The European digital advertising market grew by 11.1 percent last year, reaching €96.6 billion, according to IAB Europe’s latest AdEx Benchmark report. Inflation was once again a major factor – though the market still grew by 3.8 percent when adjusting for inflation. And video, as has been the case in recent years, was one of the best performing parts of the market.
Not just social
IAB broadly divides the market into display, search, and classifieds and directories. Video sits within the ‘display’ category, as does social media spending (some of which is video), as well as banner ads, native ads, integrated content, and audio advertising.
Total display expenditure across Europe was up by 12.7 percent in 2023, growing faster than search (10.1 percent) and classifieds and directories (6.0 percent).
Within display, video spend grew faster than combined non-video formats. Video expenditure was up 20.9 percent year-on-year, reaching €21.8 billion, while non-video display advertising grew by 6.8 percent, up to €26.6 billion. Within IAB Europe’s definitions, video now makes up 45.1 percent of total display advertising, and on its current trajectory, could soon outsize the non-video section of Europe’s display market.
Within social media, video ad spend was up by 26.7 percent, reaching €11.6 billion. This brings social video ad spend just about equal to non-video social advertising (€11.7 billion). For context, social video spend in 2022 was €9.2 billion, while non-video was ¢10.6 billion. Given the trajectories of each format and the fact that the data ran up to the end of last year, it’s very likely social video spend in Europe now outweighs all other social spend.
Outside of social media (but sticking within display), video accounted for most growth seen across Europe. ‘Traditional formats’ (which IAB Europe says includes banners, native, special ads, integrated content, newsletter ads, and affiliate) were up by 2.7 percent (which would be a real fall, when accounting for inflation). Video meanwhile was up by 15 percent, reaching €10.2 billion. Audio grew faster (up 23.1 percent), but still sits just beneath €1 billion in total.
Video outweighing display
All in all, this means that video revenues topped €1 billion in six markets: the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, and Spain. The UK is still the largest by far, with its video expenditure of €7.99 billion more than double that of the next largest market, which is Germany with €2.34 billion.
In five markets, video now exceeds 50 percent of total display advertising: Italy, Serbia, Italy, the UK, and Bulgaria. The markets with the lowest concentration of video are Denmark, Austria, Estonia, Greece, and Romania.
The role of CTV in European video growth is harder to quantify, as not all markets provide data, and definitions of what inventory sits with the CTV category aren’t harmonised across Europe. The Benchmark report places CTV growth at around 23.5 percent, outperforming other non-social video. Growth was highest in Spain, which reported 98.5 percent growth in CTV ad spend, followed by Italy (25.5 percent) and the UK (20.9 percent).