Google, Meta Dominate as Advertising Industry Set to Exceed Growth Expectations

The advertising industry is expected to exceed growth expectations for 2021 as more brands turn to the search engine and social media platforms to get across to their customers during this pandemic, according to two advertising industry forecasts released on Monday.

In spite of the fact that the year was marked by supply chain disturbances across the globe which delayed products from reaching shelves and a user privacy crackdown by Apple Inc that caused many to fear that mobile advertising would be disrupted, brands have gone on to advertise online.

According to Jonathan Barnard, the Director of Global Intelligence at advertising firm Zenith, in-store shopping has still been slow because of the pandemic. Zenith was one of those who published an ad expenditure forecast on Monday.

The new businesses that were formed in the thick of the pandemic needed to advertise so that they would find customers, while other companies most likely maintained the ad spending in order to stay rooted in the minds of consumers, as said by Brian Wieser, the Global President of Business Intelligence at advertising agency GroupM.

The GroupM forecast predicts that global advertising spending will grow about 22.5% in 2021 compared to the previous year, while Zenith estimated a growth of 15.6%. Both estimates were updated from the previous expectations that were held.

The reports state that by 2022, advertising spending around the world is expected to increase by about 9%.

The growth has been beneficial for Alphabet Inc (Google), Meta and Amazon.com Inc, who are major sellers of digital ads and can now account for more than half of all the advertising spending occurring outside the walls of China. This represents an increase from about 40% back in 2019, according to GroupM.

The need for marketers to reach their customers directly has resulted in the success of retailers such as Walmart, Kroger and Target to quickly grow their ad sales businesses, allowing brands to target more customers using their shopper data.