Advertising and market research industry employment in the UK 2009-2020, by gender

Based on employment data collected in the United Kingdom (UK), in the fourth quarter of 2020, there were a total of 184 thousand individuals working in advertising and market research. During this time, the number of women in both full-time and self-employment was lower than that of men in these jobs.

Revenue: market research vs. advertising

Despite its significance, market research still makes up a minimal percentage of the overall industry revenue in the United Kingdom, attesting to the immense profitability of the advertising segment. By 2018 it accounted for 13 percent of the entire segment’s revenue, and this is expected to continue to 2024 even as overall earnings rise.

Internet advertising on the rise

On the other hand, advertising has always brought in the largest revenue and its growth is by and large due to online marketing. In fact, while advertising spend for a majority of channels in the UK has either entered a slow decline or remained the same, spending on mobile and internet advertising more than doubled between 2013 and 2018. This is largely in line with the rise of device and smartphone ownership, as well as the growing popularity of online video-on-demand services. Between desktop and mobile forms of advertising, the latter has seen a much larger year-on-year growth. In fact, mobile advertising is projected to outstrip desktop in terms of revenue by 2020, and continue to do so for the next two years.