UK Digital Ad Spend soars to £11.55bn

Figures from the IAB shows that total digital advertising spend in the UK reached £11.55bn in 2017. This represents a 14.3% year on year growth compared to 2016.

Almost all of the growth is coming from smartphones, as for the first time ever smartphones have overtook computers for amount of time spent on the internet. Along with this trend, smartphone advertising grew 37.4% and accounted for 45% of all digital ad spend.

Credit Source: IAB Full Year 2017 Digital Adspend Results

The fastest growing advertising format was video advertising on smartphones rising by 69% to £1.17bn. This was closely followed by social media advertising which grew by 38% to £2.39bn.

Yet search advertising continues to dominate the total spend, accounting for £5.82bn or just over 50% of total ad spend in the UK in 2017.

The swing to digital advertising versus traditional advertising is continuing. A report from eMarketer predicted that in 2018, marketers in the UK are expected to spend more than double the amount in digital channels than TV, or any other traditional medium. This means that overall digital ad spending for 2018 will account for 63.6% of total media ad spending. They also forecast that digital ad spending will increase 9.9% in 2019.

Credit Source: eMarketer

Clearly the trend is only in one direction, which means that a robust digital marketing strategy needs to be in place for businesses that want to succeed. It’s our mission to help our clients grow online, and we use all of the advertising channels mentioned above to help achieve this. If you need help with your digital marketing strategy, get in touch.

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