1.6 Social Media Advertisers—Why Digital Advertising Has Surpassed Traditional Advertising and There’s No Going Back

You’ve definitely noticed ads on Facebook and Instagram and when you do a Google search. The ads are there, and most of us quickly scroll by them or click somewhere else and we think, “This is a good deal. I get all these services from this platform for FREE, and all I need to do is scroll past a few ads.” And you may be right. After all, those little ads are easy to skip, and certainly not as annoying as the “real advertising” like we see on TV during the Superbowl or our favorite Hulu show.

But guess what happened in 2019? The cumulative ad spend for the United States tipped toward being predominantly digital, and that is a big deal. Yep, all those small ads on all those small screens now generate more money than all the television, print, outdoor, and radio advertising combined.

As you can see from the data and projections above, it’s a race that traditional advertising isn’t likely to win again. It turns out that advertising dollars are extremely skilled at following the audiences. Advertisers don’t pay to run ads on programs that people aren’t watching; they pay for ads on screens where the people are, and many advertisers’ favorite audiences have moved online. Other analyses of time spent online compared to time spent with traditional media confirms this as well. As a country (and in most of the world), we are simply choosing to spend less time with the traditional media channels and more time on social platforms and other personal digital content than ever before.

• Newspaper subscriptions are down.

• Magazine readership is down.

• Radio listening, down.

• And in 2020 and beyond, with so many people working from home, even the number of billboard viewers is down.

All this “down” had to result in an “up” somewhere else—and it did. The hours we used to spend with traditional media have shifted to social media, gaming, and streaming (ad-supported and ad-free) services.

And if you are wondering who is winning in the digital advertising game these days, it’s about who you would expect. Google (AdWords, search, YouTube, Display Ad Networks), Facebook (and Instagram), and Amazon. Yes, Amazon. Did you know you can advertise on Amazon—the largest e-commerce shopping platform in the world? Of course you can. Go ahead and search for something on Amazon. Do you see those search results at the top of the page that say “Sponsored” next to them? This is digital advertising at the moment where advertising is the most effective—when customers are looking to purchase something.