WPP Media is projecting global advertising to grow by 6.0% in 2025 — a downward revision from the 7.7% growth forecast made in December 2024 by WPP Media. The adjustment reflects ongoing global trade and deglobalization pressures that continue to dampen advertising investment.
Total global ad revenue is expected to reach $1.08 trillion in 2025, with a 6.1% growth rate forecast for 2026. WPP Media now estimates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% from 2025 to 2030, down from its earlier projection of 6.4% for the 2024–2029 period.
All major advertising markets are expected to grow in 2025, led by strong showings in Brazil (11.9%) and India (8.4%).
The U.S. remains the largest advertising market, forecast to grow 5.6% to $404.7 billion, followed by China at $221.6 billion (6.8%) and the UK at $55.0 billion (6.5%).
Key Highlights:
- Digital advertising continues to dominate, with pure-play digital expected to account for 73.2% of global ad revenue in 2025 — rising to 81.6% when including digital extensions such as streaming TV, DOOH, and digital print.
- Retail media remains one of the fastest-growing segments, projected to reach $169.6 billion globally in 2025 and grow to $252.1 billion by 2030, making up 18% of all ad revenue by decade’s end.
- User-generated content: In 2025, more than half of content-driven advertising revenue will come from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Kuaishou, and Instagram Reels. Creator-generated revenue will hit $184.9 billion this year, up 20% from 2024, and is expected to more than double to $376.6 billion by 2030 (including both advertising and brand deals). It was noted that some UGC platforms include professionally produced content and vice versa, and that the stats exclude China-based companies and revenue, but do include TikTok.
- TV (including streaming) is projected to grow modestly — up 0.9% to $162.5 billion in 2025, with streaming TV alone contributing $41.8 billion and expected to grow rapidly to $71.9 billion by 2030.
- Out-of-home (OOH) advertising remains stable, with digital OOH (DOOH) comprising 41% of the $52 billion OOH market in 2025.
- Print advertising continues its decline, forecast to fall -3.1% in 2025 to $45.5 billion.
- Audio advertising remains flat at $26.5 billion, as growth in streaming is offset by a -1.7% decline in terrestrial formats.
- Search (Intelligence) revenue is expected to grow 7.4% to $226.2 billion in 2025.
The report introduces a new framework that classifies advertising into four key categories: Content, Commerce, Location, and Intelligence, offering a more nuanced lens on where investment is headed. The report also breaks out revenue share between large brand advertisers and all other advertisers, as well as by category (e.g., CPG, Auto).
