Digital Advertising in Hong Kong

The internet has made rapid developments in the past 20 years and a ready connection to the internet has almost become a necessity since the popularisation of the smartphone. There is no doubt digital media has become part of our daily life and digital advertising has unsurprisingly risen among traditional advertisements. What does it look like for digital advertising in Hong Kong in 2022? 

What is Digital Advertising?

Digital Advertising refers to advertisements that are online and makes use of the internet to display their ads. For more flexibility, digital advertisements can be displayed via computers, laptops or mobile phones and they could could be in formats such as text, image and video. Different types of digital advertising are categorised by the location by the location at where they are shown, which includes the following:

• Display Advertisements: Advertisements could appear on websites and apps on the side of your regular content
• Social Media Advertisements: Social Media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube has their own advertising system that supports digital advertising
• Search Advertising: Websites or products would be suggested when users search for related keywords
• Classified Advertising: Originated from classified ads on newspapers, this classified digital advertising refers to spaces websites created specifically for people to put up their advertisements 

The Digital Advertising Market in Hong Kong

Did you know, that digital advertising was the only type of advertisement that was able to grow globally as much as 9% in 2020. Succeeding the events in 2019, many businesses were struggling while the world scrambled to tackle the pandemic; yet digital advertising rose among the advertising market to reach a global value of $336.2 billion USD.

As for the digital advertising market in Hong Kong, the total revenue from digital advertising in 2020 has reached $765 million USD with a 6.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Like most of the world, digital advertising in Hong Kong has been rapidly increasing, reaching an approximate increase of 12.5% up to 2019 and even a 9.7% increase despite the COVID-19 pandemic. With the total digital advertising revenue in 2016 being a mere $381 million USD in Hong Kong, it is easy to see the rapid increase in digital advertisements.

Digital advertising been recorded to be 22.4% of the advertising market and it is predicted to rise to 49.75% in 2025. As it continues to grow at a 6.9% CAGR, ad revenue would reach $1,065 million USD by 2025 in Hong Kong. Traditional advertising is still more dominant on the advertising market at this point but digital advertising is quickly and definitely growing year by year. 

Source:PWC HK

In 2016, paid search advertisements was the most dominant type of digital advertisement in Hong Kong at 39.6%. It is then followed by display advertisements 27.98% while mobile search and mobile display advertisements share similar proportions. Mobile advertisements, however has 45.5% of the total digital ad revenue thanks to the increasing reliance on smartphones as part of our daily lives. Mobile Advertisements are predicted to make up 54.6% of digital advertisements, making it the fastest growing type of digital advertisement with a 20.4% CAGR. 

It is predicted that the digital advertising revenue in Hong Kong in 2025 would be dominated by mobile display ads at 40.1% and Internet search advertisement would be at 25.26%. Mobile search and internet display advertisements would follow and have similar proportions in the digital advertising market in Hong Kong. 

Why Use Digital Advertising in 2022?

1. Digital Advertising is Future of Advertising

As mentioned previously, digital advertising is the fastest growing form of advertising, reaching a value of $336.2 billion USD globally. Digital Advertising is also the only type of advertising that was able to grow as much as 9% amidst the pandemic. Arriving the 3rd year of the COVID-19 situation, it is safe to assume that it would not be resolved very soon. Given the rapid growth rate and its ability to withstand pandemic, it would be smart to advertise digitally. Using digital channels to promote your product would be taking a step towards the future.

2. Better Targeting of Your Audience

Most traditional advertisements would not be able to directly target your audience, although there are still some methods to. While traditional advertising relies on past data of the advertising media, digital media gives you more control on who actually sees your advertisement. You are able to customise your audience from location, age, gender to user interest and habits. Since most people take their smartphone with them anywhere, you could advertise to almost anyone you choose, no matter the location.

3. Increased Exposure

Recent studies have shown that young people have 8 to 10 hours of screen time since the pandemic has started. While older generations might have a shorter screen time than the younger generation, it can still show that there is a general increase in screen times. People spend more time browsing different websites and apps, allowing them to be exposed to more digital advertisements. With you targeting specific audiences, your advertisement would have a larger exposure to the desired audience. 

4. Encourage Consumers to Purchase

It is no news that online shopping has been increasing in popularity, but demands has definitely been increasing since the pandemic. With the many regulations upon leaving home, many people would opt to purchase products online. Digital advertising allows people to be directly redirected to your website and allow them to check the products they are interested in. Since online purchase are much more convenient than visiting stores in person, leads would be more encouraged to buy products upon seeing them on advertisements.