Global advertising spend has crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2025, reflecting continued growth ahead of the broader economy, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. Digital advertising has accounted for 70–75% of total spend, reaching an estimated $740–780 billion.
The report has highlighted that digital ad growth has outpaced global GDP by 3–5 times, signalling a structural shift in how brands allocate budgets. Mobile has emerged as the dominant channel, contributing over 65% of digital ad spend.
Consumer internet usage has remained high, with users spending an average of 6.5 hours per day online across more than 30 apps and multiple devices. However, attention has become increasingly fragmented, making targeted advertising more critical than broad reach.
Programmatic advertising has accounted for over 80% of digital ad spend, becoming the default infrastructure for buying and selling ads. The report has noted that publishers typically receive 45–55% of advertiser spending, while the rest is distributed across intermediaries such as demand-side and supply-side platforms.
Large technology platforms, often referred to as walled gardens, have captured 70–80% of programmatic advertising spend, leveraging their closed ecosystems and first-party data advantages. In contrast, the open internet ecosystem has accounted for only 20–30% of spend despite higher user time share.
Geographically, the United States has held the largest share of global digital ad spend at around 46%, followed by China at approximately 24%. Emerging markets, including India, have remained smaller in share but are expected to grow at a faster pace of 10–15% CAGR.
The report has also pointed to three key forces shaping the future of advertising: privacy-led changes in targeting, increasing adoption of AI in campaign execution, and widening gaps between advanced and lagging players.
Advertising has continued to function as a core monetisation engine for digital platforms and a key driver of consumer discovery, particularly across social media and mobile-first environments.
