In the second quarter of 2020, nearly one-quarter (22%) of US ad spend was invested in paid social, with more than half of that spend being put toward advertising on Facebook. Indeed, Facebook’s share of total ad spend for Q2 was equal to that of radio, magazine and newspaper combined, per data from Kantar and Pathmatics.
According to Kantar’s and Pathmatics’ report, which analyzed spend across traditional and digital platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Facebook accounted for $4.1 billion of the $7.2 billion spent on paid social media advertising during Q2 (across the 3 platforms analyzed). It also made up more than one-eighth (13%) of the $32.7 billion spent on US advertising overall during the quarter. Instagram accounted for 9% of the total ad spend ($2.9 billion), while Twitter accounted for a mere 1% ($0.2 billion).
Excluding paid social, digital — including desktop and mobile display, paid search and online video — accounted for 26% share of total ad spend, at $8.3 billion.
The remaining 52% of Q2 ad spend went towards traditional channels, with TV accounting for 37% ($12.2 billion) of total spend. However, radio (3%; $1.1 billion), magazine (7%; $2.2 billion), newspaper (3%; $1.0 billion) and outdoor (2%; $0.8 billion) accounted for considerably less of the total ad spend for the quarter.
Due to COVID-19, advertising spending was somewhat volatile during Q2, with a reported drop of 30% in print, radio and outdoor advertising in April and an almost 20% decrease for TV and digital in the same month. By May, spend on TV grew by 7.3% and paid social saw an increase of just shy of 3%.
Outdoor advertising, which experienced a reported 45% year-over-year drop in ad revenues in the second quarter, did not see any sort of recovery until the start of Q3, when it grew by 9.8%.
Looking more long-term, other research has found that COVID-19 has led many marketers to say they will rely more on digital media because it provides greater agility. And, although both online and TV advertising spending are expected to decline around the world this year, PwC predicts US online advertising to have a 4.09% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2024, compared to the 0.4% CAGR for TV advertising.
