Digital advertising in the United States - statistics & facts

Thanks to rising internet penetration rates and the ever-expanding popularity of digital platforms around the world, digital advertising has grown to become one of the most important forms of advertising. An estimated 616 billion U.S. dollars were projected to be spent on digital advertising worldwide in 2022, and this figure is forecast to increase at a rapid pace in the upcoming years. According to the latest projections, global digital advertising revenue will surpass one trillion billion U.S. dollars by 2027.

Overview of the U.S. market: digital first

The United States is the largest digital advertising market in the world, boasting the highest revenue in 2022. About eight out of 10 dollars invested in ads in the country were devoted to digital advertising. Internet advertising spending in the U.S. was projected to grow in the next few years, with sources expecting it to reach 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. Retail was the industry that invested the most in digital advertising in the country, accounting for 17 percent of the nation’s digital ad spending, while pharma and healthcare followed with around 11 percent of all digital ad spending.

Digital ad formats: top players boost the top format

Search advertising is the most profitable and most promising digital ad format in the U.S., accounting for roughly a third of all digital advertising revenue generated in the country. Considering that search advertising is one of the major income streams for digital advertisers, it is no surprise that Google, the leading search engine in the world, had by far the highest net digital ad revenue amongst digital publishers in the U.S., holding 28 percent of the pie. Heavy hitters Facebook and Amazon followed, with the latter’s share of national digital ad revenue being projected to gradually increase over the next few years.

Mobile advertising: the blue-eyed boy of U.S. advertisers

Smartphones became the chosen devices for digital advertisers in the United States in 2018, when mobile advertising spending outperformed desktop for the first time. Since then, the focus of advertisers on mobile has only increased. In 2022, mobile advertising was projected to account for 64 percent of total digital ad spend in the United States. The two most invested-in mobile ad formats were search advertising and video advertising, with the former attracting an ad spend of over 88 billion U.S. dollars and the latter accruing a spend of more than 81 billion. Advertisers have numerous reasons to prefer mobile devices to regular PCs, one of them being the lower penetration rate of ad blockers on smartphones and tablets.

Consumer attitudes: digital ads are a necessary evil

More than four out of 10 Americans said they were often annoyed by advertising on the internet, while 72 percent TV viewers said they were either indifferent or not comfortable with having ads aimed at them based on their personal preferences. The attitude towards ads appeared to be more lenient among U.S. podcast listeners, with almost seven out of 10 saying they would not mind a couple of minutes of extra ads per show - if it allowed the show to continue. When it came to the influence of social media advertising on the purchasing decisions of different age groups, Millennials were found to be the most receptive, followed by Gen Z.

This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Dec 18, 2023

Key insights

Digital ad spending in the U.S.
165bn USD
Share of digital in total ad revenue in the U.S.
77%
Industry with highest digital ad spend
Retail
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