Global ad spend expected to grow in 2021

The forecast growth is an increase on previous estimates that suggested a 6.7% rise for the year. 

Further growth of 8.2% is also forecast by Warc for 2022, pushing the global advertising market above $700bn in value.

Warc’s data includes agency commission and excludes production costs, and is based on information from media owners as well as 19 product areas in 25 markets.

The second quarter of 2021 saw a 23.6% rise in advertising spending, which was the highest rise in more than 10 years, driven by a 31.2% rise in spending on online advertising compared with 2020.

Search (increase of 50.6%) and e-commerce ( 59.5%) were among the best performing areas of advertising in the second quarter of 2021, while linear television also fared well ( 11.5%).

Spending online had already risen by 9.4% in 2020, according to Warc, while total advertising spending fell 5.4% during last year.

The 2021 figures also show that the Chinese advertising industry is expected to grow 16.3% to top $100bn for the first time.

The pandemic in 2020 saw spend in offline media such as print, radio, television and cinema fall by a fifth or $63bn, which Warc said was the worst downturn in this sector in more than 40 years.

James McDonald, managing editor at Warc Data, said: “Growth in online adspend has typically tracked some 20 percentage points ahead of offline media, but in the final quarter of 2020 this leapt to a remarkable 41 points – an absolute difference of $41bn.

“All media are forecast to record growth this year, with most sustaining this into 2022. Yet, as has been seen before, it is the online platforms that are set to benefit most from the ad market’s recovery.”