Add IPG Mediabrands’ MAGNA to the pack of numbers crunchers who have reviewed 2024 advertising revenues and have issued reports showing a most-robust domestic marketplace.
How good was this year for U.S. media, inclusive of digital and social outlets? The non-cyclical growth rate was the best seen since 1999 when one excludes the post-pandemic rebound of 2021.
U.S. media owners advertising revenues rose by 12.4% in 2024, to $380 billion.
Of that, $10 billion came from cyclical events, namely the 2024 election cycle. MAGNA says $9.2 billion of additional ad sales for local TV, digital media and direct mail were attributed to the presidential election cycle. Meanwhile, Spanish-language television in the U.S. benefited from some $60 million associated with the Copa América soccer tournament.
Neutralizing these cyclical dollars, MAGNA finds that the U.S. ad market still would have grown by 9.9%.
What attributed to the stellar performance? “It was caused by a combination of digital media strength and traditional media resilience,” MAGNA says.
With the U.S. not only the largest ad market in the world but also “the most intense,” the 2024 U.S. ratio reached $1,129 — meaning advertisers collectively spend more than $1,000 to reach each U.S. consumer in 2024. That’s seven times the global average, MAGNA finds.
MAGNA also finds that 2024 was a year in which cross-platform national television ad sales stabilized. Translation: non-linear ad sales growth (mostly ad-supported streaming video) “finally offset the long-term erosion” of linear ad sales (broadcast and cable networks).
In 2024 sales were down only 1.2%, compared to 4.3%.
And while linear sales dropped by 6.2%, ad-supported streaming sales rose by 19.5%.
