IAB: Search, the largest category of digital ad spending, generated $40.6B in 2017

Mobile was responsible for 54 percent of paid-search ad revenue last year.

The IAB and PwC today released its Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which asserts that digital advertising is now officially bigger than TV advertising in the US. Digital ad spending reached $88 billion last year, of which mobile contributed nearly 57 percent.

Paid search advertising (desktop and mobile) came in at roughly $40.6 billion for the full year 2017. That was an increase of 18 percent from 2016’s reported $34.6 billion. However, the percentage of digital ad revenue captured by search fell slightly on a percentage basis, to 46.2 percent from 47.7 percent in 2016.

Paid search represented 49 percent ($18.6 billion) of desktop ad revenue and 44 percent ($22 billion) of mobile. Overall mobile search revenue was 54 percent of the paid-search total. Read our full coverage of the IAB report here.