Advertisers have spent more money on video advertising than banner ads for the first time ever, due to the rise in popularity of the online video format.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK) in conjunction with PwC Digital Adspend report, advertisers spent £700 million on video advertising, a 46% rise year-on-year. Spending on banner ads, on the other hand, saw an increase of just 2% to £685 million.
Video advertising now accounts for 35% of all display ad spend, making the platform one of the fastest-growing ad formats.
“The time people spend watching online video has grown tremendously over the last few years, so it’s little wonder that video is now the fastest-growing ad format as advertisers look to tap into the changing way people consume content,” commented Jon Mew, CEO at the IAB UK.
Dave Counsel, Digital Trading Director at media agency the7stars added the digital platform is the “most important and powerful format”.
“Growth in online consumption, improvements in measurement, quality of placements, targeting and creativity are now available alongside its unrivalled effectiveness.”
In addition, advertising spend on outstream and social in-feed doubled, accounting for 52% of video spend (£363 million).
Display advertising grew by 18% to £2 billion, while search ads grew 15% to £2.8 billion and classifieds remained steady at £692 million. Digital ad spending overall increased 13.8% to £5.56 billion in 2017.
Growth has been a constant theme about digital advertising but remains as only one indicator of its success.
“It’s about shifting focus to initiatives that will ensure the long-term sustainable health of the industry as it enters adulthood, and provide advertisers with the best possible environment,” commented Mew.
Mobile advertising spend was 38% year-on-year and now accounts for 57% of all display advertising, 70% of video and 83% of social media spend.
“No doubt this is welcome news but as an industry we must continue to address the issues we surfaced this year, and challenge ourselves to ensure that the advertising growth is protected in the long term,” said Will King, commercial director at performance marketing platform Voluum.