Sports, Live Streaming Events, and Programmatic Ad Tools Fuel CTV Growth
NEW YORK, April 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A resurgence in live events and sports programming on streaming platforms, coupled with the expansion of self-serve and programmatic ad tools, helped CTV rebound with 16% year-over-year (YoY) growth in 2024, according to IAB’s “2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report: Part One.”
Now in its twelfth year, the report, developed in partnership with Advertiser Perceptions and Guideline, provides a comprehensive snapshot of the U.S. digital video marketplace across CTV, social video, and online video, surfacing how and where ad dollars are flowing and why.
“2024 was a pivotal year for digital video advertising. With high-quality content moving to streaming, advancements in advertising technology, and an influx of new inventory accelerated growth for both consumers and advertisers,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “CTV is making it clear it’s a go-to channel for both viewers and advertisers and is expected to continue growing along with social video and online video.”
Digital Video Is Pulling Further Ahead of Linear TV, Solidifying Its Dominance
This year’s findings underscore a clear shift in momentum as digital video is expected to capture nearly 60% of total TV/video ad spend in 2025, double its share from just five years ago. This growth builds on a major turning point in 2024, when it surpassed linear TV for the first time. Digital video ad spend rose 18% in 2024 to $64 billion and is projected to grow another 14% in 2025, reaching $72 billion—two to three times faster than total media overall.
“The video industry continues its transformative shift towards streaming driven by content, creators, technology, and improved measurement. However, it is important to acknowledge that ongoing economic uncertainty, including tariffs, geopolitical conflicts, and changing consumer confidence, the marketplace in 2025 is more difficult to predict than ever before,” added Cohen.
All three types of digital video, CTV, social video, and online video, are driving the overall channel’s trajectory, with each posting double-digit growth.
| Digital Video Category | Ad Spend in 2023 | Ad Spend in 2024 | YoY Growth (2024 vs. 2023) | Projected Ad Spend in 2025 |
| CTV | $20.3B | $23.6B | 16 % | $26.6B |
| Social Video | $19.5B | $23.7B | 21 % | $27.2B |
| Online Video | $14.2B | $16.6B | 17 % | $18.6B |
“CTV and social video are core pillars of a brand’s comprehensive and integrated media strategy,” said Chris Bruderle, VP, Industry Insights & Content Strategy, IAB. “Consumer attention has already moved to these platforms, and advertisers are meeting them there – not just for the scale, but for the ability to precisely target, measure performance across devices, and drive real business outcomes. These channels are now foundational to any effective media strategy.”
CPG, Retail, and Pharma Drive Digital Video Ad Spend Growth Through 2025
As the digital video marketplace continues to grow, more categories are ramping up their ad spend to connect with consumers where they watch content the most. In 2025, most major categories are set to increase digital video ad budgets by double-digits with CPG (13%), retail (18%), and pharma (19%) leading the way. These categories are capitalizing on advanced targeting, including AI-driven personalization, real-time insights, and shoppable ad formats to drive deeper engagement and more immediate consumer action.
Programmatic Self-Serve Tools are Reshaping the CTV Ad Landscape for SMBs
CTV is no longer just for brands with big budgets–following the rise of programmatic self-serve tools, small and mid-size businesses are stepping into the spotlight. In 2025, most of the dollars flowing into CTV are coming from reallocations—primarily from linear TV (36%), social media (36%), and other digital channels like online video, paid search, and display. This shift reflects growing confidence in CTV’s ability to deliver targeted, high-impact campaigns, now made even more accessible through programmatic and self-serve tools.
Cohen concluded, “The combination of self-service technology, accessible pricing, and the ability to link spend to outcomes has empowered small and mid-size businesses to get a piece of the CTV pie, making it easier and effective to promote, reach, and engage with audiences.”
The IAB “2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report: Part One“ report can be accessed here. Part two of the report, which will be released on July 14th during the IAB Media Center’s Video Leadership Summit, will focus on strategies behind these growth rates.
About IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership comprises more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and collaboration of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.
About Advertiser Perceptions
Advertiser Perceptions is the leader in providing research-based strategic market intelligence to the complex and dynamic media, advertising, and ad tech industries. Our curated, proprietary Ad PROS™ Network and deep relationships with the largest advertisers provide clients with an unbiased view of the market, their brand, and the competition. Our experts provide timely and actionable guidance enabling clients to improve their products and services, strengthen their brands, and drive more revenue. The largest, most innovative global media and ad technology businesses rely on Advertiser Perceptions.
About Guideline
Our mission is to redefine the future of the world buys and sells media.
We combined the leading media planning and data companies to create the world’s most trusted set of solutions to help shape mission-critical advertising decisions. Though we already provide guidance to the world’s leading brands, agencies, and media owners; we are just getting started.
We are busy innovating, expanding existing capabilities, and leveraging AI to offer automated, intelligent solutions to age-old industry processes.
As the industry leader, 25 out of the world’s 30 largest brands and 9 of the top 10 most valuable global media owners rely on our solutions. Guideline provides critical data to the largest media measurement companies, demand-side platforms, and institutional investors. We partner with all six of the biggest agency holding companies, as well as several of the largest independents, analyzing over $150 billion in annual media spend globally.
SOURCE Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)