US Ad Market 2024: Political & Telecom Spending Surge

A report by eMarketer shows substantial growth in advertising expenditure across numerous sectors. Telecommunications, retail, consumer goods, and this year’s political campaigns are having a strong impact.

Telecommunications Takes the Lead

The telecommunications industry is recovering significantly following a decline in 2022. Digital advertising spending in this sector is expected to grow by 20.9% by the end of 2024, exceeding $20 billion. This increase stems from renewed competition amongst major players such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, making telecommunications one of the fastest-growing sectors in advertising expenditure.

Retail and CPG Continue to Dominate Digital Advertising

Whilst retail advertising spending growth has slightly slowed, this sector remains decidedly the largest investor, with digital advertising expenditure projected to reach $83.09 billion. Retail and CPG combined will constitute nearly half of all social media advertising spending. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will be battlegrounds for customer engagement.

“Almost every industry vertical we track exceeded our spending expectations last year, and most will see accelerated growth in 2024. In 2023, we projected nationwide growth of 9.7%, but the final figure was a more robust 10.6%. We expect most sectors to build on this momentum with even higher year-over-year growth rates in 2024,” states the report.

Political Advertising Distorts Traditional Media Spending

Given the US presidential election, political advertising expenditure represents a unique anomaly. The “other” category, which primarily includes political advertisements, shows 140% growth, particularly in traditional formats such as television. This offsets the decline in non-digital media spending in other industries.

Social Media Advertising in Focus

Social networks remain central to e-commerce. Retail and CPG brands will contribute nearly $42.31 billion to social media advertising in 2024. This represents almost half of total social media advertising expenditure across all sectors, highlighting the importance of targeted social media strategies.

Search & Display Advertising

A clear trend is emerging in the US digital advertising market – most sectors prefer display advertising. In 2024, 56.8% of digital advertising spending is expected to go to Display, whilst 41.2% will go to search advertising. The remaining funds will be divided between lead generation, email marketing, classifieds, and mobile messaging.

Notable exceptions are tourism and healthcare, which favour Search campaigns. In the travel segment, customers conduct numerous searches before making decisions, and in healthcare, search is crucial for localised services such as doctors and pharmaceutical decisions.

What’s the outlook for US Advertising in 2025?

Digital advertising spending in the USA is expected to reach $337.56 billion in 2025. Retail is projected to dominate, and further growth in telecommunications is anticipated.

Next year, total digital advertising spending across all sectors will increase from $302.77 billion in 2024 to $337.56 billion.

The retail sector is expected to surpass the $100 billion mark in digital advertising by 2026. It is projected to reach $93.64 billion in 2025.