Web advertising spend tops £4bn for first time

By Ramy Ghaly

Online advertisers in the UK took their annual spend to more than £4bn for the first time last year as the digital market share hit a record high.

Research published today by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that online advertising grew by 12.8 per cent, from £3.5bn in 2009 to £4.1bn a year later. 

The digital share of the UK's total advertising spend of £16.6bn last year rose to 25 per cent. 

The consensus expectation for online advertising for this year is growth of 7.7 per cent, although the IAB said its internal predictions were more optimistic.

Much of 2010's online growth was driven by display advertising, which increased by 27.5 per cent from a year earlier to £945.1m, as more and more companies shifted spending on to the web. 

Search advertising continues to dominate online advertising spending in the UK, which rose 8 per cent in 2010 to £2.3bn.

By THE INDPENDENT via Ctrl-News