IAB Expenditure Report: Digital Ad Spend in UK up to £2.59bn while Mobile advertising spend grows to £181.5m
Digital advertising spend in the UK has grown by 12.6 per cent to reach £2.59bn in the first half of 2012, with mobile spend reaching £181.5m according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau expenditure report.
The latest figures from the report conducted by the PwC show that mobile spend has increased by 132 per cent, while video has also grown by 43 per cent to reach £69.8m and social media banners have grown by 36 per cent to reach £134.2m.
Display advertising now represents a 23 per cent share of digital advertising spend during, with a growth of 10.6 per cent on last year’s first half, growing to £590.9m.
The rise of the mobile advertising platform was clear, with spend rising by 132 per cent to £181.5m, accounting for seven per cent of all digital advertising spend.
Mobile display, video, SMS and MMS advertising increased by 91 per cent to £49.9m, while mobile search saw a growth of 152 per cent, to £131.6m – representing 72 per cent of mobile advertising spend.
Advertising spend on tablets was also estimated to have been at least £2.4m during the first six months of the year.
Paid for search also increased by 15.9 per cent to £1,527m, taking a 59 per cent share of digital advertising, representing a share of 59 per cent of digital spend, while classified spend rose to £427.1m (7.2 per cent higher than in 2011) with recruitment classified growth seeing £149.8m spent during the first half of the year.
Tim Elkington, director of research & strategy at the IAB, commented; “Almost 60% of people in the UK have a smartphone, average UK household broadband speed is now 9MB and social media accounts for one fifth of all internet time. As digital technology and services evolve to make consumers’ lives easier, more connected and more fun, it’s no surprise that advertisers are coming to the digital party with bigger budgets, despite the challenging economic times elsewhere.
"However, there’s still plenty of room for growth. Take mobile; 60% of the UK’s 100 biggest advertisers still don’t have a mobile-optimised website yet consumers spend almost 70% longer on sites which are. If all advertisers get wise to this, we’re likely to see significant mobile growth for some time yet.”
The largest digital display spend was made by the consumer goods and finance sectors, both accounting for around 16 per cent of display spend, with FMCG found to have almost doubled its share in the last three years as marketing spend grows.
Anna Bartz, senior manager at PwC, commented: “For the first time since we started measuring Digital Adspend, consumer goods (FMCG) advertisers have joined the long-time leader, Financial Services at the top of the spending charts. Interestingly, spend by FMCG advertisers increased across all digital channels, reflecting advertisers’ recognition of online and mobile as brand building platforms.”