According to eMarketer digital display advertising is a $25.23 business in 2016, rising to over $31.87B in 2017. You’ll see in the chart below that 73% of these dollars are being run through programmatic technologies in 2016, rising to 78% in 2017. The digital video market in 2016, delivered through programmatic platforms, is up only 106% (in 2015 the increase was 376%), to $6B.
Further delineation of that information shows that 3 out of four of those programmatic dollars are going to mobile in 2017. The implications there are significant in a few ways.
1. Mobile is the device of choice
On mobile devices media is consumed, ads are delivered and innovation is happening. If you are creating content, sites and consumer experiences that leads to an important decision to make, and the data informs that decision. When you have to choose between making your site which device do you think about creating it on? It’s certainly easier to make content on your laptop, but you should be designing with mobile first in mind, and desktop as a secondary device. There are caveats here, as ad campaigns show that consumers feel comfortable in some occasions purchasing on a desktop more readily than on mobile. Also, if your consumer set is older then they will prefer a desktop. But in general, your audience is probably on a mobile device
2. Video ad spending is dominated by YouTube
According to a different eMarketer report YouTube is getting 21% of the digital video programmatic ad spending market.
45% of those dollars are delivered on mobile devices and 55% on desktop. The bigger screen is still appealing to consumers, who may be looking to recreate the lean back experience on their desktops. Certainly, the ability to live stream content from once prime talent is a draw. You can watch Dan Rather on Facebook Live and Katie Kouric on Yahoo.
YouTube is positioned to take maintain ownership of the millennial digital video market with new series featuring (former Viners – RIP Vine) Logan Paul in The Thinning and Fight of the Living Dead featuring Brandon Bowen. YouTube’s homegrown talent are prominently featured.
For businesses this is a great opportunity to educate your audiences on YouTube with custom videos, behind the scenes looks at production and education about your ecosystem.
3. Facebook is eating Google’s lunch for display advertising
You can see in the table below how by how much. Facebook is running more than twice as much revenue in display advertising than Google – $11.93B compared to $4.79B. Powered by the dominance of the social platform, expansive data, unique ad opportunities and strong algorithmic optimization Facebook ad revenues look to grow in 2017 by another $4B.
In summary, it’s a mobile world, though you have to consider who your audience is when you create content. Take advantage of the glut of users on YouTube and continue to leverage Facebook ads for its powerful targeting capabilities.
