Digital ad spend in Europe grew to €36.2bn in 2015, overtaking TV

At the 10th edition of its annual Interact conference today, IAB Europe announced that online advertising grew 13.1% to a market value of €36.2bn in 2015 surpassing the €33.3bn European TV market.
The AdEx Benchmark research – the definitive guide to the state of the European online advertising market – revealed a €30bn net addition to the online ad market in the last 10 years. All markets participating in the study recorded positive growth, a total of twenty markets grew double-digit for the second year running (three markets recording 30%+ growth, a further nine showing 20%+ growth and a further eight 10%+ growth). Mobile and video formats continue to show strong growth.
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, commented “These results confirm the lead position for digital advertising in the European media landscape echoing today’s digital first consumer environment. Given the ever-increasing contribution of digital advertising to the economy and its role in the delivery of digital content and services we must continue to foster European innovation and empower our businesses to compete across the globe.”
The IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark study splits the online ad market into three broad segments: Display, Search and Classifieds and Directories. Growth in these online advertising formats has been underpinned by shifting uses in devices and changing consumption patterns.
Display advertising outperformed other categories with a growth rate of 17.4% and the pace of Display growth further accelerated versus 2014. In 2015, the total value of the Display ad market was €13.9bn.
Search showed growth of 12.6% – and a market value of €16.9 billion. It continues to be the largest online advertising format in terms of revenue, and has increased its growth in 2015 after a slight decrease in 2014.
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Mobile and video continue to be the key growth drivers of the European online ad market and this becomes increasingly apparent when looking at the more advanced mobile economies (like the UK and Ireland) where nearly 50% of online advertising is now generated on mobile.
Mobile display now accounts for €3.5bn or 25.4% of the display market, with a growth rate of 60.5% compared with 2014. Online video advertising also showed strong growth, now representing 16.7% of the display market.
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The top 10 list of markets are as follows. Top 3 Individual growth markets were:
Ireland 29.0% growth
Bulgaria 22.3% growth
Poland 21.8% growth
Top 10 Rankings
UK – €11.8bn
Germany – €5.8bn
France – €4.2bn
Italy – €2.1bn
Netherlands- €1.6bn
Russia – €1.5bn
Sweden – €1.3bn
Spain – €1.2bn
Denmark – €0.8bn
Switzerland – €0.8bn

Source:  Press release from IAB Europe, 11th May 2016