Digital adspend in 2021 was up 41% year-on-year to £23.5bn, latest IAB UK figures show.
IAB UK’s Digital Adspend report found this was a 50% increase on pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and was the “biggest full year growth” for 15 years.
There was double-digit growth in adspend across the board for search, display, mobile to newer formats like podcasting and gaming.
The total market was up 33% excluding the industry’s five largest companies.
Jon Mew, CEO of IAB UK, said: “After a 5% rise in digital ad spend in 2020, we were confident that 2021’s results would be much stronger, but for the market to be up 50% on pre-pandemic spend is incredible and testament to the resilience of our world-leading industry.”
However, Mew added that 2021 still was not “a normal year” given half of it was in some form of lockdown with increased reliance on digital channels, but the return of large-scale events like the Olympics and Paralympics will have impacted spend.
Mobile
Spend on mobile advertising increased 43% to £14.13bn, constituting 60% of total spend in 2021.
Search
Spend on search ads grew 38% to £11.7bn out of the £23.5bn total.
The report also revealed investment in search shopping ads for the first time, showing advertisers spent £3.5bn in 2021 in this area.
Display
Display adspend increased 53% to £9.7bn with video making up the majority of this investment at £5.5bn, a growth of 58%.
Banner adspend went up by 60% while social and non-social display adspend grew more than 50%.
New formats
Podcasting and gaming also saw growth, notably from a smaller base.
Podcast investment in 2021 was £54m, an increase of 61% year-on-year, and digital audio’s annual growth rate multiplied from 17% in 2020 to 58% in 2021.
Adspend on static and in-game advertising equalled £9.8m.
IAB UK’s Digital Adspend report was conducted with PwC.
