Strong growth for European digital advertising
The digital advertising market in Europe grew 11.1% reaching an all-time market high of €96.9 billion, IAB’s AdEx Benchmark Report for 2023 shows. “Despite a challenging economic and geopolitical environment, digital advertising in Europe has shown resilience.”
The report comprises data across 29 national markets.
Key findings:
- The digital ad market grew by 11.1% in 2023, reaching €96.9 billion, surpassing other international markets, in terms of growth rate.
- While the US market is 2.5 times larger than Europe, Europe experienced a faster growth rate at 11.1% YoY vs a 7.3% YoY growth rate for the US market.
- Digital ad spending remained concentrated in the top European markets with the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy making up 69% of total digital ad spend.
- Most European markets showed robust gains overall in 2023 with 13 European markets seeing double-digit growth. Of those markets, 9 Central and Eastern European markets grew over the European average of 11.1% with Turkey seeing 50% growth, Serbia 27.6%, and Ukraine 25.2%. Growth in Turkey can largely be attributed to inflation.
- Social ad growth rebounded in 2023 and grew by 18.2%, outperforming the display growth of 12.7%.
- Video advertising also played a crucial role in the growth of total display, increasing by 20.9% in 2023. It also saw substantial growth outside of social, with a 15.0% increase.
- Audio also revealed itself to be one of the fastest-growing formats again this year, experiencing an increase of 23.1%. New audio data in this year’s report also showed that podcasts were integral to driving total digital audio spend, growing by 32.5%.
- CTV also grew by 23.5% in 2023 to outperform non-social video.
- Programmatic still accounts for over 50% of total display (51.9%), but market growth in this area is maturing. This shift is partly driven by the increasing allocation of budgets to new and evolving channels such as CTV and Retail Media, as well as the exploration of alternative solutions in response to privacy concerns and the evolving landscape surrounding third-party cookies.
“Digital advertising defied all odds in 2023 and grew by 11.1%. This can be attributed to interest rates improving, and the economy stabilising, giving advertisers greater confidence once more”, says Daniel Knapp, IAB Europe chief economist.
“While many remained cautious, we saw an increased recognition for more sustained spending, as brands looked to build presence back up and maintain a share of voice in the market. This period also saw a return of new companies and SMEs entering the market.”
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