Research firm eMarketer has revealed that American spending on digital advertising will surpass that of traditional media in 2019, a first for the industry.
According to the findings, digital ad spending in the US will grow 19 per cent to $129.34 billion this year, placing it at approximately 54 per cent of total advertising dollars.
Traditional advertising, which includes television, magazines and newspapers, will total $109.48 billion.
eMarketer forecasts that the trend will continue in much the same way, with traditional ad spending falling to $104.32 billion in 2021, while digital will skyrocket to a total of $172.29 billion.
Mobile will make up the biggest share of digital ad spending, with a total of $87.06 billion.
eMarketer forecasting director Monica Peart said of the landmark: “The steady shift of consumer attention to digital platforms has hit an inflexion point with advertisers, forcing them to now turn to digital to seek the incremental gains in reach and revenues which are disappearing in traditional media advertising”.
The forecast suggests that traditional media will see increases in Olympic or election years, but little else beyond that.
eMarketer predicts that Amazon will see a 50 per cent increase in its ad business, presently ranking third behind only Google and Facebook in digital ad revenue share.
Peart observed: “Amazon has a major benefit to advertisers, especially consumer packaged goods and direct-to-consumer brands.
“The platform is rich with shoppers’ behavioural data for targeting and provides access to purchase data in real-time.
“This type of access was once only available through the retail partner, to share at their discretion.
“But with Amazon’s suite of sponsored ads, marketers have unprecedented access to the ‘shelves’ where consumers are shopping”.
