Online ad growth fuelled by mobile and video

The research found that online advertising grew to €22.2bn, from €20.2bn in the first half of 2016.

Growth was driven by mobile, which grew at an overall rate of 41.4% to a value of €7bn, outpacing other formats. Mobile display spend grew by 45.9%, while desktop display decreased by 1.4%.

Online video also experienced fast growth, reaching €1.7bn in H1 2017, accounting for a fifth ( 20%) of total display spend. Video grew 3.2 times as fast as non-video display spend. 

Display growth overall continues to outpace that of paid search advertising; display grew by 13.1% and search by 12.8%. Display reached over €8bn in H1 2017 representing 37% of total online advertising whilst search accounted for 48%. 

The growth in display is driven by growth in the Central and Eastern Europe region, where display grew by 16% compared to 12.6% in Western European markets. 

Daniel Knapp, executive director at IHS Markit, said: “A stable macro-economic environment in the Eurozone has fuelled advertising demand, and our data shows that political uncertainty in other countries has not impacted growth to date. The European digital advertising market has been growing in the narrow window of 13.1% and 11.5% every year since 2012, and the most recent data is again in that range.

"Heightened investment in digital is partly a redistribution of spend from other media, a migration from below-the-line budgets, and new advertisers. But our data also signals that the structure of the digital advertising market is changing as we enter the post-desktop age.”