You may have heard last week that currency exchanges rates for the British Pound took a major dip due to Brexit. Understanding how economic changes in a market like the U.K. relates to advertising is important for planning your budgets. So for this week’s advertising insights, we compare global GDP to ad spend, spotlight Germany’s spend in programmatic advertising, and show the massive growth of Instagram ad revenue.

By the end of 2016, global ad expenditure will grow another 4.1% and reach $537 billion, according to a report by Zenith. This growth is driven by large increases in programmatic, online video and mobile advertising. When planning budgets for the year, make sure you are following the overall market trends and plan for any changes.

Programmatic advertising is buying advertising with automated technology, such as all Google and Facebook ads, as opposed to buying ads based on handshake agreements with large media properties. Germany is a great example of a market that is leveraging programmatic advertising as a way to reach and engage consumers. Net ad spending on programmatic ads in Germany rose 45% in 2015, to €390 million ($433 million) according to eMarketer. This high growth will remain steady into 2016, rising to a total €566 million ($628 million), and taking an ever-increasing piece of the digital advertising pie. When advertising is programmatic, it means you can make it personalized instead of a broadcast channel. Use it as an opportunity to allow your marketing teams to focus on content, strategy, and optimization.

 

Like its parent company (Facebook), Instagram is a 100% programmatic ad platform that is rapidly gaining both users and advertisers. Instagram recently reached 500 million monthly active users, 300 million of whom visit the platform daily, up from 400 million in September 2015 and 300 million just a year and a half ago. The chart below by eMarketer shows that Instagram revenue worldwide will reach $2.8 billion in 2017, growing 355% in just two years. Advertisers are clearly seeing ROI with Instagram ads that drive actions and engagement, and are putting their money into the platform.

Australia Post uses Instagram Video Ads to drive travel debit card purchases. Download the case study to learn how they decreased CPMs and grew CTR using Advertising Studio.