Half Of All Ad Spend In The UK Now For Digital. Australia Not Far Behind

Young businesswoman drinking coffee and reading news from digital tablet with feet up.
John Bastick
By John Bastick



The UK will become the first country in the world where half of all advertising spend goes on digital media. And Australia – where over 43.3 per cent of all ad spend is now on digital – isn’t far of the magic “50 per cent” mark either.

The Guardian in the UK has reported that eMarketer has predicted that £16.2 billion will be spent on all forms of  advertising in the UK for 2015.

Digital advertising is expected to grow by 12 per cent for the year, taking the spend to £8.1bn, making the UK the first country in where half of all media spend now goes on digital media. According to eMarketer the biggest beneficiary will be advertising on mobile devices that is predicted to rise by 45 per cent to £3.3 billion.

“Digital reaching the 50% threshold in the UK is a significant moment for the ad industry,” said Bill Fisher, analyst at eMarketer, to The Guardian. “The UK ad market is notable for its aggressive embrace of online advertising and its rapid adoption of mobile advertising.”

It is also predicted that half of all marketing spends in the UK will also go digital as more and more customers shop online from their tablets and smartphones.

“Because so much TV and radio programming appears ad-free in the UK the comparative spending on digital channels has always been high,” he said.

Globally digital ad spend accounts for just under 30% of total ad spend; however, Australia was the fourth biggest market globally for digital spend with 43.3 per cent of all dollars now heading online. Only the Brits, Norwegians and the Chinese beat Australia for digital ad spend.

The rest of eMarketer’s 2015 UK report shows that TV ad spending will rise 3.2 per cent this year to £4 billion, while newspaper print advertising is predicted to fall by four per cent to £1.9 billion.

Digital ad spend of total spend by country in 2015.

1. UK 50%
2. Norway 45%
3. China 43.6%
4. Australia 43.3%
5. Denmark 43.1%
6. Netherlands 35.4%
7. Canada 34.3%
8. US 31.3%
9. Sweden 30.5%
10. South Korea 28.4%




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