WARC: Online Video to See $30 Billion in Ad Spending

Advertisers are expected to spend a combined $30 billion on online video advertising this year, according to WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report.

Online video advertising expenditure is forecast to increase 27.5 percent to reach $29.8 billion this year. This compares to an anticipated rise of 1.1 percent for linear TV, which equates to $140.2 billion, on a par with the level recorded in 2010. Online video is set to account for 17.5 percent of the total $170 billion spent on video advertising worldwide this year, up from a share of just 1.3 percent in 2010.

WARC does note that rates vary between markets. Online’s share in the U.S., the largest video market by a large margin, is expected to rise to 19.3 percent this year, at $15.3 billion. China’s online share is projected to rise to 24.7 percent ($6.5 billion) this year. U.K. online video is expected to account for 38.2 percent ($2.6 billion) of all video adspend.

The majority of this spending is going to social platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. U.K. data from the AA/WARC Expenditure Report shows that of the £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) spent on online video advertising last year, 81.2 percent (£1.3 billion; $1.7 billion) was paid to social platforms—up from a share of 55.4 percent in 2014.

James McDonald, data editor at WARC, commented: “The vast and continuing increase in video consumption via mobile devices has directed ad dollars to social platforms, despite the well documented and persistent risks around negative adjacency and ad fraud.

“Facebook hopes to regain the initiative with its Watch platform, which is being positioned as a safe brand environment offering advanced audience segmentation.”