BIA: Businesses To Spend More On Digital

Despite a few big brand marketers stating they are reevaluating their digital ad spending, it doesn’t seem to be stopping the flow of dollars to digital in any way. According to new data released by BIA/Kelsey, small and medium-sized businesses plan to spend 62.2% of their ad budget on some form of digital in 2018 — that’s up six percent over 2015. While many of these businesses indicated they do not plan to increase their overall budget, they do plan to spend more on digital and mobile.

BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor, which was completed in the third quarter of 2017, showed that 85 percent of Plus Spender advertisers (over $25,000 per year) are already using some form of mobile advertising, and they intend to increase that usage next year by focusing on areas such as mobile search, mobile websites, and mobile display.

“For the first time in two years, advertisers we classify as ‘plus spenders,’ are not planning to increase their ad spend in 2018,” said Celine Matthiessen, VP Analytics and Insights, BIA/Kelsey. “Instead, they are increasing their use of lower cost digital media to maintain spend.” The reason they give for using all these digital products is targetability.

For 2018, sponsorship/giveaway and mobile channels are both projected to increase in usage while broadcast and cable will show the biggest declines.

Matthiessen said, “Over 85 percent of Plus Spender advertisers indicated they are already using some form of mobile advertising, and they intend to increase that usage next year by focusing on areas such as mobile search, mobile websites, and mobile display.”