User-generated content accounts for more than a quarter of global ad revenue

Celeste Huang

An overview of GroupM’s latest global mid-year forecast on UGC and AI.

In 2022, user-generated content (UGC) accounted for more than one-quarter share of ad dollars, compared to just 9.8% in 2016, according to the latest GroupM mid-year report. 

Professional content accounted for almost two-thirds of total ad revenue in 2016 but dropped to just over one-third last year. This shift coincides with the rise of Gen Z and Alpha, whose consumption patterns are distinct from their older counterparts: they spend more time on social media and online video platforms.

GroupM forecasts that AI will disrupt this space. It predicts that AI is “likely to inform or touch in some...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands