Even though TV ad spending in Germany still trends upward, its share of total media ad spending is shrinking, as digital takes a larger share of the pie.
Last year TV ad spending dropped below one-quarter of total ad spending, according to eMarketer’s latest European ad spending forecast. Its share will keep dropping through 2022.
This year, total media ad spending in Germany will climb to $21.13 billion (€18.74 billion), with TV taking a 24.8 per cent share or $5.24 billion (€4.65 billion), down slightly from its peak in 2016 of 25.0 per cent. TV’s share of total ad spending in Germany is shrinking largely because digital’s share is increasing.
This year, digital ad spending will grow 5.5 per cent to $6.74 billion (€5.96 billion). That equates to nearly 32 per cent of total ad spending in Germany, compared with 30.6 per cent last year. All of the preceding figures have been revised higher since eMarketer’s Q1 forecast due to strong digital growth, driven largely by Google and Facebook. By 2020, digital ad spending is expected to surpass one third of all ad spending in Germany.
Much of digital’s growth, not surprisingly, comes from mobile. This year, mobile will make up more than half (52.7 per cent) of all digital ad spending in Germany, equating to $3.55 billion (€3.15 billion). Smartphone adoption is a key driver; it will reach two thirds of the population this year, putting Germany on par with the US and UK.
“Several other factors are also driving mobile ad spending in Germany,” eMarketer principal analyst Karin von Abrams said. “For example, time spent on mobile devices is rising sharply, with the internet accounting for most of that time, as consumers keep up with news, monitor travel updates, shop, and check in to social networks. In addition, we’ve seen several key industries in Germany, notably retail and automotive, raise their investment in mobile ads in 2017, and we expect that to continue.”
