Marketing is increasingly measured through digital channels, but the industry is also becoming more complex to plan, measure, and personalize. U.S. internet advertising revenue reached $258.6 billion in 2024, while buyers continued shifting attention toward video, social media, commerce media, and performance advertising. The figures below describe reported 2020–2024 results and 2024 buyer projections from IAB research.
Contents
- Internet advertising growth
- The leading digital channels
- Video and connected TV
- 2024 media investment outlook
- What buyers want from media investment
- Privacy, signal loss, and marketing operations
- Planning cadence and measurement pressure
Internet advertising growth
The U.S. internet advertising market expanded substantially between 2020 and 2024. The IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2024 reported $258.6 billion in U.S. internet advertising revenue in 2024, a 14.9% year-over-year increase. That followed $225.0 billion in 2023, when revenue grew 7.3% year over year.
Earlier reported totals show the market’s changing pace. U.S. internet advertising revenue was $209.7 billion in 2022, up 10.8% from the previous year. It was $189.3 billion in 2021, up 35.4%, and $139.8 billion in 2020. These figures are reported annual U.S. revenue totals, not forecasts.
The 2024 result also included strong quarterly movement. First-quarter internet advertising revenue grew 15.7% quarter over quarter versus 2023, according to the same IAB/PwC report. Second-quarter revenue grew 15.2% versus 2023. In the fourth quarter, revenue reached $73.7 billion, up 14.3% year over year from $64.5 billion.
The second half of 2024 contributed 54% of full-year internet advertising revenue. The IAB/PwC report recorded the same second-half share for 2023, giving marketers a consistent indication that a larger portion of annual revenue arrived in the latter half of each year.
The leading digital channels
Search remained the largest reported digital advertising category in 2024. Search advertising revenue reached $102.9 billion, up 15.9% year over year, and represented 39.8% of total U.S. internet advertising revenue. The scale of search makes it a central part of paid acquisition and demand capture, even as other channels grow quickly.
Programmatic advertising revenue reached $134.8 billion in 2024, an 18.0% year-over-year increase. This total describes the programmatic market across the reported advertising environment and is distinct from the revenue totals for individual formats such as search, display, or social media.
Social media was one of the fastest-growing major categories. Social media advertising revenue reached $88.8 billion in 2024, up 36.7% year over year. The category added $23.8 billion compared with 2023. That increase was larger than the full 2024 revenue of several smaller digital formats, showing how quickly social advertising expanded during the measurement period.
Display advertising revenue reached $74.3 billion in 2024, up 12.4% year over year. Commerce media, including retail media networks, reached $53.7 billion, up 23.0% year over year. Retail media network advertising revenue increased by $10.1 billion versus 2023.
| 2024 U.S. internet advertising category | Revenue | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Search | $102.9 billion | 15.9% |
| Social media | $88.8 billion | 36.7% |
| Display | $74.3 billion | 12.4% |
| Commerce media | $53.7 billion | 23.0% |
| Digital video | $62.1 billion | 19.2% |
Source: IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2024. Categories are presented as reported; their totals should not be added together because category definitions can overlap.
Video and connected TV
Digital video advertising revenue reached $62.1 billion in 2024, up 19.2% year over year, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2024. Digital video accounted for 24.0% of total U.S. internet advertising revenue in that year.
The IAB 2024 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report reported digital video ad spend of $54.0 billion in 2023, up 15% from 2022. The report projected $62.9 billion for 2024, representing 16% year-over-year growth. Because this is a projection, it should be read separately from the reported $62.1 billion revenue figure above.
Digital video’s share of total TV and video ad spend also changed over time. The report recorded a 29% digital video share in 2020, 38% in 2021, 42% in 2022, and 48% in 2023. For 2024, it projected digital video at 52% and linear TV at 48%. The projected 2024 split therefore placed digital video ahead of linear TV by share.
Connected TV, or CTV, became a major part of that shift. CTV ad spend exceeded $20 billion for the first time in 2023. The IAB report projected 12% growth in 2024 to nearly $23 billion and projected CTV ad spend to be 35% larger than online video in 2024.
The same report projected $12.6 billion in 2024 digital video spending by consumer packaged goods brands, up 20% year over year. It also listed one digital video category at $7.4 billion, up 30%, and another at $6.5 billion, up 6%. The supplied report labels those categories without identifying them more specifically, so the figures are retained without assigning names.
2024 media investment outlook
The IAB 2024 Outlook: A Snapshot into Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth described buyers’ expectations for 2024 compared with 2023. Buyers projected total media ad spend growth of 9.5%. Retail media buyers projected a larger 21.8% increase in ad spend.
Among named channels, projected growth was highest for CTV at 14.5%, followed by social media at 11.4% and paid search at 10.1%. Podcast ad spend was projected to grow 9.6%, while digital video excluding CTV was projected to grow 8.6%.
The remaining projections were more moderate. Digital out-of-home was projected to grow 8.1%; digital audio excluding podcasts, 6.0%; gaming, 5.1%; and digital display, 5.1%. Linear TV was projected to decline 0.5%, while other traditional media was projected to decline 1.4%.
The outlook also estimated each channel’s share of 2024 ad spend. Digital video including CTV was projected at 22.6%, paid search at 15.5%, social media at 15.3%, and digital display at 12.6%. Podcasts and digital out-of-home were each projected at 3.8%; digital audio excluding podcasts at 3.6%; and gaming at 1.3%. Linear TV was projected at 15.4%, while other traditional media was projected at 6.2%.
What buyers want from media investment
The 2024 outlook measured the goals buyers considered most important for media investment. Acquiring new customers was selected by 49% of buyers as a top goal. Increasing brand equity was selected by 42%, improving media efficiency by 37%, and leveraging data to drive precision and effectiveness by 30%.
Two goals were each selected by 22% of buyers: optimizing reach and frequency, and exploring new advertising KPIs. Driving repeat purchases among existing customers was selected by 18%. Increasing share of voice was selected by 14%, improving marketing mix modeling results by 13%, and leveraging generative AI by 11%.
Performance advertising also had an advantage in planned spending direction. Fifty-six percent of buyers said they would spend more on performance advertising in 2024 than on brand advertising. This response describes buyer intent, not a measured industry-wide allocation of actual spending.
The same buyers identified economic and measurement issues as leading concerns. Forty-nine percent named a slowing U.S. economy as a top concern for 2024 media investments. Forty-four percent named executing cross-channel media measurement as a top concern. The combination suggests that marketers were balancing growth goals with pressure to demonstrate comparable results across channels.
Privacy, signal loss, and marketing operations
The IAB State of Data 2024 found that 95% of data and advertising decision-makers expected continued legislation and signal loss in 2024 and beyond. Eighty-two percent said their organization had already been impacted by legislation and signal loss.
Analytics teams were identified as the most affected team by 48% of respondents. Ad operations teams were named by 38%, legal and compliance teams by 36%, programmatic teams by 36%, and engineering teams by 14%.
Privacy expectations were also widespread. Sixty-four percent expected a continued increase in the number of states passing individual privacy laws in 2024. Sixty-six percent expected a reduced ability to personalize messaging in states with privacy legislation.
Organizations reported several responses to these conditions. Training current staff was reported by 78% of respondents, working with external companies by 57%, creating dedicated teams by 49%, and hiring specialists or subject-matter experts by 48%. Adding staff was reported by 34%, while offshoring staff was reported by 24%.
Planning cadence and measurement pressure
Market volatility affected the timing of media decisions. Seventy percent of buyers said they were planning media buys quarterly or more frequently, according to the IAB 2024 Outlook. Sixty-three percent said they were reforecasting more often because of market dynamism.
Taken together, these figures describe an industry with high digital scale and a faster operating rhythm. Reported 2024 revenue growth was especially strong in social media, programmatic advertising, digital video, and commerce media, while buyer projections pointed to continued expansion in CTV, paid search, and retail media. At the same time, privacy legislation, signal loss, cross-channel measurement, and more frequent forecasting were shaping how marketing teams organized and evaluated that growth.