Three quarters of media buyers think the U.S. economy will slow down, affecting ad spending, but they still expect spending to be up 7% more than originally planned in the second half of 2022, according to a survey by the Internet Ad Bureau.
The second half boost will leave spending up 9% for the year, short of the 13% growth projection buyers made in a similar study last fall.
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Factors contributing to the more conservative outlook include the slowing economy, supply chain bottlenecks, consumer inflation and gas and energy price inflation.
The buyers also expect ad spending to be up 10% in 2023. In the survey, 84% of respondents said ad spending would be less than initially projected in the first half of 2023 because of the economy, and 45% said there would be less spending in the second half.
“This represents a slowing of growth as opposed to a reduction in YoY spend at this point in time,” the IAB said in its report.
Spending growth varies by category. In the second half of 2022, buyers said spending on travel would be up 27% compared to their original plans. Tech spending would be up 15%, financial services up 7%, retail and consumer packaged goods up 3% and media and entertainment up 1%.
Auto spending is expected to be down 2% compared to original plans and health and wellness down 5%.
The IAB said it surveyed 250 buy-side ad investment decision makers between July 6 and July 20 to create this report. ■
