IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, has released its 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report at Interact 2025, revealing that the European digital advertising market has achieved double-digit growth, surpassing €118.9 billion in annual revenue for the first time in constant currency terms.
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. The Report also offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of Retail Media as a category.
IAB Europe 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report Highlights:
- Digital dominates: 67.2% of all advertising spend in Europe is now digital.
- Double-digit growth: European digital advertising market grew by 16%, reaching €118.9 billion – the highest annual revenue recorded in constant currency terms.
- Social still growing: Social emerged as one of the strongest-performing channels at 23.9%.
- Retail Media still trending upward: Retail Media experienced impressive double-digit growth at 22.2%.
- Video:
- Video led the Display category with a 24.5% increase, largely driven by growth in Connected TV formats.
- Video also accounted for over 50% of Display advertising in nine markets, highlighting its dominant role in the digital landscape.
- Programmatic re-acceleration: Programmatic also saw a resurgence in 2024, seeing 18.4% growth.
- UK is the top growth market: the UK has close €42 billion in digital advertising revenue, bolstered by its mature digital ecosystem.
Retail Media experienced impressive double-digit growth at 22.2%
Retail media growth powered by search
Commenting on the results, Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist at IAB Europe, says: “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. 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.”
