EU social media and online display ad spend to hit €28.7bn by 2020
A new survey of ad spend intent amongst European marketers has painted a picture of an industry in rude health, with double digit growth rates in online display and social media advertising set to be maintained over the next five years, peaking at €28.7 billion in 2020.
This marks a near doubling €14.4 billion spent this year on the sector which has been given a shot in the arm by frenetic adoption of video and mobile, according to a forecast compiled by Forrester.
Programmatic adoption in particular is expected to boom across the continent with over half of all EU video advertising revenue predicted to be sold and executed programmatically by 2020 with mobile expected to be the next market to go programmatic.
Forrester analyst Samantha Merlivat remarked: "Europe will see a major shift in the way online display advertising is bought and sold.”
Elsewhere the report notes that desktop online display revenue will decline slightly from 2018, in stark contrast to the mobile and tablet sectors which are expected to grow by 34.9 and 22.9 per cent respectively between now and 2020.
In fact the combined mobile and tablet market is expected to account for 64 per cent of all online display advertising spend in five years’ time, with smartphones jumping from €1.4 billion to €6.5 billion over the period.
Ad blocking remains a significant cloud on the horizon however. With Forrester warning it is a ‘serious threat’ to online media advertising revenue with the expectation that the $21.8 billion global losses incurred by the use of such software in 2015 will rise substantially.