Digital video advertising spend is set for significant growth in 2025
Digital video advertising is scaling up fast. According to the IAB’s latest forecast, marketers will push $72.4 billion into digital video in 2025. That’s a 14% jump from the $63.8 billion spent in 2024. This kind of acceleration reflects a deliberate shift in behavior across industries. Executives are diversifying ad budgets and responding to where attention actually lives today.
Digital video gives brands the flexibility to move quickly, reach highly specific audiences, and track engagement with precision. In practice, this means you can see what works, drop what doesn’t, and scale performance on the fly. Especially in volatile markets, that’s valuable.
More importantly, video is not a side tactic anymore; it’s a primary channel. It affects brand visibility, customer engagement, and bottom-line performance. The rise of short-form content, live-streamed events, and personalized video formats is changing how customers experience a brand. And that experience is quantifiable.
For C-suite leaders evaluating media strategy across global markets, this growth signals a need to rebalance investments toward platforms that move fast, adapt fast, and deliver value across every stage of the customer lifecycle. Don’t wait on this, it’s already happening.
Connected TV (CTV) is becoming a cornerstone of digital video strategies
In IAB’s latest report, 68% of marketers called CTV a “must-buy” in their media plans. That’s a recognition that CTV offers something fundamentally valuable: high-quality screen time, combined with the performance tracking and targeting precision of digital platforms.
CTV is on track for $26.6 billion in ad spend in 2025. That’s 13% more than last year, and it puts CTV 43% ahead of traditional online video. What’s driving this? Better programmatic tools, cleaner data, and more scalable inventory. With CTV, you now get the reach of traditional television, without the rigidity.
Executives should understand this shift as structural, not temporary. As linear TV continues to decline in influence, CTV is positioned to absorb its value. The strategic upside here is control. With real-time bidding, precise segmentation, and intelligent measurement, advertisers no longer operate on gut. They move based on results.
The CTV ecosystem is evolving quickly. Programmatic buying, audience-based targeting, and cross-platform measurement are no longer experimental, they’re embedded. This transforms how efficiently you can scale messaging across territories and devices.
Social video continues to lead in digital video spend
Social video remains the top destination for digital video ad dollars. The IAB projects that marketers will invest $27.2 billion into social video in 2025, making it the largest category in the space, edging out both Connected TV and traditional online video. That level of spend is a reflection of how integrated these platforms have become in consumers’ day-to-day digital consumption.
Short-form vertical video, interactive content, influencer-driven promotion, and live video streams are all part of this. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are shaping how customers discover, evaluate, and trust brands. This has turned social video into both a reach and conversion engine at scale.
From a strategic standpoint, the flexibility and immediacy of these platforms allow for rapid experimentation and localized storytelling. Brands can test variations, iterate on messaging, and respond to cultural shifts in real time. For executives focused on agility and audience engagement, this level of responsiveness gives social video a critical edge.
That said, while reach is still strong, executive teams need to pay close attention to saturation. Engagement must be tied to incremental value. You need to measure lift and ensure that performance ties back to clear goals. Social video’s dominance will hold, but its long-term value depends on maintaining relevance.
The rise of CTV is reshaping media budget allocations
CTV’s growth in 2025 is drawing capital from other high-performing categories. According to the IAB, 36% of marketers increasing their CTV budgets are reallocating money from linear TV, and another 36% are pulling it from social media. Additionally, 32% plan to shift it away from paid search.
This reallocation matters. It shows that advertisers are making clear trade-offs. They’re prioritizing addressable, measurable media formats over channels where attribution and performance tracking are weaker or slower. For business leaders, this signals a tipping point in how media budgets are being structured for efficiency and return on investment.
The decision to divert spend from search and social into CTV specifically highlights a growing demand for impression quality and greater control over context. With CTV, marketers can run targeted campaigns on premium inventory with broader screen impact and unified household targeting. For multinational brands, this level of control translates into more precise brand storytelling across markets.
Digital video growth mirrors the broader expansion of digital advertising.
Digital video’s trajectory aligns directly with broader digital ad market growth. In 2024, overall digital ad spend in the U.S. grew by 14.9% year-over-year, reaching $258.6 billion. This expansion reflects a shift in how brands allocate media budgets, less reliance on legacy formats and more investment in performance-based digital infrastructure. Video, in all its formats, has become central to this shift.
Marketers are embedding video across the full funnel, from awareness to direct response. Whether delivered through CTV, social feeds, or online placements, video is now expected to deliver impact fast and with measurable outcomes. That expectation is reshaping the kind of strategies marketers are building, from creative development to targeting and attribution.
For executives, the real insight isn’t just that video is growing, it’s that it’s growing in lockstep with a more accountable, data-informed advertising model. Performance metrics are driving more decisions, and brands want platforms that offer clean measurement, audience reach, and actionable insights. Video is doing that across more scenarios than ever, especially when integrated with cross-platform campaigns.
Looking forward, digital video’s role within the broader ad ecosystem will keep intensifying. As budgets continue consolidating around scalable, ROI-driven formats, video’s share within digital ad portfolios will expand, not necessarily because it’s flashy, but because it’s increasingly effective. The companies investing early and iterating fast here will find themselves better positioned to gain traction in both growth and brand depth.
Key highlights
- Digital video investment is accelerating: Digital video ad spend is projected to grow 14% year-over-year in 2025, hitting $72.4B. Leaders should realign budget strategies toward flexible, data-driven video formats that deliver measurable impact across brand touchpoints.
- CTV is becoming a performance-focused priority: With 68% of marketers calling CTV a “must buy” and ad spend expected to hit $26.6B, executives should treat CTV as a core channel, leveraging its programmatic scalability and targeting precision to optimize media performance and reach.
- Social video continues to lead media spend: Social video tops the category at $27.2B, driven by high engagement and audience relevance. Leaders should ensure social budgets fund agile, iterative campaigns with strong performance attribution to justify continued growth.
- Ad budgets are shifting toward high-yield video channels: CTV is pulling budget from linear TV (36%), social media (36%), and paid search (32%). Decision-makers should review underperforming channels and reallocate toward video platforms offering scale, data integrity, and performance visibility.
- Digital video mirrors a broader digital surge: With digital ad spend reaching $258.6B in 2024, up 14.9% YoY, video’s role in the media mix is expanding alongside industry-wide shifts. Executives should double down on unified cross-channel video strategies to stay competitive in an increasingly outcome-driven ad landscape.
