest of the advertising market, warning of potential deceleration factors like retail media networks losing momentum or Chinese cross-border advertising demand drying up. Meanwhile, the “open web” still hovers around the bottom of the digital advertising barrel with an even slower predicted growth rate of 3.1%.
- 48% of US retail business decision-makers say video ads drive the biggest return on ad spend (ROAS) on Amazon, according to March 2024 data by Zogby Analytics and Feedvisor. Another 39% believe sponsored products are Amazon’s ROAS-driving ad solution. This year, video will make up 35.7% of total US digital ad spend, amounting to $108.15 billion and Amazon’s $41.95 billion in US retail media ad revenue this year will account for more than three-quarters (77.0%) of the total retail media ad market.
- Brands need to be part of culture, so says Dentsu in a recently-released report, and it has the data to back it up: fully 88% of CMOs surveyed agree that it is more important than ever for brands to be a part of culture. This isn’t always easy, though, with about 3 in 4 (74% of) respondents admitting that it’s challenging to know how to connect their brand to culture. Additionally, a similar proportion (73%) find it challenging to tell their brand stories in new ways such as entertainment, experience, or action, and more than three-quarters (77%) agree that building a brand in a world where broadcast media is less relevant will be challenging. The good news is that there are indications that consumers are receptive to brands being involved in culture.
