蘑菇AV

Streaming now grabs nearly 44% of US TV time鈥攎ostly ad-supported鈥攁nd more than half of marketers expect to raise connected TV (CTV) budgets in 2025, new research from Nielsen shows. As dollars flow from linear to streaming, unified cross-channel measurement is becoming the new must-have.

Reddit鈥檚 Dynamic Product Ads expands to all advertisers: The move highlights Reddit鈥檚 shift from a supplemental channel to a primary platform for advertisers.

For these consumers, Prime鈥檚 shipping and ecommerce benefits are more important than its streaming services. To increase usage of its streaming services and grow its ad revenues, Amazon is investing in improving Prime Video鈥檚 content. 础尘补锄辞苍鈥檚 2022 acquisition of MGM expanded its video library. It has partnered with popular creators like MrBeast to create new shows.

This is the Q1 2025 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.

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.

through retail media networks that may not appear on ecommerce sites or apps.

Though the ecommerce giant is itself expected to feel tariff pressures, its clear path to purchase, 99.8 million US Prime households, and popular streaming content means advertisers are likely to continue investing in the platform. For Roku, there are similar benefits: The company鈥檚 more than 90 million streaming households and the rise of FAST have made Roku a significant contender in the CTV space.

The news: Connected TV (CTV) commands higher attention metrics (AU) than online video (OLV) and display advertising thanks in part to its wide variety of interactive ad formats, per industry KPI data provided by Adelaide. Our take: CTV's growing attention metrics reflects its shift toward becoming a performance marketing channel

Growth will outpace that of most other digital channels. CTV will rank No. 2 for ad spending growth. Retail media is the only breakout we forecast that we expect to outperform CTV in ad spending growth. CTV will outperform other digital advertising categories (e.g., formats, devices, channels). Retail media and CTV are increasingly overlapping.

Tariffs threaten to reduce US digital ad spending growth this year. This series explains the effects tariffs will have on ad spending in search, social, CTV, and retail media鈥攁nd which parts of each might fare best and worst.

鈥淎s retail media has grown, the landscape has become increasingly complex and fragmented, said 蘑菇AV principal analyst Sky Canaves during last week鈥檚 蘑菇AV's summit on Commerce Media Trends 2025. 鈥淐omparisons are hard when standards vary across channels and platforms.鈥�

What鈥檚 different this time: Prior attempts to outlaw drug advertising typically focused on the channel where most pharma D2C ad dollars go鈥攍inear TV. Pharma spent $5.15 billion on national TV ads in 2024, according to iSpot tracking data. The sector鈥檚 total outlay on D2C advertising is about $14 billion annually, per a recent CSRxP study.

Streaming services are leaning more on advertising than they used to, resulting in increased overall ad spending but lower ad prices.

While we don鈥檛 specifically segment retail media spending by ad format, we do so for ecommerce channel ad spending鈥攁 large subset and close proxy of retail media. Retail media encompasses off-site ads, while ecommerce channel ad spending is limited to inventory on retailers鈥� own properties. The relative share of search and display is fairly constant, with both growing rapidly.

A trade war with the US will hinder economic performance in Canada this year. Ad spending overall is expected to lose the momentum gained in 2024. But many digital formats will benefit from the emphasis on return on ad spending.

To keep pace in a complex landscape and meet increasing demands from advertisers, commerce media players need to invest in fresh channels, tools, and innovation.

Escalating US tariffs on Chinese imports and the likely closure of the de minimis loophole could significantly impact social platforms like Meta and TikTok鈥攚hich rely heavily on ad dollars from fast-growing Chinese ecommerce companies such as Shein and Temu.

Retail media growth spurs demand for ad tech talent: Channel expansion and rising client expectations create need for jobs in performance marketing and ad buying.

Amid dizzying policy unpredictability and a grab bag of unpleasant economic possibilities, precise ad spend forecasting is challenging. A scenarios-based approach can help clarify potential outcomes.

础尘补锄辞苍鈥檚 ecommerce scale has made its ad business non-negotiable for brands. 础尘补锄辞苍鈥檚 dominance in US ecommerce, coupled with the challenge of achieving organic visibility on the platform, creates a buffer for retailers; advertisers鈥� reliance on its scale and reach is likely to outweigh any temptation to pull back on ad spending.

Over 80% of ad spending in the US for technology and electronics (87.1%), retail (82.9%), and consumer packaged goods (80.2%) is directed toward digital media, according to 蘑菇AV鈥檚 August 2024 forecast.

More than $10 billion in incremental ad spending will flow into US retail media in 2025. Amazon鈥攖he largest driver of spending in this channel鈥攈as recently seen modest retail media revenue growth relative to its past performance. As a result, we have revised our retail media forecast down from where it was in H1 2024. (The insights in this report are based on our H2 2024 forecasting data.)

Advertising spend is moving away from upper-funnel efforts like connected TV (CTV) and social branding campaigns, and instead flowing toward channels that deliver clearer returns鈥攏amely, search, retail media, and creator-led performance-oriented content. CTV advertising, once a fast-growing digital channel, is now expected to see the sharpest decline if tariff conditions worsen.

54% of global marketers are slashing ad spend, says Nielsen: The need for adaptability, rather than bigger budgets, is more prominent than ever.

Commerce media is expanding in terms of numbers of players, but ad spend patterns remain the same.