Advertising Statistics You Must Know

Getting visibility for your business today encompasses much more than paid advertising. Social media, blogging, influencer marketing, and more are all options. Yet ad spend keeps growing as advertising statistics prove. By 2021, worldwide advertisement spending will touch a hefty $559.85 billion.

In the past, you may have wondered what is the cheapest way to advertise, or even whether it’s possible to find free business advertising. But smart questions go beyond cost alone, so we have assembled a range of statistics for you to be effective. The authoritative advertising stats and facts below will guide your strategies to help get a good return on investment.

Advertising Statistics: The Big Picture

Businesses have been implementing advertising for ages to convey the value prepositions of their offerings.

As the competition is growing, businesses are continuously increasing their ad budgets to stay on top of their game. This has led to an exponential growth in the ad market.

According to the latest ads forecast (2019-2024) report by IMARC Group:

• The global ad market value is expected to reach $769.9 billion by 2024.
• The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is projected to be 6.3% during the forecast period.

The United States is the largest ad market in the world, with advertising spend reaching $242.54 billion in 2020.

Are you wondering, how can advertising help your business? The answer is in many ways.

Well-thought out ads can help your business:

• Build brand awareness
• Creat demand
• Increase sales
• Grow the customer base.

If you’re curious about average advertising costs for small businesses, it is 1% of their revenue.

Yes, small businesses on average spend 1% of their revenue on advertising.

However, some industries have more ad budgets than others have. For example, furniture store owners spend 4.44%, while specialty food stores spend only 1.88% of their revenues on ads. (Small Business Trends)

So there is no hard and fast rule. You should perform due diligence and consider various small business statistics to make the final call about the ad budget.

Needless to say, advertising is constantly evolving. Therefore, keeping tabs on the important advertising stats, such as social media ads, search ads, video advertising, and offline ads will help you adopt an effective advertising plan for your business.

Social Media Advertising Statistics

There are around 3.96 billion social media users around the world. So it comes as no surprise that more and more businesses are increasing their budget for social media ads.

Globally, spending on social media ads is expected to reach $138,412 million by 2025.

The United States is also expected to witness tremendous growth in the social media ad budget.

Here are two important statistics about advertising from a report published by eMarketer:

• Advertisers are projected to spend over $50.86 billion on social media advertising by 2021
• US social media ad spending will have a growth of 16.9% by 2021

Do you want to know how many small businesses use social media marketing?

73% of small businesses, according to Small Business Trends, use social media marketing. And most business owners bank on Facebook ads for small business.

Have a look at the following Facebook marketing statistics:

• 92% of social media marketers are using Facebook for advertising (Invesp)
• Facebook (and ads on Facebook) contribute to 80.4% of social referral to Ecommerce sites (eMarketer)
• The average cost per click (CPC) on Facebook across all industries is $1.72 (WordStream)
• Facebook has a 19.3% share of the total US digital ad spend. (eMarketer)

When it comes to social media ads, Facebook rules. However, you should consider where your audience hangs out before committing to any social media platform to run ads.

If your audience is most active on Facebook, focus on Facebook. If not, then choose the platform where your audience is. There is no point in focusing on Facebook just because everyone is using Facebook ads.

Now the important question comes. How much should you spend on social media ads?

CMO Survey reports that companies spend 13% of their marketing budgets on social media.

Mobile Advertising Statistics

Marketers are tweaking their advertising strategies to target the growing number of users with mobile devices. This has led to a steep rise in mobile ad budgets.

Following are some important digital advertising statistics for mobile:

• Mobile advertising is expected to surpass $330.4 billion worldwide in 2020 (PubMatic)
• US mobile advertising spending is projected to touch $123.59 billion in 2021 (eMarketer)
• 47.9% of the US total media advertising spend will be mobile by 2022 (eMarketer)

When you’re planning a budget for a mobile marketing strategy, keep social media in your mind. Why?

The following stats prove that more and more people are accessing social media platforms through their mobile devices:

• People having internet-enabled mobile devices spend 50% of their time on social media and comms (App Annie)
• 54.2% of US social network users will be mobile-only by 2021 (eMarketer)

So it becomes imperative that you should optimize your ads for mobile devices. Some marketers can debate over mobile ads vs web ads, but most agree that in-app ads are a good way to encourage the audience to make a purchase. And the numbers support this.

App Annie reports that in-app advertising is set to touch $201 billion in 2021.

Digital Advertising Statistics

Digital advertising is targeted, flexible, and measurable. It enables businesses to reach out to their target audience and encourage them to make a purchase. All of these benefits have persuaded marketers all over the world to increase their online marketing budgets.

Look at the following digital advertising stats from eMarketer, which proves that online advertising is growing:

• Global spending on digital advertising is expected to reach $389.29 billion in 2021
• Spending on digital ads worldwide in 2021 is projected to be 56.1% of total media advertising.

The growth of online advertising expenditure has also been forecasted in another report. According to digital advertising statistics from Mordor Intelligence:

• Online advertising spend is expected to reach $982.82 billion by 2025.
• North America makes up the largest share of spending on online ads.

Talking about the US numbers, the share of spending on digital ads will be 51.3% of total US ad spending in 2021. (eMarketer)

Another eMarketer report finds that US b2b marketers are expected to have $9.03 billion digital ad spend by 2021.

Display Advertising Statistics

Display advertising is the fastest-growing type of digital advertising. This is because display ads allow businesses to efficiently and effectively plan any internet advertising campaign to boost the growth rate.

According to Zenith forecast:

• Total display ad spend is expected to hit 177.6 billion globally.
• Internet display advertising will be 21.3% of the total global ad spend by 2021.

Display advertising can be used for both building brand awareness and growing sales. And considering the benefits of programmatic display ads, more and more companies are employing programmatic display ads in the US to lure internet users.

In fact, eMarketer reports that US companies are expected to spend $79.75 billion on programmatic digital display ads by 2021, which will be 86.5% of the total digital ad spending.

Here are some other interesting display advertising facts from Sharethrough research:

• Native ads receive 52% more views than standard display ads.
• Native ads give an 18% higher lift in purchase intent than standard banner ads.
• Internet users looked at native ads more than original editorial content for a similar amount of time.

Do you need more reason to make native ads an integral part of your digital advertising campaigns?

Google Ads Statistics

Google is now the most popular search engine. And it also has become king of all types of Internet advertising. Be it a search ad or display ad, marketers turn to the search engine giant – Google.

Here are some interesting advertising facts about Google Ads:

• Google has around 36.3% share of total digital US ad spending. (eMarketer)
• For every $1 spent, Google Ads can give you $8. (Google)
• 63% of people are likely to click on Google Ads. (Clutch)
• 90% of people who use the Internet see Google ads. (Google)

What is the average click-through rate in AdWords across all industries? How much money do marketers spend across all industries on Google Ads to sell products/services?

To give answers to questions like these, we have collected the following useful Google Ads Benchmark stats from WordTracker :

• The average click-through rate (CTR) for search is 3.17% and 0.46% for display.
• The average cost per click (CPC) for search is $2.69 and $0.63 for display.

All marketers want a good ROI for their marketing strategies. And Google Ads delivers this.

Here are some additional Google Ads Benchmark stats form WordTracker:

• The average conversion rate for search is 3.75% and 0.77% for display.
• The average CPA (cost per action) is $48.96 for search and $75.51 for display.

If you’re a beginner and thinking about leveraging Google Ads, deciding about a daily budget for your Google Ads campaign can be tricky. Google recommends that you can start with $10-$50.

Also, avoiding these Google Ads Mistakes can boost the success of your campaigns.

Video Advertising Statistics

Thanks to the deep penetration of smartphones and cheap data plans, people are increasingly consuming video all over the world. YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly active users.

Curious about how much time people spend watching videos?

According to the latest State of Online Video from Limelight Network, on average viewers worldwide consume nearly eight hours (seven hours and 55 minutes) of video content weekly. And the growth of video content consumption is not going to slow down.

In fact, video content consumption will grow. By 2021, the average person will spend 100 minutes each day watching online video content, forecasts a report from Zenith.

With the exponential growth of video consumption, video marketing has become an essential part of digital marketing. And marketers are focusing on video ads more than ever.

Here are some video advertising trends and statistics to consider:

• Global digital video advertising is expected to touch $292.4 billion by 2027 (Grand View Research)
• US digital video ad spending has been forecasted to be $49.02 billion by 2021 (eMarketer)
• Digital video viewers are projected to reach 244.7 million in the US by 2021 (eMarketer)

Video content consumption is growing in the United States. But now viewers are increasingly using their smartphones to watch videos.

So marketers are focusing more on mobile video ads. As a result, there is an exponential growth in expenditure for mobile ads.

Spending on mobile video ads is expected to be $9.26 billion in the US by 2024.

Videos are a popular content format for social media ads, especially for influencer marketing campaigns. And seven out ten US agencies and marketers are already advertising in influencer videos, reports eMarketer.

Will digital ad spend on social video grow in the future? The answer is a resounding YES.

According to an eMarketer report,

• Spending on social network video is expected to reach $14.89 billion by 2021
• By 2021, marketers will spend around 30% of their total video ad budget on social network video.

If you plan to include ads for social media videos in your core digital advertising strategy, you should try to stand out from the crowd because you’re not doing it alone. Your competitors are already running social media ads for videos.

You can follow these tips to create video ads for social media to be at the top of your game.

Online vs. Offline Advertising Statistics

The marketing industry is becoming increasingly digital. In fact, spending on digital ads surpassed traditional media spending in 2019, according to a PubMatic report.

Though digital advertising now plays a critical part in businesses’ marketing strategies, marketers haven’t turned their back on traditional advertising completely.

According to data from eMarketer published in TechCrunch:

• Marketers are expected to spend $104.32 billion in the US by 2021.
• During the same time, the digital ad expenditure will touch $172.29 billion.
• The market share of traditional advertising will be 38% of the total advertising budget by 2021.

The above advertising trends prove that the advertising industry is changing fast. Digital marketing is overshadowing traditional marketing. In the coming years, you can expect more advertising spend on digital marketing strategies like mobile search ads, email marketing, digital ads, etc.

But marketers will also spend money on TV advertising — a popular traditional advertising avenue. Look at the following statistics about TV ads:

• The global TV advertising expenditure will touch $389.29 billion by 2021 (eMarketer)
• The US TV advertising expenditure is expected to reach $67.50 billion by 2021 (eMarketer)

Are you interested in knowing more about traditional advertising statistics?

We have compiled the following statistics for you:

Print Advertising Statistics

TV has a significant share of traditional ad spend. But print advertising is not something you can ignore when creating an advertising budget for your company.

Here some interesting print advertising statistics

• The global ad spend on print advertising is forecasted to reach 2207.6 million people in 2021.
• Marketers are expected to spend $44,173 million on print advertising globally during the same time.
• The US will generate the largest print advertising revenue in 2021. Marketers will spend $13,469 million on print advertising in the country during 2021.

Newspaper and magazine ads are two important pillars of print advertising.

Should your small business advertise in newspapers and magazines? Well, it depends. If branded content placement in newspapers and magazines will help your business spread awareness and increase sales, then you must do it.

Print ads can drive sales for the retail industry. For your industry, things can be different. So you need to do a little research to figure out whether promotional content in local newspapers or magazines can boost your brand awareness in the local community.

However, there is a sure-fire print advertising method to build awareness for your business in the local community. Adopt direct mail advertising.

If you think no one reads direct mail these days, you’re wrong.

Direct mail marketing can be more effective than email marketing. Look at the following stats from Small Business Trends:

• Receivers open 80-90% of direct mail but only 20-30% of ad emails get opened.
• Direct mail marketing can be more effective than email marketing to reach millennials.

If you use creative, helpful content in your direct mailing, you’re more likely to pique your audience’s interest in your products or services.

Be it digital or traditional, helpful, empathic content always wins.

Billboard Advertising Statistics

With the exponential growth of digital advertising, you might think about skipping billboard advertising.

However, many businesses are still using billboard ads to catch the attention of their audiences. Why shouldn’t they? Billboards, if used strategically, are an effective yet inexpensive way to reach a large number of people.

Billboards are a part of outdoor advertising. The following stats will help you understand the size of outdoor advertising:

• Global outdoor advertising is estimated to reach $53.3 billion by 2027 (Report Linker )
• The outdoor advertising market in the US is projected to touch $3.84 billion by 2023 (eMarketer)

Are you wondering how many people actually see billboards in the eta of digital advertising? The answer is ‘many’. Look at the following interesting stats on billboard ads:

• There are around 343 thousand billboards in the U.S.
• 71% of people notice billboard messages each time, most of the time, or sometimes. (Arbitron)

Even if your small business is operating completely online, billboards or other outdoor advertising ads can help your business grow as they complement your digital advertising efforts.

According to a Nielsen report,

• About 5 in 10 US adults have used Google or another search engine to look up information after seeing billboard ads.
• 38% of US adults have visited a Facebook page or posted a message on Facebook after seeing a billboard or other outdoor ads.

These stats prove that billboards are effective to build brand awareness and brand recognition. Also, strategically designed and placed billboards can boost brand recall as well.

So you can safely assume that billboard ads are here to stay.

How Many Ads Do People See a Day?

A typical person sees roughly between 6500 and 11,000 ads a day.

In 2007, The New York Times published an article, which cited data from a market research firm Yankelovich about ads people used to see at that time. According to that article, people would see 5,000 ads in a day back then.

With the explosive growth of digital marketing, the current, estimated figure looks justifiable.

How Effective Is Advertising?

Advertising is effective if carefully targeted. The three elements that have the biggest impact on the return on investment (ROI) are creativity, reach, and recency.

When you’re going to run ads for your small business, you want to get the maximum ROI, meaning you want to grow sales.

Nielsen prepared a case study on advertising effectiveness. Here are five keys to advertising effectiveness:

• Reach
• Targeting
• Recency
• Creativity
• Context

The Nielsen case study reports that creativity is the most important factor in driving sales. Also, knowing consumer purchase cycles and timing customized ads accordingly can boost sales dramatically.

Take Your Advertising to the Next Step

Now that you have a clearer picture of the power of advertising, it’s time to take action. Use these advertising stats to create a plan for how to advertise your business. If you need inspiration, see these small business advertising ideas. Armed with this information, you are ready to plan your next advertising campaign. Go for it!

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This article, "Advertising Statistics You Must Know" was first published on Small Business Trends