EMarketer: Social video ad spending will surge 44% by 2021

Brief:

Spending on social video ads will grow 44% from this year to reach $14.9 billion by 2021 as brands aim to reach younger audiences who spend time on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Social video will make up 30% of total video spending by 2021, according to a forecast from researcher eMarketer.
Facebook and YouTube are the dominant companies in video ad spending, although eMarketer doesn't include YouTube in its forecast for social video. Twitter's U.S. video ad revenue will exceed $1 billion in 2021, ahead of Snapchat's $727.4 million. The researcher forecast that overall video ad spending will surge 62.1% from 2019 to 2023.
YouTube is the most popular platform for digital video, with 90% of U.S. viewers over the age of 15 saying they watch videos on the Google-owned platform. That's ahead of Facebook (60%), Instagram (35%), Twitter (21%) and Snapchat (18%). It also exceeds traditional outlets such as CNN, Fox News, BBC, MSNBC and The New York Times (8%), per data from AudienceProject.

Insight:

EMarketer's forecast for social video growth indicates that brands will devote more of their ad budgets to mobile and social streaming platforms that reach young adults and teens who continue to abandon traditional TV at rapid rates. "Video has taken center stage on social platforms that were once text- or photo-centric — including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, even Pinterest," Paul Verna, eMarketer's principal analyst, said in the report. Brand messages are potentially amplified when younger viewers share video clips on social media, further extending the campaign's reach, he said.

Video viewing influences consumer purchasing behavior, with 76% of adults in the U.S., U.K. and Australia saying they've purchased a product after viewing a video, according to a study from Brightcove cited by eMarketer. Two-thirds (66%) of millennials engaged with a brand after watching a video on social media, the survey found, demonstrating the potential advertising power of social videos.

EMarketer's latest social video forecast comes as digital media platforms prepare for next month's NewFronts sales presentations in New York. YouTube, Ellen Digital Network, Walmart's Vudu and Verizon Media are among the media companies that will showcase their advertising opportunities for brands and their ad agencies.

Younger U.S. adults and teens have made a dramatic shift in their viewing to digital media and away from traditional TV. Millennials and Gen Zers spend 54% of video time a day on social apps, with YouTube making up 25% of that viewing, per a separate study from VidMob cited by eMarketer. Meanwhile, TV viewing time among 18- to 34-year-olds fell 12% in Q2 2018 from a year earlier, according to a Marketing Charts analysis of the most recently available Nielsen data. Teen viewership of TV dropped by 13% in Q2 2018 from the prior year and by 51% from Q2 2013 as mobile apps became more popular among the demographic group.

Despite the shift in viewing habits, TV is still the primary driver of audience reach in cross-platform ad campaigns, according to Nielsen. The average number of TV impressions was eight times greater than impressions from digital campaigns targeting U.S. adults ages 18 to 49, the researcher found. By combining TV and digital tactics, advertisers can achieve the greatest effect in audience reach, as just 12% of the 18-49 demographic was reachable solely by a campaign's digital component, Nielsen found.