Forecast: Digital ad spend to push higher

Halfway through 2018, and despite the political ad spend as America approaches the 2018 Mid-Term Elections, the overall ad spend is flat. That's the takeaway from Matrix Solution's 2018 Midyear Ad Spent Report. That is, traditional ad spaces are not seeing growth, however, digital is.

by Kristina Knight

New data out this week from Matrix Solutions paints a better picture for digital advertising dollars than for traditional. According to their report the ad spend in the digital space is up in nearly each category with increases of about 13% across the board. The biggest increases were seen in Financial Services (23% growth), Services (20% growth), and Home Improvement (16% growth).

The other good indicator from this report, for advertisers, is the political ad spend, which is up across digital, television, and radio by about 234%. With other categories, especially in television and radio, showing contractions of the spend, the political spend is what continues to push ad dollars into those sectors.

"According to our data, overall ad spend throughout the year, to date, has remained relatively flat when including the buoyancy that always comes from political campaigns, and without there's a clear contraction. It's a trend that's continued from the findings of our 2017 Ad Spend Report, which means for these traditional platforms, they need to better arm themselves to grab a larger slice of the overall advertising spend pie to remain competitive," said Mark Gorman, CEO, Matrix Solutions. "The advertising industry is in constant flux, and understanding these trends can help media ad sales teams better anticipate how brands are investing in traditional media platforms to inform their own strategies and priorities."

Other interesting findings from the report include:

▪ Locally, the ad spend is down nearly 3%, despite political ads
▪ The national ad spend is up 4.69%, primarily because of political ads
▪ While Services, Financial Services, and Home Improvement are leading the ad spend, industries like Auto, Grocery/Food, and Restaurants have decreased their ad spending by more than 15% each
▪ The Radio ad spend is flat
▪ Television/Broadcast is looking at a 5% contraction in ad spending

The full report dataset can be accessed here.

Tags: advertising, advertising spending, advertising trends, broadcast advertising, digital advertising, Matrix Solutions, radio advertising