Zenith: UK ad spend to grow 13.5% in 2021, fuelled by digital ad market

A strong digital ad market is set to fuel ad spend growth of 13.5% in the UK, according to Zenith’s latest Advertising Expenditure Forecasts report. That is 8.5% higher than 2019’s pre-pandemic ad spend, with digital advertising predicted to account for 75% of all ad spend in the UK this year. 

Globally, spend is estimated to increase by 11.2% to £522 billion, with ecommerce and online video identified as key drivers of growth. Zenith predicts that online video will grow by 26% this year, making it the fastest growing digital channel in 2021. Meanwhile, the ecommerce market is resulting in greater social media spend - predicted to rise by 25% this year to reach £107 billion and a further 13% next year. Paid search is predicted to grow by 19% to reach £105 billion.

Zenith attributes much of the new money entering the ad market to small businesses that have had to pivot their strategies during the pandemic: “From budgets that brands would previously have allocated to retailers to secure physical shelf-space… they are now spending on display and search ads on retailer websites.” 

The predictions shared in Zenith’s latest report show a continuation of the trends seen in our latest Digital Adspend report, which showed that social and video display both grew by 19% in 2020. At the IAB, one of our key focuses over the past year has been supporting small businesses' use of digital advertising via our Powering Up research and creation of an online SME tool. 

Find out more about Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts here.