Magazine advertising effectiveness in the U.S. in 2018, by position

Between 2017 and 2018, 62 percent of magazine ads located in the third quarter of the book led people to take action relating to the advertisement. Examples of actions are: considering purchase, recommending the product, and clipping or saving the ad.

Leading magazine advertisers

In 2018, the leading magazine advertiser by ad spend in the United States was L’Oréal. The French cosmetics company spent roughly 690 million U.S. dollars on magazine ads that year. Other brands on the list included Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, and Pfizer. U.S. consumer magazine ad expenditures are expected to decrease by close to two billion U.S. dollars between 2019 and 2023, to 13.9 billion U.S. dollars.

The magazine industry

In 2018, just over 7,200 magazines, both printed and digital, circulated through the American market. Six years earlier, the number of consumer magazines stood at its highest when it almost hit 7,400. About 224.6 million people, aged 18 or older, read magazines in 2018. This is a decrease of over half a million compared to the previous year and marks the first decline since 2012.