BIA Advisory: Local Ad Revenue to Rise 6.1% in 2025
BIA Advisory Services is estimating that U.S. local advertising revenue in 2025 will reach $171 billion, excluding political spending, an increase of 6.1% over 2024. BIA vice president of forecasting and analysis
Nicole Ovadia says, “Our latest forecast indicates that local advertising is showing resilience, despite the ongoing changes in the economic landscape. Although we expect core advertising to remain stable, we’ve adjusted our outlook to account for various market factors like interest rates and consumer sentiment and significant changes in media consumption patterns that are driving digital growth.” The forecast indicates strong growth in several sectors: Real Estate at 9.3%, Restaurants at 9.2%, and Retail at 6.8%. The Education and Automotive verticals are also experiencing substantial growth, with increases of 5% each.
local political and other key local vertical ad spend, and significant ad growth for connected TV/over-the-top (CTV/OTT), TV OTA, and TV Digital. BIA VP of forecasting & analysis Nicole Ovadia states, “As expected, local political advertising will be substantial this year, and it’s fueling spend across the media landscape. Our slight adjustment down for this year is mainly due to mixed economic signals, a slowdown in certain consumer purchases, and lower than expected spending in Digital and Direct Mail advertising at the end of 2023 that may flow into this year. However, we still anticipate 2024 to be better for local advertising than 2023 and certain media like TV OTA, TV Digital, and CTV/OTT are growing substantially.”
billion in total local advertising, only a 2.2% increase in local advertising year-over-year.” BIA VP of forecasting & analysis Nicole Ovadia adds, “As expected, 2024 will be driven by political spending, and, even in markets that are not highly contested there will be a large amount of political advertising. Local political advertising will be fueled by the presidential and senate campaigns as well as issue-based advertising. When we look at the forecast without political, we expect only a slight increase in ad spending due to both global and local economic trends that may create more cautious spending.” 
