Digital surge powers APAC ad growth to $289 billion in 2024

Digital ad revenues have been the main driver of growth in the region. Search advertising remains the largest segment, accounting for $101 billion, which represents 46% of total digital ad budgets. Search advertising is significantly influenced by retail media platforms, particularly in China, where major players like Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Meituan all drive search revenue. Meanwhile, traditional search engines such as Google and Baidu are experiencing a resurgence globally, showing strong performance compared to recent data.

This year, revenue from digital properties represented 11% of traditional publisher revenues in Japan, 18% in China, 31% in Australia, and 5% in India. Traditional media owners in APAC continue to evolve their businesses to harness digital formats. Going forward, more of their revenues will come from digital sources.

Magna predicts that digital revenues will represent 82% of total budgets in 2029, up from 76% of total advertising revenues in 2024. Meanwhile, the share of total revenues that are represented by linear advertising formats will fall to just 18%.

“The APAC advertising market is thriving, growing by 7.5% in 2024 to reach $289 billion," said Leigh Terry, CEO IPG Mediabrands APAC. "This growth is fuelled by digital advertising, with search and social media leading the charge. While traditional media is seeing modest growth, digital pure players are driving the majority of the market share. The future is bright for digital advertising in APAC, with its share of total budgets projected to reach 82% by 2029. Despite some economic uncertainties, the overall market remains stable and poised for continued growth."

Global outlook

Media innovation is driving the global advertising market toward the trillion-dollar mark. According to Magna’s winter update, media owners' advertising revenues reached US$933 billion in 2024, reflecting a growth of 10%, consistent with mid-year projections. The US remains the largest market, generating $380 billion, followed by China at $155 billion.

This year, traditional media owners experienced their best performance in 14 years, with ad revenues growing by approximately 4% to reach $274 billion. This growth was primarily driven by a record number of cyclical events, including elections in the US, Mexico, and India, as well as major sporting events like the Summer Olympics and the UEFA Euro and Copa America competitions. Additionally, TMO's non-linear ad sales surged by 12%, with ad-supported streaming growing by 18%, now representing 25% of total TMO ad revenues.

Meanwhile, advertising sales from digital pure players rose by 13% to hit $659 billion. This increase was fuelled by growth in search and commerce ad formats (+12%), short-form video (+12%), and social media (+18%). The DPP sector benefited from various organic growth factors, including heightened competition in ecommerce—exemplified by companies like Temu and Shein targeting European consumers—the expansion of retail media networks (valued at $144 billion), advancements in AI targeting and placement algorithms, and improved monetisation of short vertical videos across social and video platforms.