Marketers are looking to the new year with hopes of increased advertising budgets, a continued shift toward digital channels and advanced experimentation in marketing measurement, according to the findings of a new survey released by WARC this week.
The survey, “Voice of the Marketer 2025,” weighed answers from 1,000 marketing professionals on their optimism and expectations for 2025.
Two out of three marketing professionals say they expect business to improve in 2025, though most said that will depend on economic conditions. One-third said they believe marketing budgets to increase — slightly lower than the 41 percent of professionals who said the same last year — but 44 percent said they believe marketing budgets will be relatively stable from this year into next year.
Currently, online advertising accounts for slightly more than 58 percent of total marketing spend, while legacy platforms like traditional TV and radio account for just 25 percent of spending, WARC said. As with last year’s projection, marketers surveyed this year said they believe investments in online video and social media will increase in 2025.
In November, a separate WARC survey said global advertising spend is on track to grow by nearly 11 percent this year, with the total amount spent exceeding $1 trillion. Much of that spending was against online media, including social media and connected TV platforms.
“Our latest forecast anticipates $104 billion in incremental advertising spend worldwide this year, the largest rise in history if the post-pandemic recovery year of 2021 were discounted,” James McDonald, the Director of Data, Intelligence and Forecasting at WARC, said in a statement.
“Whether this boom will sustain remains unclear, however, as 2025 presents a ‘sliding doors’ moment due to heightened regulatory pressures on Google and TikTok — together a quarter of the ad market outside of China,” McDonald continued. “This, alongside an increasingly challenging geopolitical climate, may spell uncertain times ahead for the businesses that rely on advertising trade”
The Voice of the Marketer report is available to WARC members and can be downloaded or read by clicking or tapping here.
