Introduction
In 2025, the advertising budget is more analytical and developed with data insights than in any previous year. As brands continue to face pressure to account for every dollar spent, marketing executives will look for ways to generate measurable results for every dollar spent on marketing. Specifically, marketing executives will be looking for ways to track conversions, identify customer acquisition costs, and increase customer lifetime value rather than simply building brand awareness. This gives rise to a more strategic decision-making model for media spend in 2025, where real-time data, attribution, and the ability to automate the budget, as well as campaign optimisation, determine how much is spent on which media placement.
Digital-first media strategies are now the dominant focus for advertising budgets, with increasing amounts being allocated to mobile, video, and programmatic media. Mobile remains the most common interface between consumers and brands; however, video (especially connected TV, short-form social video, and streaming services) continues to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the advertising budget due to its interactivity and ability to tell a story. Consequently, traditional form of marketing (such as newspapers, billboards, etc.) are losing ground to more flexible, data-driven, and scalable digital promotional forms.
In addition, advertisers are experiencing increased competition for ad space, rising CPMs (cost per thousand ad impressions), and significant changes to data privacy laws. Among other things, signal loss, stricter data privacy laws, and the demise of third-party cookie tracking will cause advertisers to rely more heavily on first-party data and develop strategies based on context rather than purely demographic data points. These dynamics are pushing advertisers to seek efficiency, transparency, and stronger ROI benchmarks across every channel.
This report outlines the current benchmarks in advertising so advertisers know where their spending will occur in 2025, what proportion of that spending will be allocated to the various digital channels, and which performance metrics offer the most value to advertisers. This guide will also provide insight into how these benchmarks affect both advertisers and publishers, as well as what each group can leverage from utilizing an effective advertising management platform to help manage the complexity of the advertising environment, maximizing spend, and maintaining a competitive edge within a performance-based advertising framework. Many teams are turning to a professional ad management platform that brings transparency, control, and optimization together in one place-helping advertisers make informed decisions and maximize returns in a rapidly changing digital ecosystem.
Why Advertising Spend Benchmarks Matter in 2025
Benchmarks will continue to play an important role for marketers to make better, more justifiable budgeting within tighter budgets and accountability in 2025. Through the context that benchmarks provide, marketing teams will be able to provide a rationale for budgeting and forecasts of performance, as well as realistic expectations for stakeholders. Rather than relying solely on what has worked for them in the past or assumptions on what will work, marketers will be able to hold themselves accountable against what is considered “good” across all channels, formats, and industries using benchmarks.
Benchmarks are also invaluable when it comes to measuring efficiency and return. The growing complexity of the digital advertising environment will make it increasingly difficult for marketers to determine whether their campaigns are performing or if they are simply meeting goals that appear impressive on the surface. By benchmarking their CPMs, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend against what is considered normal in their respective industries, marketers will be able to identify which areas of their marketing efforts are underperforming very quickly, allowing for a reallocation of budget dollars to the channels that are providing the most substantial impact.
With the increase in the number of market changes, benchmarking effectively will become even more critical due to several shifts in the marketplace. Increasingly competitive markets are causing customer acquisition costs to rise and increased costs of inventory availability. In addition, cookie deprecation and the introduction of new privacy regulations have led to a decrease in how reliable traditional targeting and attribution techniques are to prove impact. This change is influencing the level of auditing of ROAS numbers by the finance teams and executive leadership, calling for a more transparent view of profitability.
Channel-level benchmarking is now more important than just vanity metrics that report either several impressions or several clicks. Knowing how well a campaign is doing for each of its channels/types of formats gives the advertiser an opportunity to spend their money more strategically and also focus on outcomes that will ultimately help them grow; they can now make decisions based on empirical evidence about the effectiveness of their advertising when they need to drive performance with their advertising campaigns.
Global Advertising Spend Overview (2025)
In 2025, advertisers continue to invest in digital technology. Records show global advertising spending will continue to expand each year due to brands taking advantage of performance-driven and digitally measurable channels. Advertisers are placing a greater emphasis on growing using digital technology during uncertain times economically in various regions. In addition, many advertisers want to invest their budgets in areas where they will be able to communicate clear attribution and revenue. As a result, more digital advertising will be conducted through larger, automated platforms based on data.
Digital media continues to outpace traditional media. In fact, digital advertising now accounts for the largest share of total advertising dollars worldwide. Advertising dollars are being diverted from linear television, print, and radio as brands transition toward networks that meet today’s consumer habits. This has been further accelerated by the growth of e-commerce and retail media. Retailers provide their clients with highly targeted audiences and allow them to track their results using closed loop tracking systems. As a result of this growing trend, digital advertising dollars are becoming a cornerstone of virtually every media strategy.
Benchmarking shows that mobile and video are the fastest-growing categories in digital ad spend. By the end of 2025, video will likely exceed $207.5 billion in spending due to growth in connected television, streaming video platforms, and short-form social media video. Mobile advertising spend is expected to surpass $300 billion, reflecting the continued dominance of smartphones as the primary point of consumer interaction across shopping, entertainment, and social media.
When considering regions, the U.S. is still the biggest player in the Advertising Industry, investing heavily in CTV, Retail Media, and Programmatic. The APAC market continues to grow at an exponential rate, with consumers shifting towards mobile-first consumption coupled with emerging Digital Economies. Europe’s growth has been slower but does reflect current regulatory constraints and methodologies related to ‘Privacy-First‘ Advertising. These different regional characteristics illustrate how Global Growth is driven by Digital Innovation and Changing Consumer Behaviours.
Mobile Advertising Spend Benchmarks
In 2025, mobile advertising has developed into the primary source for brands to spend their budget and assess the success of their advertising. With over 60% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, advertisers have embraced mobile-first advertising strategies to connect with their target audiences where they are spending most of their time. This trend is demonstrated by the fact that most digital campaigns have been designed, executed, and optimized for mobile users, rather than treating mobile as an afterthought after planning these campaigns.
In terms of spend, mobile will continue to dominate the amount spent on digital advertising. Currently, mobile advertising represents over half of the total amount spent on digital advertising. Therefore, mobile advertising has become the single largest area of digital investment for many advertisers. Social media platforms receive the largest share of mobile advertising investment due to their high levels of daily engagement, ability to do advanced targeting, and ability to create native advertisements that fit seamlessly into user feeds. Instagram, TikTok, and mobile-first video networks remain vital to advertisers in their performance and brand-building strategies.
The significant growth in mobile investment can be attributed to the various formats of advertising. The mobile display ads have been and will continue to be used for reach and retargeting, especially when creative ads and frequency controls are utilized to reach the right consumers. The in-app advertising space continues to grow as brands look to take advantage of the time consumers spend in relation to mobile apps, especially in the gaming, entertainment, and lifestyle category.
The mobile video ads, from shorter-length social video to rewarded and out-stream video ads, are commanding higher budgets as they can engage viewers better and tell stories more effectively using this limited real estate.
Evaluating performance on mobile is different than evaluating performance on Desktop. CTR and viewability are the key metrics to analyse; however, each ad format and ad network will deliver CTR and viewability differently, so it is important to conduct a channel-level analysis. Additionally, the mobile-first landing page is critical in converting traffic from mobile devices to customers as it provides the consumer with an easy-to-use overall experience with the brand.
Over time, mobile CPMs are increasing, and the more advertisers can align creative ads with the place where they are placed and with the experience consumers get while interacting with the mobile ad, the greater their chance will be to obtain greater revenue when they invest in mobile advertising.
Video Advertising Spend & Performance Benchmarks
In 2025, video marketing makes up a larger portion of the worldwide ad revenue than ever before. Advertisers will invest in formats that are both engaging and measurable. The growing preference among consumers for visually based, instant access content is prompting marketers from all industries to incorporate video into their digital marketing strategy as a foundational component. Because of its unique ability to incorporate sound, storytelling, and movement into its creative execution, video advertising can drive brand awareness as well as product consideration and purchase intent.
By 2025, the amount spent on video marketing is expected to exceed $207.5 billion, continuing to establish video as one of fastest growing channels within digital advertising. The rapid growth of short-form video is driving competitive momentum among TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, as they fit perfectly into how people consume media on their mobile devices. As a result, mobile video advertising is the primary focus for marketers who want to connect with consumers in high-impact, easy-to-find environments.
Analysing performance benchmarks allows marketers to see the reason for the rise in video marketing budgets. On a per person basis, video marketing generates significantly more engagement on mobile and social than does static marketing. Another advantage of using motion-driven video marketing is that movement-based creative is easier to remember and is more likely to elicit an emotional response. In fact, a reported 92% of video marketers indicate positive ROI from their video campaigns, reinforcing video’s value across both upper- and lower-funnel objectives.
The approach to video marketing varies based on the type of media being utilized. Short-format videos are effective at quickly engaging unhappy users and creating opportunities for social connection. This makes them well suited to mobile-first video campaigns. In-stream videos can have a guaranteed viewability, making them a good choice for using video for storytelling and outreach efforts related to brands. Outstream video placement provides greater flexibility in how video can be deployed and on what platforms participating manufacturers and retailers will advertise. Connected television is becoming an increasingly popular medium for advertisers because it provides premium long-form video inventory along with an excellent digital targeting capability; However, the downside of CTV is that it is expensive relative to other video advertising formats. Consequently, effective video advertising strategies in 2025 will require establishing standard benchmarks based on cost per thousand impressions, conducting creative testing regularly and accurately measuring video performance.
Paid Search & PPC Advertising Benchmarks
Paid Search and Pay Per Click (PPC) will continue to be stable channels and winners in the 2025 Media Mix. Search advertising provides value through its ability to positively engage customers on the “of Intent” continuum. Search advertising is typically successful for many reasons; however, its main draw is that it connects advertisers who offer products to potential customers who are investigating, comparing, or actually purchasing a product(s) at that exact moment – and at this time, PPC stands out as the best advertising option for advertisers seeking to maximize their return on investment (ROI), predictability, and measurable outcomes.
Current benchmarks show PPC advertisements with positive results when campaigns are optimally structured and optimized. On average, high-volume or well-structured PPC campaigns have generated approximately a 200% average ROI. This demonstrates that PPC is an effective channel for generating non-negligible returns—even in highly competitive markets. In addition, 84% of brands are satisfied with the results of their paid search advertising efforts. These results further confirm PPC as a sound revenue-generating strategy for businesses in various industries.
While keyword bidding is a key component of generating strong overall revenue from paid search investments in 2025, a robust CRO strategy must also be implemented in conjunction with relevant advertising campaigns. Optimizing clicks into revenue should always include developing and maintaining personalized landing pages consistent with the search intent of users. Personalized landing pages will increase relevancy, hence decreasing bounce rates. The creation of quality messaging and the facilitation of a seamless user journey will enhance overall conversion efficiency. Mobile optimization will also play an essential role in supporting the increasing volume of paid search traffic generated from mobile devices (smartphones). Fast load times, simplified forms, and mobile-friendly design directly influence Quality Scores and overall campaign performance.
Cost per click (CPC) prices have been going up and the level of competition in advertising continues to rise, especially in high-value industries like finance, e-commerce and software as a service (SaaS). With more advertisers competing for the same keyword(s), advertisers are now more concerned about controlling costs and achieving the highest level of efficiency with their advertising dollars. The only way advertisers can achieve success is through continuous testing of ad creative, frequent re-evaluation of key word targeting, and regularly comparing the performance of their ads to those of other advertisers in the same market (benchmarking). This enables advertisers to keep their campaigns in a profitable state and to achieve the maximum return (long-term) on their investment in PPC advertising, regardless of the increasing costs.
Programmatic & Display Advertising Benchmarks
By the end of 2025, most advertisers who use digital marketing will do so via programmatic buying and optimization to reach larger audiences, improve performance and reduce costs across their entire advertising program. These developments in programmatic media buying include automation, real-time bidding, and media ROI analytics. As more advertisers turn to programmatic, the manual media-buying approach will likely continue to decline in favour of the programmatic approach.
In terms of spending, data from multiple research studies demonstrates that programmatic buying is the dominant type of digital advertising spending in the display space. In the United States, approximately 90% of all display ad revenue (a.k.a. “digital impressions“) is now spent via programmatic methods, indicating that programmatic has gained widespread popularity with many advertisers from a diverse range of industries and sectors. The top categories of display advertising spend include retail and e-commerce brands, who use programmatic display techniques to maximize efficiency across the entire sales funnel, from acquiring new customers to retargeting potential purchasers of the same product with tailored or dynamic advertisements.
Although many marketers consider display ads less relevant than video ads and social media advertisements, display ads still can deliver great results when executed properly. With the implementation of marketing regulations regarding the use of third-party data due to increased privacy considerations, advertisers have re-established research into the effectiveness of contextual targeting. By developing contextually relevant environments for their display ads, marketers can ensure that their customers receive the maximum benefit from their ads, while maintaining relevance without relying solely on personal or individual-level tracking. High-impact placements-such as rich media, native display, and premium publisher inventory-also help display campaigns stand out and drive stronger engagement.
The measurement of display advertising performance is an important factor to consider when setting benchmarks. Because of the differences between CPMs (cost per thousand) due to differences in inventory quality, audience targeting, placement type, etc., advertising benchmarks are necessary for the control of overall costs associated with display advertising. A second important metric for performance measurement is viewability because impressions that do not get seen are not worth the money spent even if the CPM is low. Therefore, advertisers that concentrate on viewable impressions, the management of frequency, and relevance concerning the context of their ads will benefit from greater ROI when using programmatic display in the face of a growing number of advertisers entering the space and the increasing concern for privacy impacting the effectiveness of ads.
Privacy, Ad Blocking & Their Impact on Spend
Changes related to privacy continue to impact strategies for advertising, including how and where businesses allocate advertising dollars. The most significant obstacle for marketers is ad blocking, which drastically reduces ad spend efficiency across digital channels. Currently, approximately 35.7% of users worldwide are utilizing ad blockers, thereby greatly diminishing the overall reach and effectiveness of standard display ads and other types of intrusive ad formats. Therefore, advertisers are being forced to reevaluate not only their creative execution, but also their channel selection, ensuring that their messages can be seen.
Additionally, due to the removal of third-party cookies, the move toward first-party data has become significantly more drastic for the industry. As cross-site tracking becomes increasingly unreliable for brands, they are allocating far more funds to obtaining and utilizing data via their own sources such as customer relationship management systems (CRM) and loyalty programs as well as via authenticated user environments. All these changes are critical to the advertising industry’s future as brands work to develop a model for privacy-first advertising that will allow them to continue providing personalization and measurement in a compliant manner.
In 2025, advertising trends are being driven by major changes happening in the industry today. Contextual advertising has become a widely used alternative to Behavioural Targeting because it can be easily scaled and provides advertisers with the ability to Keep Contents relevant without the use of personally identifiable information. This allows advertisers to continue using ads to target users based on what they are searching for or reading. The use of Platform Based Targeting through ecosystem types of platforms such as social media, Search and Retail Media Networks is also increasing due to these platforms having their own built-in data and Consent Frameworks as well as closed-loop measurement capabilities. Advertisers are now increasingly reallocating their budgets based upon their Privacy compliance and Risk Management Practices to eliminate those advertisers that have not offered good governance or ACCOUNTABILITY to advertisers in the past. As of 2025, success will lie in the balance of a financial performance objective while adhering to Privacy Compliance; thus, making Advertising Spend as effective and sustainable in a more regulated Digital Environment.
Privacy, Ad Blocking & Their Impact on Spend
2025 will continue to see Privacy Related Changes in Advertising Strategies with a direct effect on advertising budget allocation (where and how) by brand, among others. A key challenge for advertisers is Ad Blocking (approximately 35.7% of global users currently use ad blockers), which reduces Total Spend Efficiency for Digital Advertising across all digital channels. Ad blocking impacts the reach and effectiveness of traditional Display advertising and paid search; therefore, advertisers must rethink how they execute the creative(s) and which channels they use to ensure that their advertising messages reach (are seen by) the intended audience.
The deprecation of third-party cookies (in combination with Ad Blocking) has accelerated the transition of the Advertising Industry from Third-Party Cookies to First-Party Data Collection/Utilization Models. Since cross-site tracking via third-party cookie technology is becoming increasingly less effective, brands are investing significantly in first-party data models (e.g., owned data sources such as CRM, Loyalty Programs, Authenticated User Models). This transition to First-Party Data is an integral part of the Privacy-First Advertising Model, as it allows advertisers to continue to have “personalized advertisements” and “track” the effectiveness of these personalized advertisements without violating users’ privacy rights in accordance with the various countries’ changing Privacy Laws.
The changes occurring in the digital advertisement landscape are shaping how companies will advertise in 2025. As contextual advertising has been reborn as a viable, discoverable, scalable, and privacy-compliant means of targeting ads to consumers (vs. behavioural targeting), advertisers can achieve the desired relevance of their ads without the need for personal data by placing their advertising adjacent to the content consumers are currently consuming
Targeting through platforms (either within their own ecosystem [e-commerce] or through partnerships) will become increasingly popular as these platforms provide marketers with a wealth of built-in audience behavioural and demographic insights, consent processes, as well as the ability to track ROI through closed-loop measurement methodologies.
As Privacy Compliance and Risk Management efforts will play a growing role in the reallocation of advertising budgets away from inefficient channels (ones with limited transparency or measurement challenges) towards environments with improved levels of accountability and governance, achieving success in 2025 will require a careful balance of performance objectives while meeting privacy obligations, while simultaneously ensuring that advertising spend will continue to be both effective and sustainable in an increasingly regulated digital advertising landscape.
Key Advertising Spend Trends Shaping 2025
In the landscape of advertising spend in 2025, there is a definite change away from traditional advertising toward performance-based advertising, efficiency, and adaptability. One of the most significant trends in advertising is a shift toward investing the greatest percentage of budgets in video. Brands have seen that video can provide engagement, brand awareness, and measurable results through all stages of the purchasing process. Video formats are gaining more investment as advertisers vie for consumer attention in mobile-friendly environments.
Mobile is the base of virtually all digital strategies in 2025. Since consumers spend most of their time online using mobile devices, advertisers are designing and developing their campaigns with mobile as the primary focus rather than a secondary consideration. Mobile’s dominance is affecting all aspects of an advertisement, including creative design and advertisement types, as well as landing experiences for customers and the way customer activity is tracked.
Another key trend in advertising is the focus on efficiency over volume. Rather than attempting to maximize impressions or total reach, the advertising industry is focusing on controlling costs, increasing incremental revenue, and maximizing profit. The rising cost of media and increased competition among advertisers have resulted in a desire for advertisers to minimize wasted spend and be more diligent about reviewing their media expenditures and allocation at both the advertising channel level and the campaign level.
AI optimization and automation are changing the budgeting process. Budget management is being transformed through these capabilities. Additionally, advertisers can react quickly to the signals they receive, thanks to large-scale machine learning algorithms that assist advertisers with bidding, testing of creative materials, audience creation, and strategies related to keeping up with the performance indications as they arise. Measurement methods also are changing; most noticeably, advertisers are moving away from using reach-based metrics in favour of KPIs that are more outcome-focused (such as conversions, revenue, and lifetime value).
Final Thoughts
In 2025, mobile-first and video-led advertising, together with a greater emphasis on measuring results, will define what constitutes successful advertising. In an advertising environment where digital channels have become the most significant part of an advertiser’s overall budget, it is crucial to understand how that budget is broken down and how each piece of that budget is performing. Mobile and video will comprise a significant amount of advertising spend; therefore, they must be included in every current media plan.
Advertising benchmarks are vital to this process, as they are the basis for how marketers evaluate the effectiveness of their spend, support spending requests (budgets), and identify opportunities for improvement across all advertising channels. Advertisers that use data-driven advertising benchmarks for their campaign planning will be able to create efficient, ROI-centered advertising plans for a highly competitive environment.
Advertisers that are financially successful in 2025 will also focus on aligning their search, social, video, and programmatic advertising investments to develop full-funnel growth strategies. Therefore, it is critical to regularly re-evaluating advertising spend against current advertising benchmarks, as advertising costs continue to increase and privacy regulations continue to change over time.
To navigate this complexity effectively, many teams are turning to a professional ad management platform that brings transparency, control, and optimization together in one place-helping advertisers make informed decisions and maximize returns in a rapidly changing digital ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: What is the biggest driver of advertising spend in 2025?
Mobile and video advertising are the primary drivers of ad spend growth in 2025. Consumer behaviour continues to shift toward mobile devices and on-demand video content, making these channels essential for reaching audiences at scale. High engagement levels, improved targeting, and measurable performance have encouraged brands to allocate a larger share of budgets to mobile-first and video-led strategies.
Q2: Is video advertising worth the investment?
Yes, video advertising remains a highly effective investment in 2025. Video formats consistently deliver strong engagement, brand recall, and conversion performance. Short-form video and mobile video ads offer efficient reach and high ROI, making them valuable across both awareness and performance-focused campaigns.
Q3: How much of ad spend is mobile focused in 2025?
More than half of global digital advertising budgets are now dedicated to mobile channels. As smartphones remain the primary point of interaction for consumers, advertisers prioritize mobile-friendly formats, placements, and experiences to maximize visibility and conversions.
Q4: Is PPC still effective in 2025?
PPC continues to be one of the highest-performing channels when properly optimized. Its intent-driven nature allows advertisers to capture demand efficiently, and when paired with strong landing page optimization and ongoing testing, PPC delivers reliable ROI even amid rising competition.
Q5: How are privacy changes impacting advertising spend?
Privacy regulations and cookie deprecation are driving budgets toward first-party data strategies, contextual advertising, and platform-native targeting. These approaches help advertisers remain compliant while maintaining relevance, measurement accuracy, and performance across digital channels.
