A digital-market research firm (founded 1996) known for modeled forecasts of ad spend, users, and digital behavior.

Why was it called Insider Intelligence?

Axel Springer merged it with Business Insider's research arm under that name in 2020; it reverted to EMARKETER in 2024.

How should its forecasts be used?

As consensus market models — strong on direction and share, deliberately conservative on absolutes, and subject to revision.

Growth Marketing Glossary

EMARKETER

proper noun

The footnote under the chart in every board deck — the industry's shared crystal ball since 1996.

Site mark — EMARKETER

Founded: 1996, by Geoff Ramsey & Sam Alfstad
Known for: Digital ad spend + user forecasts
Era: Insider Intelligence (2020-2023), back to EMARKETER 2024
Owner: Axel Springer

Forms & parts of speech

forecast · noun (its product)

A modeled market projection.

"Per the EMARKETER forecast, retail media passes a third of digital spend — plan accordingly."

What it is

EMARKETER is the digital-market research firm founded in 1996 by Geoff Ramsey and Sam Alfstad — the source of the ad-spend forecasts, user-base projections, and time-spent estimates that anchor industry strategy decks. Its method aggregates and triangulates hundreds of sources into single modeled numbers. Owned by Axel Springer, it merged with Business Insider's research arm as 'Insider Intelligence' in 2020 before reverting to the EMARKETER brand in 2024.

Why marketers rely on it

It solves the industry's shared-reality problem: when everyone cites the same forecast, budgets can be argued on common ground — which is why 'according to eMarketer' became boardroom furniture. The triangulation method means its numbers are deliberately conservative consensus, useful precisely because they're nobody's marketing department talking.

How to use it well

Use it for the macro layer — channel growth rates, audience shifts, ad-spend allocation norms — when sizing markets or defending budget reallocations. Read the methodology notes (modeled, not measured), prefer direction and share over absolute precision, and date-stamp every citation; forecasts revise.

Worked example. A CMO proposing to shift 20% of TV budget into retail media networks faces a skeptical board. The EMARKETER anchor: the firm's forecast showing retail media's share of digital spend, its growth rate against every other channel, and the category-peer allocation data. The board argument moves from 'trust my instinct' to 'here is the consensus market model we'd be ignoring' — the reallocation passes, with the forecast's revision schedule booked as the review trigger.

Failure modes to watch. Citing absolute forecast numbers as measured fact; building niche strategy on macro averages; and quoting a two-year-old projection the firm has since revised twice.

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

EMARKETEReMarketer (classic styling)Insider Intelligence (2020-2023)

Origin & history

Geoff Ramsey and Sam Alfstad founded it in 1996 to make sense of the commercial internet's first wave — aggregating the era's chaotic statistics into single defensible numbers. The name followed the 'e-' fashion of its birth year and outlived it; after the Insider Intelligence interlude (2020-2023), the heritage brand returned in 2024.

Etymology: source.

Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

View interest-over-time on Google Trends →

Common questions

What is EMARKETER?: A digital-market research firm (founded 1996) known for modeled forecasts of ad spend, users, and digital behavior.
Why was it called Insider Intelligence?: Axel Springer merged it with Business Insider's research arm under that name in 2020; it reverted to EMARKETER in 2024.
How should its forecasts be used?: As consensus market models — strong on direction and share, deliberately conservative on absolutes, and subject to revision.

Related tools & calculators

toolCAC calculator
toolLTV-to-CAC ratio

Resources & people to follow

referenceEMARKETER.com — forecasts + reports
referenceIts methodology documentation
referenceStatista — the complementary aggregator

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

Related training

moduleMarketing analytics

Disciplines

Areas of marketing where emarketer is a core concern:

AnalyticsGrowth strategy

Sources

trendsGoogle Trends — "emarketer"