Media

Ad spending on digital will surpass TV by the end of 2016, says report

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U.S. marketers will be putting more spending more money on digital advertising than television by the end of 2016, according to a new report by eMarketer.

The market research firm predicts that by the end of this year, U.S. digital ad spending will hit $72.09 billion, about 37 percent of total ad spend. It projected that TV ad spend will come in at $71.29 billion, just 36.4 percent of the budget.

Initially, eMarketer said digital would overtake current leader TV in March 2017. It advanced their prediction to the end of this year because of the growth of mobile and online video advertising.

When it comes to mobile, eMarketer said Google is the current leader, with $14.7 billion in sales by the end of the year or 32 percent of total mobile ad sales. Facebook trails in second place at 22.1 percent or $10.15 billion. The social media network's strong Q2 was thanks mostly to its growth in mobile advertising, but if projections are true, it seems there would still be more room for the company to expand.

However, Facebook is the current leader in the largest category: display or desktop advertising. EMarketer reports that Facebook will account for $11.93 billion of display ad sales this year, or 34.5 percent of the total display ad spend. For comparison, next up Google only makes $4.79 in display ad sales, or 13.8 percent of the market. EMarketer said display advertising will remain the top digital category through 2020.