U.S. digital advertising revenues reach $57.9 billion on the first half of 2019

IAB this week released the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report 2019, revealing that the first 6 months of 2019 registered the highest spend in history for the first half of the year. U.S. digital advertising revenues reached $57.9 billion on the first half of 2019.

The Internet Advertising Revenue Report, prepared by PwC US, and released by IAB, shows a 17 percent year-over-year increase from the first half of 2018.

Video advertising was cited as a major contributor to growth, with spend climbing 36 percent year-over-year to a total of $9.5 billion for 1H 2019. With the growing pool of cord-cutters and cord-nevers continuing to drive the expansion of connected television (CTV), social video stories and other forms of non-traditional video content have advertisers increasing their investment in CTV.

Mobile advertising continues its growth, reaching $40 billion for the first half of the year—a 29% increase from the $30.9 billion spent on mobile during the same time period in 2018.

Audio advertising spend is rising with the emergence of smart speakers, up 30% year-over-year to a total of $1.2 billion for the first six months of 2019.

“Digital video growth has played a key role in giving 2019 the strongest opening six months in digital’s history,” said Sue Hogan, Senior Vice President, Research and Analytics, IAB. “Increasingly, advertisers are turning to social video stories and connected TV to reach a growing audience of ‘cord-nevers’—a younger cohort who’ve never subscribed to cable television and cannot be reached via linear TV ads. Indicators show CTV and addressable TV are on the rise.”