UK digital ad spend sees highest growth since 2008

This is the highest year-on-year rise sice 2008 ( 17.1%). 

Mobile accounted for 78% of digital ad spend growth, having increased 60.3% year-on-year to £2.63bn. Video ad spend overall grew by 50.7% to £711m; video spend on mobile grew by 98% to £353m. 

The report, which is accompanied by online YouGov data, also showed that the number of internet-enabled devices per household had grown by 12% during the year to an average of 8.3 per household.

The biggest rise in ownership was of connected TVs, which grew by 27%, followed by smartphones ( 21%), laptops ( 18%) and tablets ( 16%). Smartphones are the most popular internet device ( 2.1 per household), followed by laptops ( 1.6 ) and tablets ( 1.4 ). 

“The increasing array of devices people use to go online has helped digital ad spend hit another gear as advertisers look to reach them and time spent online increases,” says Tim Elkington, chief strategy officer at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau.

“Smartphones are the major driving force behind this, as people increasingly use them for activities they used to do on desktop, from searching and shopping to social and watching video.”

Full findings can be found here.