A recent report from the IAB shows that the overall digital ad revenue has gone up by 21% in the US for 2017. This brings the total ad revenue to an impressive $88 billion. 57% of that growth comes from mobile, which grew 36% itself over the course of the year.
While this growth is obviously a good thing, some people are concerned that the vast majority of the growth is coming from just a small number of companies. 74% of all ad revenue is going to just ten companies. The growth over the course of 2017 was dominated once again by Google and Facebook.
These two companies are now controlling over 70% of the total gross US digital ad market. Having this much of a market in the hands of just two companies exposes all marketers to some level of risk. Google and Facebook can easily manipulate the prices, if they choose, or work to push out specific industries that they don’t want to participate in effective marketing.
The dominance of Facebook and Google is not inevitable either. Marketers have more options than ever when it comes to buying highly targeted, great quality advertising. Of course, Google and Facebook are the easiest options at the moment, and will get people in front of the largest audiences, which is very attractive.
Leaving the big two platforms behind doesn’t make sense in most cases, but marketers would be wise to try to diversify a little bit to hopefully spread out the power in this industry before it becomes too difficult.
