• by Joe Mandese , March 28, 2023

While digital continues to expand its share of total ad spending, rising to a 59% share of media buys by major ad agencies in February, it is not immune from the current ad recession, according to an analysis of the first two months of the year by Standard Media Index.

The data shows digital ad spending declined 2% during the first two months, which is healthier than the overall U.S. ad-spending decline (-6.9%), but nonetheless reveals key segments of the digital ad economy are running out of steam, especially digital video, search, general content and social media sites (see above).

"Only ad networks/exchanges showed lift," the SMI report notes, adding that the 9% decline in ad spending on video sites likely was influenced by comparisons with February 2022, when NBCUniversal's sites had incremental ad digital video ad sales from their coverage of the Winter Olympics.

"Comcast/NBCU's digital TV network revenue fell by 51%," SMI analysts noted.