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When it comes to video ad sales, marketers don’t need a linear path to success.
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s newly released 2024 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report, it’s going to be a big year for digital video. The report, which comes ahead of next week’s NewFronts events, noted that digital video ad sales are growing nearly 80% faster than media overall, with spend, including connected TV (CTV), social video and online video, projected to grow 16% this year, hitting $63 billion.
With those numbers, digital video spend is expected to pass linear for the first time, with revenue shifting 20% over the last four years.
David Cohen, CEO of IAB, told ADWEEK that 2023’s ad spend was 52% linear and 48% digital, and the numbers are expected to flip in 2024, becoming 52% digital vs. 48% linear.
“We are on a track or trend for all video to be digitized. There is no doubt that the future of video is streamed,” Cohen said. “Each year, we continue to see our march toward that inevitability.”
Overall, social video is on track for 20% year-over-year growth, its second straight year reaching those numbers. It is projected to reach $23.4 billion.
In addition, CTV exceeded $20 billion for the first time in 2023 and is expected to grow by 12% to $22.7 billion in 2024, 32% faster than total media overall. A significant portion of that spend is coming from reallocations from traditional media such as linear. Meanwhile, 31% of revenues are from overall ad budget expansion.
In fact, Chris Bruderle, vp, industry insights and content strategy, IAB, noted in a statement that CTV and social are “must buys” among the biggest ad spenders.
“All the things that we love around digital, from personalization to measurement and attribution to using a similar data stack to what you’re using on the other side of the equation, is taking the most powerful thing we have in marketing—which is sight, sound and motion—and adding technology and data to the equation,” Cohen said. “CTV has all the makings of an incredibly powerful marketing machine and the ability to measure, which is unrivaled.”
Of course, digital video, CTV in particular, isn’t perfect. Cohen noted that linear CPMs (cost per thousand viewers reached) could range in some cases around $10 to $12, and CTV can be much higher.
“It is much more efficient to buy linear television—in terms of human cost to execute the buys and the cost of buying cable television,” Cohen said. “I think the industry needs to move off of efficiency as a metric toward effectiveness or delivery of business results as a metric, and I think we’ll see an even greater acceleration of CTV in the future if we move that way.”