Online dominates UK adspend

The UK advertising market grew by 6% in 2023, according to the latest WARC expenditure report.

While traditional ad mediums saw an expected spend decrease from the previous year, digital advertising saw high growth and accounted for a high percentage of overall ad spend.

Search and online display formats made up almost three quarters of the UK’s spend in 2023, up around 22% from last year.

TV, radio, cinema, direct mail, and publishing media all saw significant decreases in spend, the report said, though on-demand broadcasting increased by 15%.

Out-of-home advertising, by contrast, was the only form of traditional media to record growth for 2023, up by 9.7%.

Despite the overall growth in overall ad spend to £36.6bn, the figures represent a fall of 1.2% in real terms, when taking high inflation into account.

“An improving economic climate should encourage more investment in brand-building campaigns and this, coupled with short-term stimuli such as the Men’s Euros and Paris Olympics and Paralympics, is expected to aid a return to growth for broadcast media,” the report said.

Despite the dips, the Advertising Agency (AA) and WARC expect the market to continue its growth trajectory in 2025, when it should be worth £40bn.