Online video ad investment reached £4.12 billion in the first half of 2024.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) H1 2024 report, conducted with MediaSense, the online video sector grew by a 26% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, overall, the UK digital ad market grew by 16% to £16.22 billion, highlighting online’s rapid growth trajectory.

Video ad spend far surpassed the UK’s GDP growth of 0.5%, outpacing mobile (22%), non-video display (17%), non-mobile (8%), and digital out-of-home (7%) growth, the data revealed.

Commenting on the latest Digital Adspend results, Jon Mew, CEO of IAB UK, said: “This data shows that established trends – particularly the growth of video advertising and dominance of mobile spend – have accelerated in the first half of 2024.

“Advertisers are increasingly utilising digital channels to deliver across the marketing funnel and build brands, with recent effectiveness research showing that marketers believe online channels deliver more emotional impact than offline media. I see that reflected in the fact that video – a highly engaging and creative format – is leading the charge when it comes to spend growth.”