In 2018, performance-based pricing was the most prevalent pricing model, accounting for 62 percent of the online ad revenue total in the United States that year. CPM (or cost-per-mille) was the most common pricing model in the country until 2007.

U.S. online advertising revenue

In the fourth quarter of 2018, online advertisers in the United States generated over 31 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. This was an increase of roughly fifteen percent, compared to the previous quarter and it was also the quarter with the highest revenue since 2007. About 45 percent of all online ad revenue in the United States in 2018 was achieved through search advertising. Roughly a third of the earnings was generated through banner ads, while 15 percent came from digital video adverts.

Growing digital advertising formats

In 2020, the mobile, social, and video ad formats are expected to grow the most in terms of revenue. Of the main advertising streams, “desktop” is the sole format projected to decrease in ad revenue in the future. Desktop advertising revenue is predicted to decline by roughly four percent in 2019 and by almost nine percent in 2020.