• by Wayne Friedman , April 3, 2019

U.S. local digital advertising is expected to climb 9.2% this year to $77 billion, according to Borrell Associates — rising as a percentage of all U.S. local advertising to a 63% share.

In 2018, the local ad research consultancy says digital had a 53% share of the $126.3 billion total U.S. local ad market — $67.4 billion.

Much of this digital ad activity comes from “pure-play” digital media companies — $57.1 billion — with $10.3 billion from traditional media companies.

In 2018, Borrell says 70% of all “pure-play” local digital advertising came from Google and Facebook, with the remaining piece from Autotrader, Craigslist, Zillow, Yelp and other digital media companies.

Looking at overall U.S. local advertising in 2018, digital media pulled in $67.4 billion, with print media at $27.8 billion; broadcast media (TV, radio) and cable, $24.0 billion; and outdoor, $7.6 billion.

Growth in local digital advertising is expected to level off in the coming years — rising 9.2% this year; 4.9% in 2020; 0.3% in 2021, and 0.1% in 2022.

Borrell’s database counts 10,555 local online operations in the U.S. and Canada.

This includes 1,012 daily newspapers and 762 weeklies; 894 local TV stations; 699 multistation radio market clusters encompassing 3,121 local stations; 2,608 yellow-page directories grouped in 649 multibook market clusters; 182 local cable systems; 1,890 local internet pure-play sites; and 86 other local entities.