Google and Facebook now one fifth of global advertising as online overtakes TV as the world’s larges

According to data and analysis Zenith, Google and Facebook attracted 20% of global advertising spending in 2016, up from the 16.3% in 2015 and almost double the 10.2% it attracted in 2012.

The two companies earned a combined $106.3 billion. Google is the biggest media owner in the world by far and attracted $79.4 billion compared to Facebook’s $26.9 billion. While Google’s advertising revenue of the 2 companies is still 75% of the total compared to Facebook’s 25%, Facebook are putting in a lot of work on the targeting and functionality of their advertising platform and are gaining ground compared to last year. In 2015, the total for the 2 companies was $84.5 billion with Google taking $67.4 billion (80%) in ad revenue and Facebook $17.1 billion (20%). This 5% gain on Google from Facebook in just 1 year is massive, and worth watching over the next few years.

There are 5 other pure internet media owners in the top 30: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon & Twitter. Between the 7 companies they generated $132.8 billion of internet ad revenue in 2016, which accounted for almost 75% of all online advertising spend and unbelievably, nearly 25% of all advertising spend. Twitter also is the fastest growing media owner, increasing its ad revenue by 734% between 2012 and 2016.

Jonathan Barnard, the head of forecasting at Zenith, said: “Zenith’s new ranking demonstrates just how much the internet advertising platforms are setting the pace for global ad spend growth. Google and Facebook alone have accounted for almost two-thirds of global ad spend growth since 2012.”

The reason Google and Facebook (and the other internet companies) are growing so much is because online advertising is working for so many people. Get in touch to find out how it can work for you.