Digital advertising accounts for more than 80% of the UK’s total ad spend, according to a new report from creative agency We Are Social.
The research titled ‘Digital 2025: The United Kingdom’, reported that the UK’s total digital advertising investment is £38.07 billion, up 9.4% year-on-year.
It also highlighted that social media advertising spend is £9.02 billion, which is an increase of 13.8% year-on-year. Furthermore, the study showed influencer investment grew 13.6% year-on-year to £930 million.
The research revealed adult internet users spent over five and half hours browsing the web, with over one and half hours of that time dedicated to using social media. However, total internet time by adult users has fallen by 7.1% year on year.
It also highlighted that WhatsApp is the most used social platform in the UK and is the “nation’s favourite” app. The report also showed that TikTok’s Android users spend around 42 hours a month on the app.
TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram reported strong growth in ad reach, according to the report. However, X saw a 10.7% decline in its ad reach year-on-year.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest agency-related news sent straight to your inbox each morning
According to the findings, 48.6% of adult internet users will use social media channels to research brands and products, with 16.1% of social media users age 16+ following a brand.
Jim Coleman, UK chief executive of We Are Social, said: “It’s clear from this year’s report that our time is more precious than ever, and people are increasingly discerning about how and where they spend it.”
“While it’s encouraging to see healthy growth in digital, social and influencer ad spend, the underlying message from this data is that marketers can’t afford to cut corners. People who consume any type of media – from TV to online – are looking for quality over quantity. On social, this means that brands need to add value, if they can’t, they will lose ground to others who can,” he added.
The study showed that ChatGPT was placed second on the app downloads chart between September and November last year. It was just beaten by Meta’s Threads which topped the chart. However, the AI platform was not among the UK’s top ten most visited websites, ranking 13th.
The research revealed consumers are spending less time streaming content, with total time spent streaming decreasing by 11.7%. But more people are spending money on gaming-related activities, such as subscriptions and downloads, with spend up by 11.8% year-on-year to £6.97 billion.
