Digital ad spend reached $259 billion in 2024, IAB says

Digital advertisers did well in 2024. Like, really well.

Last year, digital advertising revenue hit $258.6 billion, representing growth of 15% year over year, according to a report conducted by PwC and published Thursday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

It’s the most growth the category has seen since 2021, when the pandemic prompted advertising budgets to shift into digital and streaming platforms. In 2023, the industry grew by 7.3%.

It helped that both a US presidential election and the Olympics provided “meaningful tailwinds” for digital ad spend overall, IAB CEO David Cohen said in a press release about the findings.

What else? Digital video was the fast-growing channel for ad spend in 2024, growing 19.2% year over year to $62.1 billion and accounting for 24% of total digital ad revenue, surprising absolutely nobody.

• Search advertising, a category that could soon face massive AI upheaval, grew 15.9% to $102.9 billion, accounting for 39.8% of total digital ad revenue;
• Retail media networks saw revenue jump 23% in 2024, reaching $53.7 billion;
• And social media saw revenue jump 36.7%, totaling $88.7 billion last year.

Nice while it lasted: Though the report includes a forward-looking section that focuses on “AI-driven advertising” and “first-party data strategies,” more, er, pressing matters like tariffs and their potential effects on ad spend aren’t mentioned.

Those economic forces are likely top of mind for many advertisers, and analysts have already called for a drop in growth this year. Per a February survey published by the IAB, 94% of US advertisers said they were concerned about the impact of tariffs on ad spending, and just under half (45%) told the IAB they planned to reduce their ad spend because of their anticipated effects.