Video ad spend grew 56 percent to £292 million in the first half of 2015, which the IAB says accounts for 22 percent of display revenue (the IAB groups display and video advertising together, presumably because such a high proportion of video is in-banner). In total, advertisers spent a record £3.98 billion on digital advertising in the first half of 2015 – up 13.4 percent year-on-year – according to the IAB’s UK Digital Adspend report, which is conducted by PwC.
In a statement, Tim Elkington, Chief Strategy Officer at IAB UK, attempted to assuage fears around ad-blocking. He said, “Recently, a lot of the attention on digital advertising has been around the challenges, such as ad blocking. However, it’s clear to see the UK digital advertising industry is maintaining its strong revenue growth at a much greater rate than the overall economy. The fact remains, as consumers spend more time on connected devices, advertisers must increasingly direct their attention and budgets there.”
Other parts of digital advertising saw similarly impressive growth rates:
- Display advertising revenues grew at more than twice the overall digital rate (27.5 percent) to hit £1.31 billion – 33 percent of total digital ad spend, its largest-ever share. Within display:
- Social media spend rose 51 percent to £574 million
- Native and branded content grew 50 percent to £325 million – accounting for 25 percent of display revenue
- Tablet-dedicated ad spend grew 115 percent to £68 million.
Mobile Still Surging and Not from a Low Base
Mobile ad spend grew by 51 percent accounts which PwC say accounted for nearly 80 percent of the rise in digital ad revenues. Total spend was £1.08 billion in the first half of 2015. Over a quarter (27 percent) of all digital advertising spend now comes from mobile, compared to 20 percent a year earlier. Mobile accounts for 39 percent of display spend, 43 percent of video spend, 63 percent of social media spend and 74 percent of native/content ad spend.
“Mobile is unquestionably the engine of digital growth, with mobile display spend up 63 percent on the back of mobile video spend more than doubling,” says Dan Bunyan, Senior Manager at PwC. “However, there’s plenty of room to grow, as mobile accounts for 40% of internet time but only 27 percent of ad spend. Marketers are realising this is out-of-kilter, hence mobile is likely to continue gaining share at pace.”
