According to data presented by Finaria, global search advertising revenues, the largest segment of the digital ads industry, rose by 6.7% year-over-year to US $152.6bn in 2020. The trend is set to continue in 2021, with the entire market reaching US $171.6bn value, US $19bn more than a year ago.
The year 2020 was a challenging year for the entire digital advertising industry, with even the largest players like Google witnessing significant revenue drops amid the COVID-19 crisis.
However, as millions of consumers shifted from brick-and-mortar stores to webshops, the entire market bounced back by the end of the year showing strong growth across all regions.
Mobile Search Ad Revenues to Jump by 16% YoY to US $86B
Thousands of companies, especially the big ones, have been hit hard by supply chain disruptions and customer challenges caused by the pandemic. To cope, many of them stopped their digital ad campaigns and reduced search advertising bids in the first half of 2020. As a result, cost per acquisition (CPA) and cost per click (CPC) were down across verticals and markets.
The shutdown in the travel industry, which spent most of its advertising budget on search ads before the COVID-19, caused another major hit.
In 2019, brands and media buyers spent US $142.9bn on search engine advertising worldwide, more than social media, video, and banner ads combined, revealed Statista Digital Market Outlook. In 2020, this figure jumped by almost US $10bn, despite the sharp fall in ad spending in the first two quarters of the year.
Statistics show the global search advertising revenues are expected to jump by 12.4% in 2021. The increasing trend is set to continue in the next few years, with search ad revenues reaching US $211.4bn by 2025.
Mobile search engine advertising revenues are forecast to jump by 16% and hit US $86bn this year. By 2025, this segment of the search advertising market is expected to hit a US $120.2bn value.
Ad spending in the desktop search advertising segment is forecast to witness modest growth in the next few years, with the figure rising from US $85.5bn in 2021 to US $91.1bn in 2025.
Search Engine Advertising: The United States to Generate 40% of Global Revenues
Analyzed by geography, the United States represents the world’s leading search advertising market, expected to hit US $67.74bn value in 2021, or almost 40% of total spending this year. Statistics show the US search ad revenues jumped by nearly 20% amid the COVID-19 crisis. By 2025, the entire market is expected to hit US $82.2bn value.
As the second-largest market globally, search ad spending in China is expected to grow by 11.3% YoY to US $37.4bn in 2020. The United Kingdom follows with a 14% year-over-year growth and US $12.3bn in ad spending.
Japan and Germany ranked as the fourth and fifth-largest markets globally, with US $6.7bn and US $5.1bn in search ad revenues, respectively.
Statistics show the combined ad spending in the five largest markets is expected to jump by 22% YoY and hit US $157.2bn value by 2025.
