According to the AdEx Benchmark study, from IHS Technology in collaboration with IAB Europe, the UK spent €11.8bn on online advertising in 2015. This is more than double that spent by Germany (€5.8bn), and nearly triple that spent by France (€4.2bn).

These three markets represent the top three in Europe, and according to the report, still account for the majority of the European online advertising market.

Findings also highlighted impressive growth in online spend for Ireland ( 29% growth), Bulgaria ( 22.3% growth) and Poland ( 21.8% growth).  

“The top three markets still account for the lion’s share of the European online advertising market,” said Eleni Marouli, principal analyst at IHS Technology. “But what is notable is the gap between the UK, Germany and France.

“Programmatic, the rise of online video consumption and a shift to mobile are key drivers for the boom in spend. But, challenges like ad blocking, ad fraud and misuse of data are all big hurdles for the industry in the year ahead.”