Global advertising spend surpassed $920B+ in 2024 and is projected to exceed $1T+ by 2026. (Industry forecasts)
Digital ad spend accounts for ~64% of total global media investment.
Traditional media spending has declined at 1–4% annually since 2020.
Search advertising represents ~40% of total digital spend.
Social media ad spend represents ~31–33% of total digital spend.
Programmatic buying accounts for ~90% of display ad transactions in developed markets.
CTV (Connected TV) ad spending grows at 18–25% YoY globally.
Retail media is the fastest-growing ad channel at ~20–30% YoY.
The average media budget allocation is 70% digital / 30% offline across most industries.
Brands in high-competition categories (finance, SaaS, healthcare) invest 2.5× more on paid channels than low-competition categories.

Media Buyer Behavior & Planning

71% of marketers increase media budgets when they can track attributed revenue.
68% combine brand + performance objectives in the same media plan.
57% of media buyers optimize weekly; 22% optimize daily.
82% prefer platforms offering automated bidding.
74% use multi-channel attribution models.
53% say the biggest challenge is accurate ROI measurement.

CPM Benchmarks

(Actual numbers vary by market — these are widely used planning ranges.)

Facebook/Meta CPM: $4–$14
Instagram CPM: $6–$18
TikTok CPM: $2–$10
YouTube CPM: $7–$25
LinkedIn CPM: $20–$80
Display CPM (Programmatic): $1–$8
CTV/OTT CPM: $18–$45
Twitter/X CPM: $3–$14
Pinterest CPM: $2–$9
Snapchat CPM: $2–$6
Reddit CPM: $3–$9
Podcast CPM (host-read): $18–$50
Out-of-home (OOH) CPM: $3–$12
Radio CPM: $4–$10

CPC Benchmarks

Google Search average CPC across industries: $1.20–$4.50
Competitive industries (legal, insurance): $20–$80 CPC
Meta average CPC: $0.60–$1.80
TikTok CPC: $0.20–$1.20
LinkedIn CPC: $4–$13
Display CPC: $0.20–$1.00
YouTube CPC: $0.20–$1.50

CTR Benchmarks

Google Search ads average CTR: 3%–6%
Display ads average CTR: 0.4%–0.8%
Meta ads CTR: 0.8%–1.8%
TikTok ads CTR: 1.2%–3%
YouTube video ad CTR: 0.2%–1.2%
LinkedIn feed ads CTR: 0.4%–0.7%

Conversion Benchmarks

Average landing page conversion rate across paid traffic: 2.3%
Top-performing paid landing pages convert at >6%.
TikTok-to-website conversion: 0.6–2.5%
Meta conversion rate: 1.3–3%
LinkedIn B2B conversion rate: 2–6% (lead form higher than website redirects)

Budget Allocation Patterns

Brand campaigns receive ~35–45% of paid budgets for top-performing brands.
Performance campaigns receive ~55–65%.
SaaS companies allocate 60–80% of budget to digital.
DTC eCommerce allocates 70–95% to paid social + paid search.

Creative Impact on Media Buying Efficiency

Creative quality influences CPA outcomes 3–5× more than bid strategy.
Ads refreshed every 7–14 days reduce fatigue and lower CPC.
UGC-style ads reduce CPM on TikTok by 15–40%.
Short-form vertical videos drive up to 3× higher CTR than static images.

Retargeting

Retargeted users are 70% more likely to convert.
Retargeting CPM is usually 20–60% higher, but CPA is lower.
1st-party audience lists convert 2–4× higher than broad targeting.

Lookalike & Interest Targeting

Lookalike audiences typically achieve 20–50% lower CPA than cold interest audiences.
Broad targeting outperforms interest targeting in 55–70% of campaigns on Meta.

Programmatic

Real-time bidding handles trillions of ad impressions daily.
Fraud exposure in programmatic is 8–18% of spend without proper verification.
Viewability averages 55–65% for display.
Video programmatic viewability averages 70–85%.

Media Buying Team & Tools

75% of media buyers use automated rules to optimize bids.
62% use data visualization dashboards (Looker, Data Studio, Tableau).
48% use multi-touch attribution platforms.

Offline Media

TV still reaches 80–90% of adults weekly in most countries.
OOH improves online search activity by 10–30% when paired with digital.
Radio has an average frequency advantage (low CPM + high repetition).

Privacy & Tracking

Cookie loss has reduced measurable attribution visibility by 25–60%.
Server-side tracking can recover ~20–40% lost signal.
75% of media buyers increased interest in first-party data strategies.

Attribution & Performance

Last-click undervalues upper-funnel media by 30–70%.
Brands using multi-touch attribution increase ROAS by 10–35%.
Media mix modeling adoption growing 12–18% YoY.
Incrementality testing reduces wasted spend by 5–20%.

ROAS & CPA

Average ROAS benchmark for eCommerce paid media: 2.5–4×.
Subscription services target 1.2–2× ROAS in early-stage scaling.
CPA benchmarks vary massively — typical mid-market range: $12–$150.

Market Variance

Emerging markets have 40–70% lower CPM but lower conversion efficiency.
Tier 1 countries (US, UK, CA, AU) have highest CPMs globally.
Asia-Pacific digital ad spend growing 14–18% YoY.

Retail Media

Retail media now represents ~15% of all digital spend.
Amazon Ads growth: 20–25% YoY.
Retail media ROAS typically 4–8×.

CTV

CTV households now exceed cable households in most global markets.
CTV ad recall can be 30–60% higher than traditional TV.

Strategic Performance Insights

Multi-channel campaigns outperform single-channel by 23–45%.
Frequency cap sweet spot: 4–10 impressions per user per week.
50% of media waste comes from over-targeting frequency.
Creative testing increases ROAS 18–45%.
Landing page speed impacts CPA by 10–50%.
Matching creative to audience mindset increases CTR 30–80%.
Broad targeting works best when using strong creative + conversion API.
Always-on campaigns outperform on–off by 5–18% in ROAS stability.
Dayparting improves ROAS for service-based businesses.
Seasonal audiences can increase CPA by 15–60% without planning.
Brands with consistent messaging across channels see 2–3× revenue impact over fragmented media.

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About the author, Bill Nash

Bill Nash is the CMO of Marketing LTB with over a decade of experience, he has driven growth for Fortune 500 companies and startups through data-driven campaigns and advanced marketing technologies. He has written over 400 pieces of content about marketing, covering topics like marketing tips, guides, AI in advertising, advanced PPC strategies, conversion optimization, and others.