Advertising spending is expected to grow by 6% this year, according to the Winterberry Group’s new report, “The Outlook for Advertising, Marketing and Data in 2023.” That translates to a projected $509 billion invested in ads, up from $481 billion last year. Of that number, a whopping 60%—or estimated $307 billion—will occur via online channels, with CTV leading the charge as the category grows at a rate of 27%. Digital growth is also likely to stay strong, apart from a possible dip in the next few months before numbers pick back up again. Here’s what else you need to know.

CTV Soars
The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) “2021 Video Ad Spend and 2022 Outlook” report showed that CTV ad spending surged by 57% to over $15 billion in 2021 and is projected to more than double in the next few years. That’s due to several factors, such as CTV’s ability to deliver meaningful brand perception and provide “very clear” transparency into where ads run. What’s more, 76% of video buyers call CTV a “must buy,” component of any successful media planning budget, according to IAB, because CTV lets them leverage certain data and formats that aren’t available in a linear TV buy. GroupM likewise believes ad spending for CTV will retain its meteoric growth over the next four years. By 2027, the media investment company says CTV may comprise nearly one-third of all US television ad revenue.

Digital Dominates
The Winterberry Group predicts that digital out-of-home channels will grow by 10% this year while influencer channels will increase at a rate of 17.5%. Borrell Associates, a market research group based in Williamsburg, Virginia, has a similar outlook for digital futures. “Another perspective on digital’s dominance in our forecast is digital will account for $7 of every $10 spent on 2023 local advertising, compared to approximately $5 of every $10 during 2017,” said Corey Elliott, executive VP of local market intelligence. That’s in keeping with Forrester data, which sees investments in digital ad dollars growing by $24.5 billion from 2021. E-commerce will drive those digital segments, according to the global market research group, accounting for nearly 23% of sales compared to 17% pre-pandemic amounts. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that the average American spends 8.2 hours on their phone. As for digital video, ad-supported streaming will remain dominant, especially now that streaming giants such as Netflix and Disney Plus have introduced their own ad-tier models. Forrester believes US ad spend on streaming video platforms will grow at a greater rate than overall digital spending in 2023. Economic woes around the world are real, but marketers are nevertheless taking advantage of the current ad climate to invest in CTV and digital platforms, among other forms of ad spending.