Digital Advertising Spending Will Reach $420 billion, Despite Impact of Ad-blockers

A new report from Juniper Research has found that digital advertising spend will grow by 18% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) over the next five years, rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. These figures include advertising spend across mobile, desktop, wearables and DOOH (Digital-out-of-Home) signage.

Contrary to this trend the new research, Future Digital Advertising - AI, Ad Fraud & Ad Blocking 2017-2022, predicted that the annual growth of online advertising spend will slow to only 4% globally by 2022, owing to the impact of ad blocking adoption across desktop devices and the increasing usage of mobile devices as the primary means for browsing.

According to the research, ad platforms will seek a greater degree of control over the types of ads being blocked through increased involvement in ‘Acceptable Ad’ initiatives. Through these initiatives, platforms are beginning to shift focus to encouraging the use of adverts that are not blocked. While revenue loss owing to ad blockers will account for 17% of online advertising spend in 2017, this loss will be mitigated and increase by only 2% over the next five years, reaching 19% by 2022.

The research predicted that nearly 75% of all delivered digital ads will use AI as a means of user targeting in 2022. Data sharing partnerships will enable publishers to increase targeting efficiency, utilising acquired data, such as geolocation, browsing cookies, and cross-device identification, to provide end-users with highly tailored digital ads. Despite objections to perceived invasions of privacy, platforms will continue to seek innovative means of data collection to provide personalised online ads.