EU digital advertising spend grew by over 30% in 2021 according to IAB Europe’s AdEx Benchmark Report, which provides an overview of ad expenditure across the Union’s 28 markets.
The association’s report estimated the sector’s overall value at close to £80 billion, with all 28 EU digital ad markets having registered double-digit growth. Seven markets from across the continent grew by more than the 30.5% average, indicating no clear geographical trend.
Exceeding the IAB’s forecasted growth figures of 28.6%, last year’s figures represented record year-on-year growth figures since the report initial publication in 2008, with the market growing by a staggering £18.5 billion on the previous year.
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The highest growing digital advertising format, audio grew by close to 51%, with the market now valued at £600 million, totalling 3% of display spend.
“All parts of digital advertising benefited from the 2021 bonanza, but most notably those formats and approaches that enable small and medium sized businesses, eCommerce-related advertising, video-based storytelling and formats that provide access to new consumer behaviour at scale, such as audio and gaming,” IAB Europe chief economist, Daniel Knapp said.
“Although market growth in 2021 was tightly clustered in the mid-twenties for most countries, European digital ad markets are heterogeneous, with a wide range of ad spend per capita allocations even in markets of similar economic power. This signals significant headroom for growth remains available.”
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