Marketers worldwide are pouring more money into digital ads, according to a new report from GroupM. Internet ad spending is expected to reach $113.5 billion worldwide this year, a 14.6% increase from last year and representing more than 21% of advertising budgets, reports the media buying agency, which polled marketers from 28 countries.
North America came in first with an estimated $42.8 billion in digital ad spend; followed by Asia-Pacific with $36.8 billion, and Western Europe with $26.6 billion.
In the U.S., online display ad spending reached approximately $18.9 billion last year and is predicted to rise to $21.1 billion in 2013. While slightly lower, search ad investments are expected to rise from $16.6 billion to $18.6 billion this year.
Mobile search in particular will become “the dominant mechanism for commercial discovery” where “data from location combined with behavior will be the best proxy for consumer intent since the typed search query,” wrote Rob Norman, chief digital officer of GroupM, in the report.
Marketers overall must adapt their messages to the empowered consumer, added Norman. “No longer will marketers be able to rely on programmatic delivery of brand messaging,” he noted. “They will need to determine need states in real time and balance the delivery of paid communication in channels they can control with the discovery of that messaging in channels controlled by the consumer and often mediated by algorithms.”
