North American Ad Spend Fell by $13.6B in 2020

Advertising expenditures are closely related to the economic health of a given country or region, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With both North American and Latin American economies being hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 ad spend fell dramatically in both regions.

North American ad spend declined by 5.4% to $240.1B in 2020, as advertisers dramatically cut ad spend, particularly in the first half of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ad spend began to recover in the second half of 2020, setting up 2021 growth. By year-end 2021 ad spend will be up $7.8B, reaching $247.8B. Despite this growth, overall ad spend is not expected to recover fully until 2022.

Latin American ad spend declined by 13.8% to $25.1B in 2020. Traditional ad formats (e.g., TV, print, radio, OOH, cinema, etc.) were particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with ad spend down $4.4B YoY to $17.0B. Unlike North America, where digital ad formats account for the bulk of ad spend, in Latin America traditional ad formats accounted for 68% of ad spend in 2020. Television, which accounted for 78% of traditional ad spend in 2020, saw ad spend fall by $2.6B to $13.2B. TV ad spend will recover in 2021 growing by $856M in 2021 to reach $14.1B. Despite the growth, overall ad spend is not expected to fully recover until 2022.

This database provides in-depth history and forecasts of advertising expenditures for North America (U.S., Canada) and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and RoLATAM) for the 2010 – 2026 time period. Key metrics include ad spend for the following segments - Total, Traditional Media, TV, Digital, Display, Digital Video, Search, Classified, Social Media, Internet Radio (U.S. Only) and Podcasting (U.S. Only).