Fueled by Strong Social Gains, Digital Ad Spend Growth Continues to Outpace other Media Formats
Digital ad spend is experiencing consistent growth year-over-year (YoY), while Print has been faced with stark declines. Digital ad spend increased by 12% in Q2 2018 as compared to Q2 2017. The spend growth was largely attributed to Social and Video-only Websites, which grew 45% and 21%, respectively. Content and TV-websites improved by 18%. Search was down 5%.
Conversely, Print experienced the largest drop of all media channels as ad expenditures decreased by 22% in comparison to a year ago. While the World Cup did generate a slight boost, TV ad spend remained relatively flat, increasing only by 0.2%. Out of Home was the only other media channel to post a gain which totaled 9%.
What this means for marketers: As print continues to experience declines, there may be more opportunities to negotiate additional value from multi-channel media partners. Advertisers may want to consider consolidating efforts with partners that can offer a mix of media options including Social, Video, as well as Branded Custom Content which can be featured on-air, online and/or in-book. Negotiating licensing and usage rights may also be a benefit to advertisers as custom content can be a great tool to extend reach and the life of a campaign by featuring it on the advertiser’s site and promoting it through branded social media platforms.