UK adspend fell 7.2% in 2020 but online platforms fared well

James McDonald

An overview of the change in UK advertising spend by medium and format in 2020.

UK advertising spend fell 7.2% – £1.8bn – in 2020 though online display and search investment saw continued strong growth, according to the latest data from the Advertising Association and WARC.

Brand spend on paid search rose 7.1% to £8.4bn last year, equivalent to over a third (35.7%) of the UK’s ad market for the first time. Online display rose by 10.4%, but this was mostly to the benefit of pure players (+11.8%).

These two sectors combined are expected to account for two-thirds (66.4%) of all UK adspend this year, up ten percentage points from a share of...

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