BrazilMobile to make up over half of Latin America’s digital ad market this year
Though still a largely traditional ad market, with a heavy emphasis on traditional media spending, the mobile (smartphones, tablets) ad market is building up steam in Latin America. Market research consultancy eMarketer expects mobile ad spending to account for more than a quarter of the region’s total ad market by 2022, and over three-quarters of the digital ad market.
Latin America is currently the fourth largest ad market, accounting for 6.1% of the world ad spend, with a total regional value of $38.04 estimated for 2018. Brazil is the region’s biggest ad market at $17 billion, which makes it the sixth largest market in the world, ahead of both France and Australia.
Traditional media (TV in particular) still accounts for the largest share of ad spending in Latin America, amounting to $28.3 billion and a hefty 73.7% slice of the ad pie. As such, the region’s ad buying is still quite traditional when contrasted with the global average – 56.5%.
Unsurprisingly, then, digital’s share of the total ad spend in Latin America (26.3%) is much smaller than the global average (43.5%). However, as internet and smartphone penetration rises in the region and advertisers respond in kind, digital is expected to grow from $10 billion in 2018 to $14.76 billion in 2022 – representing one-third of the ad spend.
According to market research consultancy eMarketer, the mobile segment will account for more than half (52.9%) of digital ad spending in Latin America this year. According to eMarketer’s report, improved mobile internet access, less costly data plans, and rapid smartphone adoption in the region have been the key drivers in the growth of the mobile ad segment.
While the regional average will surpass 50% this year, the report expects mobile’s slice of digital ads to overtake the 50% mark in every country in Latin America by 2020.
This year, mobile’s total share of the entire ad market in Latin America will reach 13.9%, but it is expected to almost double to 25.8% by 2022.
eMarketer expects advertisers to shift their mindset to being ‘mobile-first’ as the segment increasingly grows its share of the region’s digital market. The report projects that mobile will command up to 77.5% of Latin America’s digital ad spending in 2022.
