Digital to Account for One in Five Ad Dollars

Worldwide, digital ad spending passed the $100-billion mark for the first time last year, according to new eMarketer estimates, and will increase by a further 15.1% in 2013 to $118.4 billion.

That will put worldwide digital ad spending levels—including online and mobile advertising spending, other than messaging-based formats—at 21.7% of the total spent on ads in all media this year, and on track to account for more than one-quarter of all ad spending by 2016.

North America accounts for the greatest share of all digital ad spending, at 39% as of the end of 2012. As emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America up spending, however, North America and second-place Western Europe will lose share slightly throughout the forecast period. By 2016, 36.7% of spending will come from North America, and 23.7% from Western Europe. By the same year, Asia-Pacific will contribute 29.8% of all digital ad spend in the world.

The fastest growth in spending will come from the emerging markets of Indonesia, India and Mexico—though that growth is coming from a relatively small base of spending.

As a percent of total ad spending, Western Europe’s digital spending is slightly ahead of North America’s, at 24.9% this year vs. 24.6%. Asia-Pacific is not far behind, though in the world’s lagging region, the Middle East and Africa, just 7% of all ad dollars go to digital media. eMarketer expects this percentage to nearly double by 2016, but the region will still be far behind the near-30% of ad spending devoted to digital in Western Europe and North America.

North America and Western Europe also boast the highest regional levels of digital ad spending per internet user, at $168 and $112 this year, respectively.

For more information at http://www.emarketer.com