Leading National Advertisers 2024—modest spending growth (with some surprises)

Ad Age’s final tally on 2023 U.S. ad spending shows a modest uptick in spending for the Leading National Advertisers. The top 200 U.S. advertisers increased their spending on advertising and marketing services by 2.5% in 2023, reaching a record $213 billion, according to Ad Age’s 69th annual report on marketers and marketing. Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 U.S. ad spending, rankings, analysis and profiles for the biggest marketers Click here What’s up (and down) with the top 200 spenders Among the nation’s top 200 advertisers, 122 increased U.S. spending in 2023. The remaining 78 advertisers cut spending. Median U.S. spending growth—the midpoint growth rate—for the 200 advertisers in 2023 was 4.1%. Among the top 100 advertisers—the true blue chips of brands and budgets—62 boosted spending. Exclusive content for Ad Age All Access subscribers: See ranking of 200 biggest U.S. advertisers, downloadable in Excel How ad spending tracks with agency revenue Overall spending growth of 2.5% was far below the outsized ad spending gains for the top 200 of 8.0% in 2022 and 19.7% in 2021, when the ad market was rebounding from the pandemic-induced downturn in 2020. The slim spending increase in 2023 mirrored a deceleration in revenue growth at agency holding companies. Average U.S. organic growth for the four biggest agency holding companies—WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group of Cos.—was 0.9% in 2023, down from 8.0% in 2022. Organic growth strips out acquisitions, divestitures and the effects of exchange rates. Organic growth for WPP, Publicis and Interpublic is based on net revenue. Organic growth for Omnicom is based on revenue. The correlation between major marketers’ spending growth and holding company revenue growth isn’t surprising—big advertisers pay the bills at agencies. Omnicom has more than 5,000 clients worldwide, but its 100 largest clients last year accounted for about 55% of revenue. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here 10 key stats Ad Age Leading National Advertisers +2.5% Top 200’s 2023 total U.S. ad spending growth Ad Age Leading National Advertisers +4.1% Median U.S. ad spending increase in 2023 for top 200 advertisers Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 122 Number of top 200 that increased ad spending in 2023 PDD Holdings (Pinduoduo, Temu) +2,008% Highest 2023 U.S. ad spending growth among top 200, with spending of $1.2 billion in 2023 LendingTree -40% Sharpest 2023 U.S. spending drop among top 200 Billion-dollar spenders 56 Marketers with 2023 total U.S. ad spending greater than $1 billion Amazon $13.3 billion Biggest U.S. advertiser. 2023 estimated ad and promotion spending U.S. HQ 148 Number of nation’s top 200 advertisers with headquarters in U.S. NYC HQ 19 Number of nation’s top 200 advertisers with headquarters in Manhattan (18) or Brooklyn (1, Etsy) SFO HQ 21 Number of nation’s top 200 advertisers with headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area, including 11 in San Francisco, eight in Silicon Valley and two in Oakland Marketing’s big 10 Ad Age Datacenter ranked Amazon as the nation’s top advertiser for the fifth consecutive year. Amazon’s estimated U.S. ad and promotion spending came in at $13.3 billion in 2023, down about 1%. The retailer’s scale is remarkable, with estimated U.S. spending surpassing the combined estimated spending of Comcast Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co., the second- and third-largest U.S. advertisers. The top of the list—the 10 biggest U.S. advertisers in 2023—is little changed from the 2022 ranking, with the same 10 marketers returning in a slightly different order. The top six positions are unchanged. Companies in rank numbers seven to 10 moved up or down one slot. Exclusive content for Ad Age All Access subscribers: Profiles of top 50 U.S. advertisers, linked from ranked table of the top 50 Internet ventures tighten budgets The ranking of the top 200 U.S. advertisers includes 33 internet-centric companies ranging from Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to Wayfair, the online retailer of furniture and home goods. Combined U.S. spending for these internet-centric marketers edged up just 0.3% in 2023, coming in below the 3.0% increase for the remaining 167 marketers. Median spending slipped 1.3% for the internet plays, vs. 4.9% median growth for the other companies. Tighter budgets at internet firms mark a turnabout from recent years, when spending growth in Leading National Advertisers reports for internet-centric ventures far exceeded spending growth at other marketers. Budget shifts come as internet firms grapple with various issues including slowing revenue growth in maturing markets and challenges involving business disruption from artificial intelligence. Among the 33 internet-centric marketers, 16 increased spending and 17 cut spending, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s estimates. To be sure, some emerging internet ventures have opened up their budgets to build their brands. E-commerce play PDD Holdings has been spending like a billionaire to tout its Temu brand, including Super Bowl appearances in 2023 and 2024. PDD makes its Leading National Advertisers debut as the No. 46 U.S. advertiser in 2023. PDD’s U.S. measured-media spending surged to $1.2 billion in 2023 from just $57 million in 2022, according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics. PDD had the biggest U.S. spending increase by percentage (up 2,008%) and dollars (up more than $1.1 billion) among the top 200 advertisers. Three other internet ventures also make their Leading National Advertisers top 200 debut with big double-digit spending increases in 2023: Shein Group, a rival to PDD’s Temu; CoStar Group, whose brands include Apartments.com and Homes.com; and Hims & Hers Health, a health and wellness platform. Exclusive content for Ad Age All Access subscribers: Marketers with the biggest U.S. ad spending increases and decreases in 2023 CPG leads the way Ad Age Datacenter assigned each of the top 200 advertisers to a category based on the marketer’s primary advertised product or service. On that basis, aggregate U.S. ad spending for the Leading National Advertisers rose in 11 of Ad Age’s 16 categories in 2023. The place to be last year turned out to be consumer packaged goods. Three mainstay CPG categories—food and beverages (up 16.0%); personal care (13.9%); and household products (11.8%)—had the highest ad spending growth among Ad Age’s defined categories. CPG was propelled by stepped-up spending at marketers including Mondelēz International, Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Reckitt. The top 200 ranking includes 28 companies across those three categories. Estimated U.S. spending rose last year for 26 of the 28. Where spending fell Aggregate U.S. ad spending for the 200 Leading National Advertisers fell in five categories in 2023. Three categories saw upper single-digit spending decreases: -8.8% for entertainment and media companies; -6.7% for technology marketers; and -6.3% for apparel and footwear marketers. Two categories, toy marketing and financial services, saw small declines. Financial services is a massive category within the Leading National Advertisers, accounting for 31 firms that together had a spending drop of 0.7% in 2023. Among these financial marketers, 19 cut spending in 2023. LendingTree, which operates online financial services marketplaces, slashed ad and promotion spending 39.5%, the sharpest cut among the top 200. Travel moves at a slower pace Spending for the top 200 ranking’s nine travel marketers rose just 1.7% in 2023. That small increase followed big double-digit gains in 2022 and 2021. Travel was the fastest-growing ad category in those two years for the Leading National Advertisers in a rebound from 2020, when spending for travel firms in Ad Age’s report plunged 54% amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Links to Ad Age’s advertiser rankings Latest rankings: U.S. The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 ranking was published on Oct. 28, 2024. Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 U.S. ad spending, rankings, analysis and profiles for the biggest marketers Click here Past rankings: U.S. Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2023Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022 Latest rankings: worldwide The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2024 ranking will be published in December 2024. Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023 Ad spending, rankings and analysis for the top 100 advertisers Click here Past rankings: worldwide Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022 © Copyright 2024 Crain Communications Inc. 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Leading National Advertisers 2024—modest spending growth (with some surprises)

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