IAB Report Projects Digital Will Rise 6% Amid 8% Decline In U.S. Ad Spending This Year

U.S. ad spending is now expected to decline 8% vs. 2019, according to a survey of "buy-side" executives at advertisers and agencies surveyed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in recent weeks. The study also shows that "digital" ad spending will actually expand 6% this year, while "traditional" media advertising will decline 30%, indicating digital's market share is growing as a result of the pandemic.

The "2020-21 Covid Impact On Advertising" report being released this morning by the IAB, is based on the trade advertising bureau's sixth survey of the buy- and sell-sides of the business.

The IAB's analysis shows the migration of ad budgets from "traditional" to "digital" formats across a variety of media, including TV, radio, "print," and out-of-home media, too (see below).


3 comments about "IAB Report Projects Digital Will Rise 6% Amid 8% Decline In U.S. Ad Spending This Year".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 2, 2020 at 7:18 p.m.

    Joe, one must really ask how representative the sample for such a study might be---especially in terms of reaching the big national TV spenders. Over and above the fact that respondents are speculating, one would like to see breakdown by type of advertiser--branding vs. search, for example as well as  by amount of spending and whether they are national or local. Without such information it's hard to take the "findings" seriously.

  2. Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., September 2, 2020 at 7:49 p.m.

    @Ed Papazian: Here's how representative the sample was:

    Fielded Aug 3-Aug 13, 2020.
    N=242 completes from those who have purview
    into US advertising spend and revenue in 2020.
    Note: earlier studies cited have higher completes
    and remain at a near 50/50 sell/buy split.
    56%
    44%
    Buy-Side Sell-Side
    Who We Surveyed
    19%
    18% 57%
    4%
    2%
    29%
    43% 24%
    3%
    1%
    C-Level, President, EVP
    SVP, VP, Director
    Mgr, AE, Planner or Buyer
    Media Consultant, Media Strategist
    Other Staff: e.g., Analyst, Associate,
    Assistant, Coordinator
    Respondent Role:
    Buy-Side / Spend purview:
    ▪ Media leaders:
    planners, strategists,
    Buyers
    Sell-Side / Revenue purview:
    ▪ Publishers
    ▪ Programmatic Specialists
    (e.g., SSPs, Ad Exchanges,
    Ad Networks)

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 2, 2020 at 8:23 p.m.

    Thanks, Joe. Frankly, I'm not very impressed ---but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what those percentages refer to in the "who we surveyed" breakdowns. What an odd collection of "buy side" job functions----"buyer", "media consultant", "coordinator", "assistant", "associate", "strategists". "EVP", "SVP", "president", "other staff", etc. As for the "sell side" it seems that these were all digital people. No wonder digital looked so good in the resulting projections while TV got bombed. 

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