The year that display ad spend finally overtakes search in the US may finally have arrived. Emarketer estimates that display ad spend in the US will reach $32.17 billion in 2016, compared to $29.24 billion in search spend.
If reached, this milestone will have taken a bit longer than originally anticipated. In 2012, eMarketer had predicted that display spend would beat out search starting in 2015.
The research firm says one in five dollars will go to banners and other display formats, including native social ads on sites like Facebook and Twitter, with spend reaching $13.39 billion in 2016, up from $11.57 billion in 2015.
Video is expected to grow from $7.46 billion in ad spend in the US last year to $9.59 billion in 2016. Video’s share of the digital ad pie will grow from 12.8 percent in 2015 to 14.3 percent in 2016, according to eMarketer.
Rich media and sponsored brand ads make up the remaining formats in the display market; each are expected to see an increase in ad dollars in 2016. The rich media category is a bit confusing because it also includes some types of video formats. Emarketer explains:
“Spending growth in the categories of rich media and video will both be significant: 36.4% and 28.5%, respectively. Rich media’s growth will be driven by growing adoption of ‘out-stream’ and in-feed video ad formats, while video will grow due to publishers looking to capitalize on high-demand, high-value in-stream video ad inventory.”
Video spend will continue to go predominantly to desktop, with 57.5 percent of video spend going to desktop in 2016. However, that’s an outlier for the desktop. In the US this year, 77.5 percent of display spend on banners, rich media, sponsorships and other formats will go to mobile.
Search spend on desktop will also continue to dip in 2016, to $10.70 billion from $12.91 billion in 2015. Mobile search is expected to increase from $13.62 billion in 2015 to $18.54 billion in 2016.
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