Worldwide Ad Spending Growth Revised Downward

Spending on paid media worldwide will climb 5.7% in 2016 to $542.55 billion, propelled by increased investments in digital advertising. This is lower than eMarketer’s previous forecast, but still represents accelerated growth when compared with 2015 (5.0%).

This year, ad expenditures will be boosted by incremental spending generated around quadrennial events, most notably the US presidential election and Rio Summer Olympics, as explored in a new eMarketer report, “Worldwide Ad Spending: The eMarketer Forecast for 2016.”

The outlook for global ad spending through 2020 remains optimistic and advertisers will allocate more dollars as stability returns to most major economies. Worldwide ad spending will reach $674.24 billion by the end of 2020, with annual gains hovering between 5% and 6%. However, growth will vary widely across individual markets based on a variety of factors including economic growth and advertising maturity.

North America will remain the No. 1 advertising region throughout eMarketer’s forecast. Outlays will grow 5.0% in 2016—marginally below the global average of 5.7%—totaling $202.38 billion, or 37.3% of global spending. Asia-Pacific will be the second-largest region with $171.51 billion, or 31.6% of global paid media spend. eMarketer has lowered growth expectations in Asia-Pacific for 2016 due to the gradual slowdown of key economies in the region.

The media landscape has become more complex than ever before—increasingly influenced by global market volatility. Along with the growing diversity of media and the rising impact of worldwide events, fluctuations in ad spending forecasts are more common.

eMarketer has decreased its estimates for total worldwide ad spending for each year from 2015 to 2020, based on significant changes to regional spending in Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Moreover, substantial changes to exchange rates have resulted in large devaluations of most major currencies against the US dollar, thereby leading to numerous changes to media spend forecasts.

Courtesy of eMarketer