
Share of U.S. ad spend 2021, by medium
Advertising spending in the United States – additional information
The U.S. is the largest advertising market worldwide. In 2019, total advertising spend in the U.S. amounted to just over 242.5 billion U.S. dollars. Second-ranked China spent roughly 87 billion U.S. dollars in advertising in that year, a significantly smaller share in comparison to the U.S.Television remains the leading traditional medium for advertisers in the U.S. About 69 billion U.S. dollars was invested in television advertising in the U.S. in 2019. In 2021, national TV is expected to account for 17 percent of all advertising expenditure in the country. Local TV’s share is forecast to reach nearly 7.3 percent.
Up until recently TV was the main medium overall, however, digital has seen unprecedented growth in the last few years and took the lead ahead of television. Digital advertising spending in the U.S. is estimated to increase from about 141 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to just over 193 billion by 2025. Digital search is one of the main formats of digital advertising in the U.S., accounting for 42 percent of the U.S. ad expenditure in 2020. Another key trend is the rise of mobile platforms in the advertising industry in the U.S. Mobile investments are projected to increase in the coming years while desktop will see declines at the same time.