Global Firms To Hike Digital Ad Spend By 14.6% In 2013

According to the latest report from GroupM, companies across the globe will raise their spending on Internet advertising by 14.6% on the year to a combined $113.5 billion in 2013.

In its research, titled This Year, Next Year: Interaction 2013, the media investment arm of WPP projects that digital advertising will make up 21% of businesses’ total marketing expenditures this year, up from 14.6% in 2012.

Last year, global firms channeled $99 billion into investments to promote their products and services on the web, which translated into a 16.2% uptick compared with the previous year, and digital advertising accounted for 19.5% of firms’ aggregate advertising budgets.

North America was leader in terms of digital advertising expenditure, allocating $38.3 billion for the purpose, followed by Asia-Pacific countries with $30.6 billion. Western European companies spent $24.1 billion on online marketing, making them the third biggest digital ad spender.

The spike in the amount of money companies are spending on digital advertising is fuelled by the increase in time consumers are staying online, according to GroupM. This year, consumers are forecast to spend 30% of their media time on the web against 21% about six years ago. The growth in e-commerce is also one of the factors behind firms’ tendency to spend more on online marketing since it generates around 40% of online paid-media ad investment.

Despite the notable change in marketers’ strategies, print media still attracts some 24% of advertising investment although consumers spend just 14% of their media time with print, the report also found.