Search Engine Land » SEO » U.S. search ad revenues surged to $102.9 billion in 2024
Search advertising continues to be the largest form of internet advertising. Search revenue grew nearly 16% year on year.
Danny Goodwin on April 18, 2025 at 12:50 pm | Reading time: 2 minutes
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Fueled by “impressive YoY growth,” paid search advertising revenues hit a new high in 2024, according to a new report.
In total, search accounted for $102.9 billion of a record $258.6 billion in U.S. digital advertising revenues, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2024, conducted by PwC. That is a $14.1 billion increase compared to 2023.
Why we care.Paid search becomes more expensive and challenging every year, with less transparency. But advertisers continue to pour money into paid search because it drives results for brands and businesses.
Paid search is still king. Search continues to own the largest market share of advertising –39.8%. That is up from 39.5% last year, but down from 40.2% in 2022, 41.4% in 2021 and 42.2% in 2020.
- YoY growth of search advertising was three times the YoY growth seen in 2023, according to the report.
By the numbers. Of note from the IAB report:
- 2024 was a year of consistent YoY growth (15.7% in Q1; 15.2% in Q2; 14.7% in Q3, and 14.3% in Q4) – though the growth rate slowed as the year went on.
- Social media ad revenue rose to $88.7 billion in 2024, a 36.7% YoY increase.
- Video advertising increased to $62.1 billion, up 19.2% from 2023. It now accounts for 24% of all internet advertising revenue.
- Display advertising revenues jumped to $74.3 billion, which is YoY growth of 12.4%.
- Retail media networks reached $53.7 billion, a 23% YoY increase.
The state of digital advertising.Robust. Helped by the presidential election and Olympics, advertising spend returned its strongest level of growth since 2021. This despite ongoing issues like inflation, high interest rates and job cuts.
2025 outlook. Advertisers will have to adapt to a more complex and “outcomes-focused” marketplace, where agility, accountability and relevance are king, according to the IAB.
The report.You can read the Internet Advertising Revenue Report Full-year 2024 results here(PDF).
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About the author
Staff
Danny Goodwin
Danny Goodwin is Editorial Director of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo - SMX. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program U.S. SMX events.
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.
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