Marketers have since paused their spending due to the pandemic.
The top 200 US advertisers increased their ad and marketing spending by 4.6% to a record $175 billion in 2019, according to Ad Age’s 65th annual report on the state of advertising. The growth was primarily fuelled by 21 internet-centric companies, including ecommerce giant Amazon and ride-hailing company Uber.
Ad and marketing spend for the internet-centric companies rose by 16.9% in 2019. Online financial marketplace LendingTree (46%) had the highest spending increase in the sector, which was followed by Facebook (41%).
The total ad spending for retailers, excluding internet retailers, increased by 2.4%. But, WPP’s GroupM expects the US media ad revenues to decline by 12.9% in 2020. Spending, excluding political advertising, will rebound and grow by 4.2% in 2021.
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