Europe is perceived by both outsiders and insiders as a more regulation-driven analogue environment compared to its North American counterpart. From the GDPR’s stricter rules, made by the European Union, on the usage of customer data to the state regulations of influencer marketing by countries like France and Sweden, Europe paces up with the digital realm in its own special but responsible way. While Western Europe’s more economically powerful states have always been market-relevant,
have also gained traction on the regional scene in recent years.
Online Europe: top digital performers
In 2022, European advertisers allocated almost half of their
digital ad budgets to display ad formats. Europeans are still drawn to ads shown on apps and websites, but it is video that holds online users’ attention like few others. In 2022, industry players in the United Kingdom allocated over 8.3 billion U.S. dollars towards the medium, which was more than Germany and France -
the next largest markets - spent collectively.
Meanwhile, industry trends, such as sonic branding - the creation of branded soundscapes, have aided audio advertising spending to hit new peaks, with a record 800 million euros in 2022, a 22-percent annual growth compared to the year before.
As advertisers constantly aim to streamline ad buying processes and maximize campaign effectiveness, Europe is also becoming an increasingly competitive
programmatic ad market, valued at almost 96 billion dollars in 2023.
Advertising on the go
As an ever-increasing share of internet traffic is generated via smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising has become an essential tool. In 2023, approximately 49 percent of
European digital ad spend was devoted to mobile ad campaigns. According to the latest forecasts, the digital ad euro flow towards mobile will remain virtually the same in 2024.
One vital driver of mobile ad spend growth is social media. With generations such as Gen Z and Gen Alpha being born directly into the digital realm, and apps such as Instagram drawing millions of users every day, mobile and social media ad spend in Europe are ramping up.
Social media was voted the most effective marketing channel for e-commerce in Europe, so it will likely grab an even larger slice of the region’s digital ad pie in the future.
Future implementations
With users
multiscreening and the second screen being ever so omnipresent, the video format is likely to continue growing in relevance as well. Digital marketers worldwide have been mainly concerned with
reaching target audiences effectively at scale. In this context, it is going to prove extremely important for European marketing professionals to implement the digital consumer trends in a way that fits their more regulated media environment.
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