The European digital advertising market grew 30.5% in 2021 to € 92 billion, marking its strongest year-on-year growth since 2008, according to IAB Europe’s latest “AdEx Benchmark” report.
The report covers 28 markets in Europe, all with double-digit year-on-year growth in 2021. 16 markets grew between 20% and 28% and 7 exceeded the average growth rate of 30.5%. In Italy the growth was 23.6%.
All formats showed robust growth with display ads (including banner, video and audio) having the highest growth (+ 34.5%). Paid search (+ 29.9%) and classifieds, directories and affiliations (+ 11.3%) follow. Display accounts for over 50% of digital ad spend in most markets. In Italy, 65.8%.
Social accounts for 25% of all digital ad spend and 50% of display spend, making it a key driver for display growth. Video is the fastest growing segment within social media. It is also a key driver of display growth, accounting for 41% of all display ad spend. In Italy it weighs 51.5%.
Audio recorded the highest growth in 2021 with + 51.3% to 700 million euros. But it still represents a small part of the digital advertising market, particularly in Italy, where investments in audio were only 19 million. A minimal fraction compared to the 4.2 billion total digital advertising investments invested in 2021 in our country.
Among the 28 nations taken into consideration, Italy ranks sixth in terms of overall level of investments in digital advertising. With a weight of 4.6% of the total 92 billion euros, it is the last of the EU5 countries.
If we analyze digital advertising spending per capita, our country slips further. Compared to a general average of 115 euros, 71 euros are invested in Italy. More than 38% less and very distant from the values of the United Kingdom and the nations of Northern Europe, but also of nations with which we border, as shown by the infographic.
Wanting to see the glass half full, this means that there is ample room for growth. Instead, if we want to see the glass half empty, this is yet another sign of our country’s backwardness as regards digital.
