Digital ad spend in Spain 2019-2023

In 2023, digital advertising spending in Spain stood at 4.97 billion euros. This figure marked an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the previous year.

Digital advertising in Europe

The European advertising landscape has undergone a fundamental digital transformation in the past decade, with ever-new technologies and platforms keeping advertisers on their toes. In 2020, digital ad spending in Europe amounted to nearly 70 billion euros, which was almost twice the amount that had been spent only six years prior. Looking at Europe’s largest digital ad markets, the United Kingdom stands out as the leading spender by a long shot. Over 22.7 billion euros were invested in digital ad campaigns in the UK in 2020 – more than advertisers in the three next largest markets spent collectively.

Spotlight on Spain

Spain ranked among the top 10 digital ad spenders in Europe in 2020 despite seeing a slight drop in investments that year. What makes 2020 even more unique is that it was the year when digital advertising overtook traditional ad spend in Spain for the first time. Roughly 52 percent of all advertising expenditures were devoted to digital campaigns that year, with search, display, and social media being Spain’s most popular digital ad formats. Social media has seen a particularly impressive rise in ad investments over the past few years, a trend that is attributable to mounting user numbers and the variety of marketing opportunities that apps such as Instagram can offer. One company that is actively leveraging this opportunity is About You GmbH. With expenditures of over 4.5 billion euros, the German online fashion retailer was the top Facebook advertiser in Spain in early 2021.