B2B Marketers Increasing Use Of Digital -- Approaching $15B By 2023, Says eMarketer

eMarketer released its U.S. B2B Advertising Forecast report on Monday, which estimates that nearly half of the $30.6 billion spent on B2B advertising will be digital in 2023.

Digital will account for $14.57 billion in 2023 -- up from $12.65 billion in 2022 and $10.84 billion in 2021.

For the first time, more than half of B2B marketers’ digital spend will focus on phones and tablets versus non-mobile devices such as laptops and desktop computers.

Not surprisingly, mobile continues to take ad spend -- rising from 40.5% in 2020 to 44.5% in 2021, 47.7% in 2022, and 51% in 2023.

During that time, every non-mobile market continues to decline, from 59% in 2019 to 49% in 2023.

B2B advertisers tend to use display advertising more than search. This trend will catapult display past search in two years. Search ad spend is forecast to reach $6.85 billion in 2023, up from $6.12 billion in 2022, and $5.36 billion in 2021, but it will lag behind display.

Display advertising spend is forecast to reach $7.29 billion in 2023, up from $6.12 billion in 2022, and $5.09 billion in 2021.

Madison Logic, a digital account-based marketing platform, concurs with eMarketer’s projections. The company reported heightened interest from B2B marketers across North America, EMEA and APAC based earlier this year.

"We're seeing and experiencing the acceleration of digital within B2B and, more specifically, the growth within enterprise strategy and its alignment with sales through account-based marketing," said Tom O'Regan, CEO at Madison Logic.

eMarketer updated the percentage of B2B digital ad spend. eMarketer Analyst Peter Vahle now estimates tech products and services, and the Other category are clear winners when it comes to the percentage of digital ad spend.

eMarketer estimates tech products and services will take 32.1% of the total B2B digital ad spend in 2021, rather than 29.6% predicted in 2020. The Other category in 2021 rises to 21.5%, rather than 15.1%.

Financial services will fall to 25.1% in the 2021 estimates from 27% forecast in 2020. Telecom sees a decline to 10.1%, rather than 14.2%; and healthcare and Pharma will take 9.6% share, rather than 10.4%. Travel will take 1.7% share, according to the revised 2021 forecast, rather than 3.7% forecast in 2020.

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