Digital ad spending falls in H1 2020

Between January and June 2020, total digital advertising spending was at £7.06bn, a 5% fall on the same period in 2019, and mobile advertising spending was down 1% year-on-year to £3.85bn.

However, video revenue rose 5.7% compared with the first half of 2019 to £1.35bn, and the display market also grew 0.3% to £2.84bn.

Spending on spend on classified adverts decreased by £235m to £485m, a decline of 33% year-on-year.

Comscore data from earlier this year showed a 22% increase in time online during April, with a 13% increase in online activity throughout the first half of 2020.

The fall in digital advertising spending is also far below that faced by the UK economy in 2020, which fell 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020.

Jon Mew, chief executive of IAB UK, said: “It’s not surprising that this year has seen the total digital advertising market contract as our industry deals with the upheaval and uncertainty of the pandemic.

“Yet there is cause for hope. Following 22 years of consecutive growth, the digital ad market went into this crisis in a position of strength and it’s great to see some areas of growth, despite the circumstances.”