蘑菇AV

Here are five charts on the size of and outlook for the B2B digital ad market worldwide and in 13 individual countries.

B2B digital ad spending is expected to rebound in 2024. Trends in B2B buying behavior, programmatic advertising, and AI use are contributing to the shift in spending toward display, mobile, social media, and video.

This is the second installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

B2B ad spending sees a strong rebound: LinkedIn leads, with finance and retail sectors boosting growth.

What鈥檚 happening? Active user figures are falling on both X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) and Meta鈥檚 Threads, which started strong but has stumbled recently, with more than 80% of users logging off. Their loss could be LinkedIn鈥檚 gain, as both Gen Z use of the platform and B2B ad spend there increase.

With AI sharpening its offerings and Edge slowly rebuilding distribution, the company is quietly carving out sustainable ad growth鈥攑articularly in performance and B2B contexts. If it continues improving ad efficiency while scaling Edge usage and enterprise integrations, Microsoft could turn what was once a browser-and-search also-ran into a high-margin revenue stream with long-term upside.

LinkedIn posted 9% YoY revenue growth in its June-ending quarter, fueled by rising engagement, B2B ad demand, and AI-powered tools. Despite soft hiring trends, sessions rose 11% YoY as more creators and professionals use LinkedIn for content, networking, and branding. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the platform鈥檚 evolution from a resume archive to a dynamic business hub. AI continues to drive efficiency and creativity across features, benefiting both users and advertisers. With strong identity data and a trusted audience, LinkedIn is carving out a stable, differentiated space in social media鈥攑ositioning itself for long-term relevance beyond recruitment cycles.

The news: Despite strong subscriptions growth, Spotify鈥檚 ad business remains stuck in neutral amid macroeconomic pressures and the slow ramp-up of its ad stack. The streamer鈥檚 stock dropped over 11% after Q2 earnings missed expectations on both revenues and profit and the company issued weak guidance for the current quarter. Our take: Efforts around Spotify鈥檚 Ad Exchange are promising, but lagging adoption means early testing and partnerships may have resulted in disproportionate insights. With lower consumer spending and economic uncertainties, B2B planners should model more conservative ad results and balance new ad initiatives with more predictable, proven customer-acquisition channels.

This is the first installment of our biannual 鈥淯K Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

LinkedIn rebrands its Wire Program as BrandLink: The move reemphasizes its pivot toward creator-led B2B video.

B2B digital ad spending will continue to grow at a slower pace across key industries in 2023. More B2B buyers are millennials and Gen Zers, shifting ad buys from search to display, from Google to social media, and from desktop to mobile.

B2B digital ad spend worldwide is expected to reach $48.15 billion by 2026, up from $38.67 this year, according to 蘑菇AV鈥檚 August 2024 forecast.

B2B social ad spending will account for nearly half of B2B digital ad spending in 2024, at 46.3%.

Global B2B digital ad spending to reach $48 billion by 2026: Growth driven by digital adoption and emerging market expansion.

US B2B digital ad spend will increase by 14.9% this year to reach $18.34 billion, per our August 2024 forecast.

US B2B digital ad spend growth rates for key sectors like tech, finance, healthcare, and telecom will be 13.2 percentage points lower on average between 2023 to 2025 compared with 2017 to 2019, according to our forecast.