India to witness 9.5 percent growth in ad revenue in 2024; India's total ad revenue in 2024 projected to be $18.5 billion

GroupM’s 2024 global midyear report revealed that global advertising revenue is estimated to grow 7.8 percent in 2024 to $989.8 billion. The report also revealed that the ad industry will surpass one trillion dollars in revenue in 2025. This is a 6.8 percent increase to $1.1 trillion, one year earlier than forecasted by GroupM in December 2023.

The report mentioned that USA and China are the largest drivers of growth accounting for 57.1 percent of global ad revenue, adding $44.5 billion to their totals in 2024 (excluding U.S. political spending) — nearly 1.5 times the cumulative $27.4 billion in incremental revenue for all other markets combined.

USA and China together are also home to 22 of the top 25 global media sellers and account for more than 40 percent of global GDP.

India is one the the top 10 global markets and is estimated to witness 9.5 percent growth in 2024. India’s total ad revenue for 2024 is projected to be $18.5 billion. Growth in 2025 is expected to be around 8.7 percent.

India’s political advertising contributes an estimated 0.9 percent to total ad revenue.

“The marketing ecosystem over the next few years will face potential impacts from governments and regulatory bodies across the world — impacts that have the potential to upend forecasts and alter even the most sound projections. On top of that, such projections can be skewed by two major players, China and the U.S. Their governments and their major companies have the power to shape vast aspects of the global economy,” the report said.

Additionally, “artificial intelligence also has the potential to reshape the industry — as do regulations put in place to guide (or control) its growth. Those regulations, of course, depend on politicians, which in turn are determined by upcoming election cycles,” revealed the report.

Digital pure-play advertising (excluding the digital extensions of TV, audio, print, and OOH) is expected to grow 10 percent in 2024 and will make up 70.6 percent of total revenue for the year, equaling $699 billion.

GroupM expects search advertising revenue to grow 5.3 percent in 2024 and increase to 6.3 percent in 2025. Search will account for 20.9 percent of total ad revenue. GroupM believes that this number will remain stable for the next five years.

Retail media remains the fastest growing segment of digital, forecast to add 17.5 percent in 2024 and 13.5 percent in 2025 as retailers seek to capitalize on their customer data sets and advertisers are lured by the promise of closed-loop attribution and the ability to more closely tie media to sales, the report mentioned.

As per the report, audio advertising is forecast to hit $27.0 billion in global revenue for 2024, up 0.8 percent over 2023. Growth will remain around 1 percent over the next three years, driven by increases in digital audio. This will add nearly three billion dollars from an expected $7.9 billion in 2024 to $10.6 billion in 2029.

The report also reveals that total TV, including both linear or traditional TV and CTV is expected to grow 2.7 percent to $163.2 billion in 2024, following a decline of 0.4 percent in 2023.

In 2024, OOH advertising is expected to reach $49.7 billion, 41 percent ($20.4 billion) of which will be digital OOH. “This represents an 11.5 percent increase over 2023 for total OOH. China alone will represent more than half of global DOOH revenue (54.6 percent) in 2024.”

In 2024, total newspaper ad revenue will decline 2.2 percent globally to $31.2 billion with a further 1 percent decline in 2025. Magazines will account for $17.5 billion of global ad revenue in 2024, a 1.8 percent share. Revenue is down 4.4 percent from 2023 and is excepted to further decline 4.7 percent in 2025.

Cinema ad revenue is expected to reduce significantly from the 13.3 percent growth of 2023 to 7.1 percent in 2024, reaching a total of $2.3 billion globally. “Growth is forecast to continue decelerating through 2029 when the channel will still not have surpassed the levels of a decade earlier,” said the report.

"With increased globalization - of financial systems, commerce, and media - can come a level of resilience as interconnected systems such as coral reefs tend to be very adept at recovering from multitudinous small shocks. Innovation, the exchange of ideas, and a shared goal to make the advertising industry work better for everyone will help ensure a bright future," the report mentioned.