YouTube’s global advertising revenue will rise by 4% in 2023 according to WARC Media’s latest Platform Insights report, reaching US$30.4 billion – doubling the rate of growth seen last year.
Although badly affected by the digital ad market slowdown, the video sharing service has managed to retain its strong popularity with consumers, reaching half of the more than 2 billion global internet users.
The Alphabet-owned platform has managed to remain competitive by diversifying its content through the prioritisation of ‘Shorts’ and Connected TV engagement; whilst continuing to innovate within the digital ad space with unskippable 30s ads and “pause experiences” on TV.
WARC’s Report added that it expected YouTube’s ad revenue to grow a further 10.3% in 2024, reaching $33.5 billion by the end of the year.
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Retail retains its position as the top sector for YouTube ad investment, expected to spend $4.1 billion this year – a rise of 4.6% on 2022. A long way off in second and third were media/publishing and financial services respectively.
“It’s been a tricky 12-month period for YouTube, which is increasingly battling on two fronts, against short-form video platforms like TikTok as well as long-form content streamers in the connected TV space. However, as trading conditions improve in digital advertising, YouTube can expect to see revenue growth improve,” WARC Media head of content, Alex Brownsell said.
“In this WARC Media’s Platform Insights report, we take a closer look at YouTube to provide marketers with evidence-based insights on the challenges and opportunities the platform offers at a time when ad formats and technologies are fast evolving and understanding audiences is becoming ever more important.”
Although growth in other sectors has stymied, WARC predicts investment from technology/electronics and toiletries/cosmetics to increase by 8% and 4.3% this year respectively.
