The European digital advertising market grew by 13.9 per cent – the fastest growth since 2011 – to reach €55.1bn in 2018, thanks to the strength of spending in video, mobile, and social.

According to IAB Europe’s latest AdEx Benchmark study, which covers 28 markets across Europe, 21 markets witnessed a double-digit year-on-year (YoY) growth last year. Looking particularly at where the spend is going, both outstream video and mobile grew by double-digits in all 28 markets.

Outstream video grew by 44.7 per cent on average versus instream’s 19.7 per cent. Overall, video accounted for 33 per cent of the display market, growing 30.9 per cent to reach €7.6bn in spend.

The display market is being fuelled by social, which grew 33.7 per cent YoY to account for 49 per cent of display.

Search grew by 12.5 per cent to achieve a market value of €25bn, remaining the largest advertising category. Meanwhile, total mobile ad spend jumped by 31.4 per cent in 2018, reaching €22.8bn and accounting for 41 per cent of all digital ad spend across Europe.

“It is encouraging to see such healthy, double-digit growth across the entire region, driven largely by mobile and video. The digital advertising industry now contributes €55bn towards European Gross Domestic Product and is adding value to both mature and emerging markets,” said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO. “With digital advertising now accounting for 45 per cent of all paid media advertising across the region and new European data protection rules making users more aware of their choices about how their data is processed, it is important that we focus on delivering privacy-first ad experiences that protect consumers and support Europe’s digital economy.”

The UK’s market size is by far the biggest at €18.4bn, over €10bn above second place Germany’s €7.2bn and third place France’s €5.2bn. The biggest growth in Europe was experienced in Ukraine (26.9 per cent), followed by Russia (24.9 per cent), Belarus (23.6 per cent), Czech Republic (20.9 per cent), and Serbia (20.1 per cent).