Zenith: Digital to Exceed 60 Percent of Global Adspend in 2022

According to Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts report, the global ad market will continue its recovery from the 2020 downturn with 9.1 percent growth in 2022, after 15.6 percent growth in 2021.

Global adspend is forecast to expand by 5.7 percent in 2023 and 7.4 percent in 2024. Zenith estimates that global adspend will reach $705 billion in 2021, up from $634 billion in 2019, and will rise to $873 billion by 2024.

Advertising across all digital channels will exceed 60 percent of global adspend for the first time in 2022, reaching 61.5 percent of total expenditure. This share will rise to 65.1 percent by 2024.

Adspend in all regions is now well above pre-pandemic levels, according to Zenith, and all are expected to grow healthily over the next few years. The firm forecasts the fastest growth between 2021 and 2024 to come from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa, with average annual growth rates of 12.2 percent and 10 percent, respectively. The slowest growth is expected from the mature markets of Western Europe, where growth is forecast at a healthy 5.3 percent a year. Zenith expects the biggest contribution to the growth in ad dollars to come from the U.S., where adspend is forecast to increase by $80 billion between 2021 and 2024, representing 48 percent of the entire growth in global adspend over this period. The next largest growth will come from China ($15.8 billion, or 9 percent of the total), the U.K. ($6 billion, or 4 percent) and Japan ($5.4 billion, or 3 percent).

Online video adspend is projected to increase from $62 billion in 2021 to $91 billion in 2024, when it exceeds 50 percent of this size of television for the first time. Linear television adspend will rise from $171 billion to $178 billion over the same period.

“As consumers rely ever more on digital technology to connect and entertain them, and to inspire and fulfill their purchases, advertising is playing a greater role in driving sales and brand growth,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith. “Over the next three years, we expect the ad market to achieve its highest rate of sustained growth since 2000.”