Technology Sector to Spend $2bn on Advertising on TikTok in 2023
Technologies and electronics – one of the fastest growing categories in terms of ad spend – is forecast to invest a combined $2.0bn on TikTok in 2023, a 14.3% increase from last year, according to WARC Media’s latest TikTok forecast.
TikTok has been a major beneficiary of marketers choosing to rebalance budgets due to media fragmentation and advertisers pausing investment on Twitter after its dramatic acquisition last year. WARC Media’s latest Platform Insights: TikTok report – the first of a new series – looks at this fastest growing social app from ad investment, consumption, and performance perspectives.
WARC Media forecasts all categories will increase ad investment on TikTok in 2023. This even includes sectors that are forecast to see an overall ad spend decrease, such as automotive and soft drinks.
TikTok’s global ad revenue is to reach $15.2bn in 2023, according to WARC Media’s forecasts. Up 51.7% and almost a $2bn upgrade from last year’s forecast, TikTok is also set to achieve the largest gain in share of social ad spend (+2.0%) this year while its competitors lose ground.
However, challenges inevitably lie ahead as TikTok and its parent company ByteDance face the threats of wider economic slowdown and privacy concerns. Growth targets have been difficult to maintain: at end of 2022, The Financial Times reported that TikTok had “slashed” its worldwide revenue targets for 2022 by “at least $2bn”.
The company just launched “Project Clover” in Europe in March 2023, three months after it first revealed “Project Texas” – a data safeguard ambition for the US market – in December last year. However, debates and concerns about the app’s data security are peaking as the UK recently announced the prohibition of the app from being installed on government-owned devices while the US demands the Chinese internet company ByteDance to sell TikTok.
Credit: WARC