WARC: online video ad spend to reach US$30bn this year

Advertisers are expected to spend almost US$30bn on online video advertising this year, driven by the rise of mobile usage, according to WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report.

The research tips online video advertising spend – inclusive of pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads, social and broadcaster VOD – to rise 27.5% to reach US$29.8bn this year, with most of this money to go to social platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

This expenditure is expected to account for 17.5% of a total US$170bn in global video ad spend this year, up from a share of just 1.3% in 2010.

In the US, the world’s largest video market, online video ads are expected to account for 19.3% of all video ad spend this year at US$15.3 billion. China’s online video share is projected to be 24.7% (US$6.5bn), while in the UK it is anticipated to be 38.2% (US$2.6bn).

Linear TV ad spend is expected to come to US$140.2 billion globally this year – still far larger than online video ad spend but up only 1.1% year-on-year and on a par with the level recorded in 2010.

The WARC report noted that online video’s share of daily consumption is rising across the board and is expected to reach 46.7% of all internet usage and 17.1% of total daily media consumption by 2020.

“The vast and continuing increase in video consumption via mobile devices has directed ad dollars to social platforms, despite the well documented and persistent risks around negative adjacency and ad fraud,” said WARC data editor, James McDonald.

“Facebook hopes to regain the initiative with its Watch platform, which is being positioned as a safe brand environment offering advanced audience segmentation.”