Ad Industry To Surpass $1T in Revenue for the First Time

GroupM projects that the global advertising industry will surpass $1 trillion in total revenue for the first time this year.

In its This Year Next Year 2024 End of Year Global Forecast, released today (Dec. 9), the WPP media investment firm estimates that global advertising revenue will increase 9.5% this year, up from the 7.8% growth estimate it made in its mid-year forecast in June.

GroupM predicts that advertising revenue in the U.S. specifically will grow 9% in 2024, to $379 billion, and 7% in 2025. 

The firm projects global ad revenues will reach $1.1 trillion in 2025, with pure-play digital advertising, including extensions like streaming TV, digital out-of-home (DOOH), and digital newspaper and magazine revenue, accounting for 81.7% of the total.

TV and out-of-home (OOH) will also grow next year, while audio and print revenues will remain flat and decline, respectively.

GroupM excluded the impact of U.S. political advertising in its forecast due to its skewing effect on the data. In 2024, U.S. political ad revenues reached $15.1 billion.

Digital channels drive global ad revenue

Digital channels, excluding extensions of traditional media like CTV and DOOH, were the strongest drivers of ad revenue growth in 2024. Pure-play digital advertising, including search, retail media, and social media, is expected to grow 12.4% globally this year and 10% next year, per GroupM.

Kate Scott-Dawkins, global president, business intelligence at GroupM and author of the forecast, said as digital investment grows, it will be challenging for advertisers to maintain a consistent brand perception across fragmented channels, so it’s crucial to build recognition so consumers search for a product by the brand’s name, versus by generic product names.

As platforms like Google, Meta, ByteDance, and Amazon cross over into channels like search and e-commerce, competition is driving overall growth of the market. Along with Alibaba, these five are expected to earn more than half of all ad revenue in 2024.

Looking ahead, streaming TV ad revenue is slated to grow 19.3% in 2025, per the forecast. In the U.S., streaming TV ad revenue is expected to rise to account for 35.8% of the total share of TV ad revenues.

In the U.K., retail media ad revenue is slated to surpass its total TV advertising for the first time, hitting £4.7 billion.

In 2024, linear TV had a boost due to sports marketing, especially from retailers, thanks to tentpole events like the Copa América and UEFA Euro soccer tournaments and the Paris Olympics. The latter had a major effect in France, where total ad revenues grew 8.5% in 2024.

Top ten markets and global GDP growth

GroupM predicted the top ten markets for ad revenue growth in 2025 (in order): the U.S., China, the U.K., Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, India, and Australia.