Largest digital advertising markets in Europe 2021

In 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) was the largest digital advertising market in Europe, with a spend of 32.33 billion euros. Germany ranked second with an expenditure of 12.14 billion euros.

Bright future for digital marketing

A glance at digital advertising spend in the UK from 2007 to 2019 shows a steady year by year increase. Roughly 2.8 billion British pounds was spent on online advertising in 2007. This had increased five-fold by 2019 to 14 billion British pounds, and was projected to reach 15.6 billion British pounds by 2020, reflecting not only an ever increasing but continual shift towards digital marketing. According to Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, mobile advertising is expected to grow by a year-over-year average of three percent between 2020 and 2024. Relative to this, desktop advertising is projected to drop by roughly the same amount each year during this period.

Growth of mobile advertising

With 95 percent of households in the United Kingdom citing having at least one mobile phone, it is no wonder that marketers are seizing the opportunity to reach their audience through mobile advertisements such as banners, push notifications and text messages. Unlike desktops, the average person has their mobile phone constantly on hand, using it to access the internet continually throughout the day. As of January 2020, Apple’s Safari was the leading browser in the United Kingdom with a 47.66 percent market share. This was followed by Google’s Chrome with 41.15 percent.