Advertising spending on digital media is expected to grow by 62% this year to nearly 10 billion baht, almost double the earlier projection of 33%, despite the faltering economy.
The higher-than-expected growth will come from digital media's cost efficiency and growing audience, especially among the younger generation, said Siwat Chawareewong, president of the Digital Advertising Association (Thailand) (DAAT).
Facebook and video advertising on YouTube account for the highest share of online ad spending.
"In the current economic crisis, brands and digital ad agencies might cut ad budgets for traditional media but not digital media," Mr Siwat told the DAAT annual conference.
TNS Research International (Thailand) revised up this year's digital ad spending forecast to 9.8 billion baht, a 62% rise from last year, up from the earlier 33% projection to 8.1 billion baht.
Local digital advertising reached 5.7 billion baht in the first half, higher than the earlier projection of 4.1 billion baht, according to TNS.
TNS also revised up the share of ad spending on Facebook to 21.4% of total digital spending in 2015, up from 16.5%, while video advertising on YouTube would account 16.5%, up from 15.6%.
Instant messaging app Line will represent 4.5% of digital advertising, up from the 2.7% forecast earlier. Meanwhile, the share of ad banners on websites will rise to 28.7%, up from 27%.
The mid-year study gathered information from 17 ad agencies, and most expect to see online ad spending in the second half rise 30% from the first half.
Communications, automotive, skincare, hair care and banking were the top five ad spenders in the first half of the year at 13.2%, 9.8%, 6.7%, 5.9% and 5.4%, respectively.
This year, the sectors with higher budgets for digital media are real estate, hair care, snacks, retail and food, said TNS.
Mr Siwat said brands and digital marketers like to use data management and big data analytics to understand consumer behaviour in order to tailor digital marketing campaigns.
The DAAT also revealed six digital marketing trends in 2016 from leading websites including Brand Buffet, MarketingOops and Thumbsup.
The first trend is organic growth by social conversion. Marketers should focus on building content or digital campaigns that impress users of viral marketing through social media instead of paid social media.
The second trend is the increasing popularity of short videos via Facebook due to the availability of 4G mobile networks.
The third trend is conversion marketing to lead new sales, new customers and online customers by using creative ideas and multiple channels from social media and other innovative tools.
The fourth trend is "mobile is everything" as Thailand had 91 million mobile devices as of the first quarter.
The fifth trend is the increased adoption of marketing automation tools by mixing art and science in modern marketing.
The sixth trend is empowering consumers by making meaningful advertising.