• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 18, 2024

U.S. ad spend is estimated to grow 10.4% to $570 billion -- about three times faster than the gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Winterberry Group.

The analyst firm on Thursday released its 2024 outlook for U.S. advertising, marketing and data spend that examines online and offline channels, as well as the business drivers and trends behind the data.

Some $17 billion in political ad spend and data-driven advertising, from connected television (CTV) to numerous digital ad channels where double-digit percentage growth is expected will drive the uptick.

The Winterberry Group Thursday released its 2024 outlook for U.S. advertising, marketing and data spend. It looks at online and offline channels, and the business drivers and trends behind the data.

The research, Outlook for Advertising, Marketing and Data 2024, also recaps 2023 ad spending.

In 2024, digital advertising should account for more than 60% of total spending. Search is expected to rise 12.4% to $120.9 billion. Other channels with high percentage growth include social up 12.7% to $77.9 billion, CTV up 30.4% to $33.1 billion, video up 16.6% to $30.5 billion, and influencer marketing up 14.3% to $7.2 billion.

Overall, data services will reach about $36.1 billion this year. Of that spending on services will rise 12.8% to $9.4 billion. The data accounts for third-party data licensing across digital and traditional channels such as identity graph licensing and first-party data costs for off-platform targeting in retail and addressable TV. 

Data infrastructure spending will rise 14.1% to $15.2 billion. It accounts for database management and hygiene such as data warehouses, data collection and ingestion tools, DMP and collaborative data environments such as clean rooms. 

Data Services will rise 14.6% to $11.4 billion. It includes identity resolution such as matching, linking, onboarding and destination charges, predictive and prescriptive analytics, measurement, attribution and verification and data solution integration.

The trend toward generative artificial intelligence (GAI) will force advertising and marketing into a transformative year.

While the consumer globally is aware of GAI, only half have explored ChatGPt or DALL-E. Some 51% said they are aware of the latest trends in GAI and have explored the tools created by OpenAI, 35% said they are aware of the trends but have not explored the tools, and 14% said they are neither aware or have explored the tools.