IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, released its 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report live at Interact 2025, revealing that the European digital advertising market has achieved double-digit growth, surpassing €118.9bn (£100.2bn) in annual revenue for the first time in constant currency terms.

Now in its nineteenth year, the AdEx Benchmark Report remains the definitive source for advertising expenditure insights across Europe. This year’s edition includes data from 30 national markets - welcoming Portugal for the first time - to deliver a fully harmonised digital advertising investment total for the region. Notably, the Report also offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of retail media as a category.

Despite macroeconomic uncertainty in 2022, the European digital advertising market rebounded strongly in Q4 of 2023, continuing this trajectory into 2024. The latest data reveals double-digit growth of 16%, with total investment reaching €118.9bn (£100.2bn), reinforcing the continued investment by advertisers in the channels and formats shaping the innovative digital advertising ecosystem. This is also the strongest growth recorded since 2011, with the exception of 2021’s digital bonanza in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Key growth drivers:

• Social dominates: Social emerged as one of the strongest-performing channels.
• Video and retail media: Both areas emerged as key growth drivers in 2024, fuelled by changing consumer habits and evolving media consumption. Retail media experienced impressive double-digit growth at 22.2%, while video led the display category with a 24.5% increase, largely driven by growth in connected TV formats, including SVOD and BVOD. Video also accounted for over half of display advertising in nine markets, highlighting its dominant role in the digital landscape.
• Audio presents a mixed picture: While digital audio remains an area of interest, growth in 2024 was more modest, largely due to continued issues with scale and measurement.
• Programmatic re-acceleration: Programmatic also saw a resurgence in 2024.

Market highlights:

• Almost two-thirds of all advertising spend in Europe is now digital.
• 21 out of 30 markets grew double-digit in 2024.
• UK: One of the top growth markets, reaching almost €42bn (£35.3bn), with an advanced digital ecosystem, fuelled the UK’s strong performance.
• Emerging markets shine: Countries such as Ukraine and Serbia saw standout growth, reflecting ongoing digital acceleration and increased advertiser confidence in smaller regions. 

A Dynamic 2024 Outlook

Commenting on the results, Daniel Knapp, chief economist at IAB Europe, said: "Last year, we forecast a 10% growth rate for 2024, which felt ambitious at the time. But the market exceeded expectations – a testament to digital advertising's integral role in European advertising strategies. The end of 2023 marked a clear upward trend, which continued into and through 2024. While 2024 shaped up to be another healthy year, early forecasts for 2025 suggest a renewed period of volatility and that the ‘rollercoaster’ may be restarting. Driven by macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, including the impact of new EU tariffs, advertisers are likely to adopt a cautious, ‘wait-and-see’ approach, prioritising measurable outcomes and performance over broad experimentation."

The full AdEx Benchmark Report 2024 is available to download on IAB Europe’s website here and provides granular insight into digital advertising trends across 30 European markets.

Join the Conversation 

To explore the findings in more detail, join IAB Europe’s virtual AdEx Benchmark Townhall on 28th May at 12:00 CET, where Daniel Knapp will dive into the trends and what the results mean for the future of digital advertising in Europe. Register here.

IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem. Through its membership of media, technology and marketing companies and national IABs, its mission is to lead political representation and promote indus...

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