Digital political ad spending broke records in the 2020 election cycle. Grace Briscoe, senior vice president of candidates and causes at programmatic media firm Centro, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss what, when, and where political advertisers bought digital ads last year, how much attention they paid to connected TV (CTV), and why they love digital video ads so much.

Increased political ad spending contributed to a banner year for connected TV.

During a year where investments in most advertising channels shrunk or stalled, connected TV ad spending is poised to keep growing.

The upcoming US election will determine the direction for technology policies that will have a profound impact for marketers. This report will lay out scenarios for what marketers can expect in several key policy areas in 2021 and beyond.

The consumption of at-home media and entertainment thrived amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the total shutdown of live events and the pause on film and TV production will cause digital ad spending to decline in 2020.

Digital ad spending in the US healthcare and pharmaceutical industry will grow by 14.2% to reach $9.53 billion in 2020. Growth is being fueled by ads related to COVID-19, including public service announcements, medical supplies and telemedicine.

The pandemic has caused the US automotive industry to reduce its digital ad spending by 18.2% in 2020. As car sales plummeted, dealerships closed, and manufacturing slowed, marketers backed off from performance initiatives and focused on branding efforts.

In a difficult year for digital advertising overall, US travel industry spending will decline faster than any other vertical. It will bring up the rear in total spending and claim the smallest market share of all industries we cover.

The CPG industry will increase its investments in digital advertising this year as strong sales of essential goods and personal care products—particularly on ecommerce platforms—gave advertisers reasons to keep spending during the pandemic.

Digital ad spend by telecom and by computing products and consumer electronics companies will outperform industry averages in 2020. In a difficult year for digital ad spending, they will be two of only three industries to maintain double-digit growth.

In a difficult year for retail sales overall, the US retail industry will remain the largest spender on digital advertising among all verticals, despite a huge deceleration in growth.

The financial services sector will continue to increase its investments in digital advertising this year despite the pandemic. Shifting consumer behavior toward digital banking services and heightened interest in personal finance has given financial services companies good reasons to continue advertising.

Display ad spending in the US will rise by 5.5% this year, despite the pandemic. This report outlines our complete estimates of digital display ad spending, including breakouts by format, transaction method, industry, major ad sellers and more.

2020 has shaped up to be an unusual presidential election year, to say the least. Grace Briscoe, vice president of Candidates + Causes at Centro, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss how political advertisers are leaning on connected TV, audience targeting, Facebook and more as they work on fundraising and getting out the vote.

Programmatic advertising will account for 83.5% of all US digital display ad dollars, or $57.30 billion, this year. Growth in social, connected TV and over-the-top (OTT) advertising will drive programmatic display to almost $80 billion by 2021.

Healthcare and pharma ad spend is growing at a similar pace to other verticals, but FDA regulations and strict privacy laws restrict overall budgets.

Growth in political ad spending is expected to slow dramatically during the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to Kantar Media, which predicts political campaigns for US federal office will spend $6 billion on paid media placements this year. But a greater share than ever will be directed toward digital channels.

How will advertising on Facebook evolve at a time when regulators are circling, advertisers are getting restless and consumer attitudes are sliding? This report, informed by extensive conversations with dozens of brand and agency executives, details our expectations over the next 24 months.

US advertisers are committing more dollars upfront for linear TV and digital video, however the percentage of digital video ads being sold programmatically continues to increase.

Connected TV inventory is growing like weeds. We expect that more than half of the US population (57.2%) will watch connected TV in 2019, up from 51.7% in 2017. And the time they spend watching will increase too, which means the amount of connected TV inventory available to advertisers is proliferating.