The digital advertising market will continue to grow in 2021

By Emmanuel Legrand

Digital ad spending in the world has been resilient in 2020, growing 12.7% year-on-year, to $370.16 billion, according to statistics from eMarketer, based on figures from 37 national markets tracked by the research company.

  However, total ad spending declined by 1.2% globally, driven by a 15.7% contraction in traditional ad spending. Digital ad spending accounted for 58.2% of total advertising spending in 2020.

  In 2021, total digital ad spending will grow by 20.4% y-o-y to reach $455.30bn globally, of which 55.2% will go to display advertising, and 40.2% to search. eMarketer noted that three years ago, the gap between display and search was only around 10 percentage points, but the gap is now of 15. "Consumer shifts toward social media and digital video are accelerating the rise of display," said eMarketer. 

All markets will bounce back

  After a global drop in 2020 in all markets, except for China, which posted a 7.4% growth in ad spending, eMarketer forecasts that "all markets will bounce back" with most countries returning to or exceeding their 2019 trend lines for digital ad spending growth. By 2024, digital ad spending will exceed $645bn globally. 

  In the US, advertisers "pulled back hard on spending in late Q1 and Q2 last year," and then started spending on ad channels that offered "flexibility and accountability," wroteeMarketer in the 'US Digital Ad Spending 2021' report. "That meant a strong recovery for digital ad spending as traditional media faced steep spending drops."

  Digital advertising grew by 14.9% in 2020 and for 2021, eMarketer forecasts that US digital ad spending will increase 25.5% to $191.09bn, "the fastest growth rate since 2018, as the ad market and wider economy continue recovering from the pandemic." 

Social networks held up well

  Total media ad spending in the US should rebound 18.0% in 2021 after a flat 2020, with a 5.2% increase in traditional media ad spending, led by a partial recovery for TV. 

  Digital, and especially mobile and connected TV, "will continue to claim an ever-greater share of total ad spending because of the pandemic," noted eMarketer.

  Social network advertising and ecommerce channel advertising "held up well" during the pandemic and will continue growing rapidly in 2021 and beyond. Connected TV (CTV) advertising was also a beneficiary of pandemic trends, as linear TV decreased in importance. 


  TV advertising expenditure in the US will pick up in 2021 but will not reach the levels of 2019, after a year 2020 that saw a significant drop due to the Covid pandemic, accordingto projections by eMarketer. The research firm forecasts a 6.7% increase in TV ad spending in 2021 to $65.9bn, some $5bn away from 2019 figures, but $4bn over 2020.

  The effects of pandemic resulted in a 12.5% decline year-over-year of TV advertising expenditures at $61.76bn in 2020, when instead eMarketer had projected a 2% growth for the year.