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“We now have a better outlook for digital ad spending”: US spend to grow by 21.1% in 2021, eMarketer reports

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“According to revised stats from eMarketer, United States digital display spending will grow by almost 10% this year (vs. a prediction over the summer of just 6.2% growth), while overall digital spending is set to grow 7.5%,” AdExchanger senior editor Allison Schiff reported recently. 

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin shared the news during AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO digital event. These numbers are “considerably more optimistic for this year and next year than we were in June,” she said.

eMarketer has now officially updated the estimates of US digital ad spending for Q3 2020. The red line shows the revised projections, which are quite higher now compared to the numbers shared during the earlier days of the pandemic.

The company has also released its latest report on Digital Ad Spending by Industry, and while many industries are experiencing slowdowns in digital ad spend this year, the retail industry is doing well thanks to its accelerated embrace of ecommerce.

“We expect it to remain the largest spender on digital ads among all verticals,” says eMarketer analyst Ethan Cramer-Flood. “The industry will increase spending by 3.1% to $28.23 billion.”

In the long term we now have a better outlook for digital ad spending than ever before.

Nicole Perrin, eMarketer principal analyst

“The computing products and consumer electronics industry will be the fastest-growing digital ad spender, increasing 18.0% to $11.64 billion,” notes Ethan. “This increase in demand led to resiliency for the industry’s digital advertising budgets.”

The US telecom industry will also produce robust spending and growth figures. Telecom will be the third-fastest-growing digital ad spender, with outlays up 12.0% to $13.99 billion.

Financial services will be the second-largest spender on digital advertising, behind only retail. Spending will increase by 9.7% to $19.62 billion. Banks and credit card issuers have consistently increased their ad spending annually, and that trend will continue this year.

The report has also analyzed spending for different verticals in the UK and Germany. 

According to eMarketer, the UK remains the largest market for digital ad spending in Europe and will be worth £15.08 billion ($19.25 billion) in 2020.

This, it notes, is “a surprisingly positive outcome given recent recessionary headwinds,” and most industries will weather the pandemic better than expected.

Like the US, retail will consolidate its position at the head of the pack, accounting for 20.0% of the UK digital ad market, or £3.02 billion ($3.85 billion). 

“The pandemic has unequivocally altered the retail landscape in the UK,” said Bill Fisher, eMarketer senior analyst. “Many behavioral changes were initially forced on consumers, as they were left with little choice but to shop online.”

In Germany too, retail will remain the biggest spender. The €1.77 billion ($1.98 billion) that the industry will spend on digital ads in 2020 is more than double what the next-biggest vertical, financial services, will lay out. 

Financial services will accelerate its digital ad spend growth, from 14.1% in 2019 to 16.7% in 2020. 

Click here to download eMarketer’s Digital Ad Spending by Industry 2020 report.