Digital advertising in Canada — statistics & facts

With roughly 15 billion U.S. dollars, the Canadian digital advertising market was the sixth largest worldwide in 2023, trumped only by undisputed global leaders the United States and China, as well as European front-runners the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany and another Asian powerhouse Japan. Canadian digital ad industry grew 9.5 percent that year and the upward trend is expected to continue in the coming years.

A thoroughly digitized market

Digitization has fundamentally transformed the Canadian advertising landscape. Canada ranks among countries with the highest internet penetration rates worldwide, and this fact is reflected in advertisers’ media choices. Online platforms dominate the ad sector. According to the latest projections, the share of digital media in the Canadian total ad spending reached roughly three-quarters in 2024, and it is expected to expand further in the following years. The growing popularity of search and digital video ads is one of the decisive factors in this process. Additionally, the number of digital ad impressions continues to increase, reaching 470 billion in the first quarter of 2024.

Mobile and programmatic advertising trends

By the end of 2029, nearly 99 percent of the Canadian population is expected to use mobile internet from 96 percent in 2024. This mobile revolution affects the allocation of digital advertising investments. Canada is a mobile-first country, with smartphones and tablets accounting for 58 percent of digital ad spending in 2024. Another trend to look out for is the increased use of programmatic advertising, which involves the automated buying and selling of digital ad space. Forecasts suggest that programmatic ad spending in Canada will continue to increase, albeit at single-digit rates.

Artificial intelligence (AI) takes center stage

AI has been catapulted onto the top spot among priorities for marketers, and that is for good reasons. Already by mid-2023, a third of consumers from the largest ad markets were interested in AI-powered shopping assistants, as they facilitated product discovery, made the online shopping process more convenient, and were able to anticipate the needs and desires of consumers. Marketers used AI, among others, to analyze feedback and create content, as well as to predict customer behavior. Canadian businesses were fast to get on the AI train. At the end of 2023, 70 percent of Canadian business-to-consumer e-commerce companies were using AI in their operations and another 26 percent were evaluating it.
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 17, 2024

Key insights

Canada’s annual digital ad spend
16.19bn CAD
Canada's quarterly number of digital ad impressions
470bn
Canada’s annual programmatic ad spend
14.42bn USD
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Digital advertising spending in Canada from 2023 to 2028 (in billion Canadian dollars)

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Digital ad spending in Canada 2023-2028

Digital search advertising spending in Canada from 2019 to 2028, by device (in billion U.S. dollars)

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