Digital advertising spending in Europe 2006-2023

In 2023, digital advertising spending in Europe amounted to 96.9 billion euros, up by over 11 percent compared to the value of 87.2 billion recorded a year earlier. These figures do not include Russia and Belarus. The 2021 market size including the two Eastern European countries stood at 92 billion euros.

Digital is the common thread running through Europe’s advertising patchwork

Europe’s advertising industry is as diverse and multi-faceted as the people it aims to address. But despite vast regional differences regarding technological advances and consumer preferences, there has been a visible trend toward digital advertising activities in recent years. Based on the latest available data, digital accounted for 59 percent of Europe’s total ad spend in 2021, and this share is set to expand even further in the future. Zooming in on Western Europe, one can see that the internet has drawn particularly large chunks of advertising investments recently.

The UK sets the tone for digital advertising in Europe

The United Kingdom is the largest digital ad market in Europe. In 2022, digital ad expenditure in the UK reached an all-time high of 26.1 billion British pounds, up from less than five billion only a decade earlier. Not only that, but this figure also surpassed spending recorded in the four next largest European ad markets collectively. The UK has also been at the forefront of another distinctive trend, namely the shift towards mobile. Reports have indicated that the share of mobile in European digital ad spend currently stands at an estimated 48 percent, whereas investments in mobile ad campaigns already hit the 60-percent mark in the UK in 2021.