UK ad spend hits £12.5bn in Q3 as market charges toward £50bn milestone.
Digital dominance and blockbuster bumps drive UK ad market to record highs
The UK advertising market posted 11.4% growth to £12.5bn in Q3 2025, putting it on track to break through £50bn for the first time next year.
The Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, released today, shows total 2025 spend at an estimated £46.9bn, up 10.1%. That’s the fifth consecutive year of growth, and it’s happening despite what the report politely calls “subdued household incomes” and “a softening labour market.”
Search and online display now account for 83% of total spend in Q3, up 14.6% year-on-year. Digital dominance isn’t news. What’s interesting is where the outlier growth appeared.
The pattern is obvious: advertisers chase guaranteed eyeballs. When content delivers engaged audiences at scale, the money follows, whether it’s cinema, streaming, or digital audio.
Search is forecast to grow 14.5% in 2025, with another 10.2% projected for 2026. Online display hits 13.3% this year, then 8.4% next. Together, they represent the bulk of market growth, which tells you everything about how CFOs now think about marketing budgets. Economic uncertainty doesn’t kill ad spend - it redirects it toward channels that can prove ROI.
Worth flagging: IAB UK partnered with Oliver Wyman on its Digital Adspend study, introducing new methodology from H1 2025. That makes year-on-year comparisons for search, online display, and online classifieds impossible to reconcile with previous data. Convenient timing for a reset, and frustrating for anyone trying to track actual performance trends.
Linear TV fell 2.3% for the full year. TV VOD jumped 16.1%. The delivery mechanism matters less than the content, but the structural shift toward streaming is accelerating. WARC forecasts TV VOD growing 13.8% in 2026 - the highest growth rate of any channel - largely because of the FIFA World Cup.
Out-of-home grew 2.3%, with digital OOH up 2.6%. That’s holding territory, not gaining it. Print continues its slide: national newsbrands down 4.3%, regional newsbrands down 4.9%, magazine brands down 4.9%. Their online versions show smaller declines or marginal gains, but not enough to make a difference. Radio grew 1.7% overall, but online radio’s 15.2% surge is doing the heavy lifting.
Direct mail slipped 0.8%. Cinema’s projected 2026 growth is just 0.2% - this year’s 17% forecast represents the blockbuster bump, not a sustained trend.
Stephen Woodford at the Advertising Association called the figures proof that “businesses of all sizes invest in advertising to help them grow.” James McDonald at WARC pointed to “enduring resilience” and brands focusing on “culturally relevant moments” despite economic headwinds.
The 2026 forecast of £50.4bn represents 7.5% growth - down from this year’s 10.1%. That deceleration reflects economic reality catching up, but it’s still solid growth given the backdrop.
The FIFA World Cup will spike spending across TV and streaming in 2026. It always does. Linear TV is forecast to rebound 2.8% after this year’s decline, which is classic tournament impact. The real question is whether these events accelerate the structural shift to digital or just temporarily lift traditional channels.
The answer appears to be both, but the ratio keeps tilting digital. Performance channels are growing at double-digit rates, while traditional media struggles for low-single-digit gains or faces declines. The £50bn milestone makes a good headline, but the composition matters more than the total.
This is a market where digital commands 83% of spend, where streaming and digital audio are eating traditional media’s lunch, and where advertisers increasingly pay for guaranteed attention rather than estimated reach. The IAB’s methodology reset makes it harder to verify the digital growth claims, which probably suits the platforms just fine.
Economic uncertainty hasn’t stopped spending - it’s made marketers more demanding about what they buy and how they measure it. The money is moving to channels that can prove they work and moments that guarantee audiences show up.
