Dentsu’s latest Global Ad Spend Forecasts reveal a projected 4.9% growth in global advertising spend for 2025, reaching $992 billion, despite a reduced economic outlook. The possible impact of tariffs on ad spend indicates a -1.9% impact on global traditional/extension ad spend but a 0.9% positive impact on digital spend.
The pace of growth in 2025 is forecast to be slower than the 6.7% we observed in 2024 – a strong year boosted by the quadrennial events (e.g., Paris Olympics, US Presidential elections).
Growth is being driven by innovation in the marketplace and digital ad spend growth. As previously predicted, the fastest growing markets are expected to be India, Brazil and the UK. Also, the Benelux advertising market continues to grow with an expected growth of at least 5%. Traditional advertising revenues remain stable, but digital, with social media (+8%) being the fastest growing category.
This trend is visible globally as well. Digital ad spend worldwide is forecast to grow by 7.9% in 2025, reaching US$678.7 billion and accounting for a 68.4% share of spend. Within digital, 2025 will see Retail Media spend is set to grow by 13.9%, Paid Social by 9.2%, and Paid Search by 8.3%. Algorithm-based precision advertising remains a strong trend, with a predicted 78.1% of ad spend forecast to be algorithm-driven by 2027.
Additional growth is coming from advertising on SVOD platforms, as subscription numbers continue to rise. CTV ad spend is forecast to grow by 10.9% whilst total TV spend, including broadcast TV, is expected to decline by -1.8%. We also see the same trend in the Benelux. In the Benelux region, the streaming video market is quite dynamic with the introduction of ad-supported subscriptions by major players including Prime Video (NL in 2025, BE will probably follow in 2026), HBO Max, Disney+ and SkyShowtime.
OOH continues to be an area of growth with price inflation, e.g., from rate resets on DOOH formats. Global traditional OOH ad spend is forecast to grow by 2.0% and DOOH ad spend by 4.2%. In the Netherlands, this growth in DOOH is actually even stronger thanks to strong investments in digitalisation in our markets and the possibility of programmatic advertising.
Overall, traditional ad spend is forecast to decline by -3.8% but maintain a 22.1% share of spend. Meanwhile, the digital extension of traditional media is showing positive growth at 6.6% but still accounts for a relatively small share of measured spend at 8.6%.
By industry sector, Telecommunication and Cosmetics & Personal Care are forecast to be the fastest growing sectors in 2025, whilst Government, Social, Political, and Organisation spend declines following multiple elections in 2024. In the Netherlands, Retail, followed by Media & Entertainment and Telecom, remain the largest sectors in terms of advertising spending.