Internet is set to account for half of global media spend in 2020

James McDonald

An overview of internet advertising expenditure by absolute value and share of total media spend between 2011 and 2019.

Spend on internet ad formats is expected to rise 13.2% to a total of $298.1bn worldwide this year, according to data from our international partners included in WARC’s Adspend Database. This would equate to a 47.7% share of total media spend across 96 markets, rising to 50% in 2020 if the current trajectory is maintained. Further, internet will draw over half (52.7%) of all media spend across WARC’s 12 key markets this year.

Internet’s share of media spend varies by region. In North America, it accounted for over half of all media spend for...

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