Global Adspend to Rise 4.3 Percent in 2019

New research from WARC predicts a 4.3-percent increase in global advertising spending this year to $616 billion, with growth slowing from the 5.4-percent rise in 2018.

The group’s Global Ad Trends report notes that TV remains the largest ad medium with spend of $195.5 billion. This is down about 1.3 percent from last year. Internet ad spend will rise by 12.1 percent to reach $287.4 billion, a 46.7-percent share of the overall market. Google and Facebook continue to dominate this space, with their ad revenue intake set to rise by 22 percent to $176.4 billion, scoring a 61.4-percent share of the online advertising market. Excluding those two platforms, spending is forecast to fall by 7.2 percent in 2019.

“While advertising investment is stable at the top line level—maintaining a 0.7 percent share of global GDP since 2011—the market’s undercurrents have changed dramatically in recent years,” said James McDonald, data editor at WARC and author of the research. “The amount of ad money available to online publishers beyond Google and Facebook is now in decline, and the repercussions are potentially far-reaching, with several high-profile announcements of job cuts seen among online publishers already this year. Print publishers have already been severely hit by the migration of ad dollars online, and while traditional media excluding print have fared admirably to date, their collective take of ad investment is also trending downwards.”

North American ad revenues should rise by 3.7 percent this year after a 6-percent increase last year that was driven by the U.S. midterms and the Winter Olympics. The Asia Pacific is expected to see a 5.8-percent gain, driven by China. Western Europe, which was up 9.5 percent last year, will only see a 3.5-percent increase in 2019. CEE should have a good 2019 with 10.6-percent boost. Latin America, down by 8.3 percent last year, is expected to see a rebound this year with a 3.8-percent increase. The Middle East will continue to see ad revenues shrink. African ad revenues should grow by 4.3 percent this year.