eMarketer: Brands Are Spending Big With YouTube

Last week, YouTube reported that ad revenues were up 13% YoY to $8.7 billion and connected TV (CTV) views grew 130%, demonstrating the platform’s massive potential for advertisers. Between Shorts, YouTube’s flagship short videos that competes with TikTok and Instagram Reels, and its foray into CTV, YouTube is central to digital advertising. eMarketer has five charts demonstrating just how big YouTube’s reach is.

1. Without Google, YouTube would be the sixth biggest digital ad platform in the US

YouTube’s US ad revenues will reach $8.29 billion this year, per our March 2024 forecast. That means if YouTube were not owned by parent Alphabet, which also owns Google, it would still rank among the top 10 digital ad platforms in the US by revenue, ahead of Apple, Hulu, and Walmart.

2. YouTube is a top player in digital video

Some 241.8 million people in the US will watch YouTube this year, or 90.4% of digital video viewers in

the US, per our February 2024 forecast. More people will watch YouTube than subscription OTT, ad-supported video on-demand, or free ad-supported streaming TV.

YouTube was the second largest TV distributor by watch time in June 2024, behind only The Walt Disney Company, according to Nielsen.

3. YouTube is the biggest smartphone app by users

YouTube is the biggest app among US smartphone app users, per January 2024 data from Comscore, ahead of Facebook, Instagram, or any of Google’s other properties.

Out of all time spent with YouTube in the US, 41.2% is spent on mobile, per our June 2024 forecast. That figure is declining as time spent watching YouTube on CTV rises. Total time spent with YouTube is increasing, but people are adopting it faster as a TV platform than as a mobile one. When creating ad campaigns, advertisers should understand that many YouTube viewers are watching the platform the way they watch TVs, and they should borrow strategies from CTV.

4. Gen Z is on YouTube more than any other platform

Nearly 9 in 10 US Gen Zers (89.3%) are on YouTube, putting the platform ahead of Instagram (72.5%), TikTok (71.2%), and Snapchat (70.3%), per our May 2024 forecast. Gen Zers trust YouTube more than any other social platform, according to a study from Business Insider and YouGov.

Brands marketing to Gen Zers need to be on YouTube, and they need to understand what kind of content their Gen Z audience is consuming there. Those interests will help brands understand what kind of content to invest in, whether it’s tutorials, get-ready-with-me videos, or something else. It will also demonstrate which creators brands should partner with.

5. Marketers say YouTube has the best audience targeting of top social media platforms

YouTube beats out Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X when it comes to audience targeting, social media marketers worldwide told Hubspot and Mention in January 2024. YouTube beats out Facebook and Instagram, which have struggled with targeting since Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework began allowing users to opt out, and TikTok, which is still a much younger platform than its competitors.