IAB UK’s HY 2026 Digital Adspend Report Launches
The report offers insights into the digital advertising market's performance during the first half of the year, with research conducted by mediasense.
The UK digital advertising market reached £21.2bn in the first six months of 2026, up 13% year on year, according to IAB UK’s Digital Adspend Study HY 2026, produced with mediasense. Advertisers invested almost £5bn more in digital advertising in H1 2026 than they did across the entirety of 2020.
Online retail media and video were the strongest growth engines. Online retail media grew faster than any other category, rising 32% to £2.0bn, while video increased 18% to £5.1bn.
Search remained the largest category, increasing 10% to £9.1bn and accounting for 43% of total digital ad spend. Display grew 9% to £3.1bn, while other formats collectively accounted for £3.9bn.
The £3.9bn invested across other formats included £2.0bn in online retail media, £0.7bn in gaming, £0.5bn in digital out-of-home, £0.5bn in classified advertising and £0.2bn in audio.
Other key takeaways include:
- Mobile remained dominant at £15.1bn, representing 71% of spend, while non-mobile accounted for £6.0bn, or 29%. The device split was unchanged from HY 2025.
- Programmatic trading accounted for £17.2bn, or 81% of the market, up three percentage points from 78% in HY 2025.
- Platforms generated £15.2bn, equal to 72% of total digital ad spend, and grew 19% year on year.
TV+ grew 22% to £1.7bn and represented one third of total video spend. Gaming increased 10% to £0.7bn, audio rose 9% to £0.2bn and classified advertising grew 4% to £0.5bn. Publishing revenues grew 4% to £380m.
The study also highlights the pressures shaping advertiser decisions. Economic uncertainty was cited as a top-three challenge by 70% of survey respondents, ahead of AI and automation at 37% and measurement at 30%. Advertisers are placing greater scrutiny on accountability, incrementality and measurable business outcomes, while AI is reshaping search, campaign planning, creative development and publisher traffic.
Looking ahead, mediasense estimates that UK digital advertising spend will grow by 12% across 2026 to £45.2bn, before rising a further 10.7% to £50.0bn in 2027. Platforms, online retail media and TV+ are expected to remain well placed to capture growth, although the forecast is directional and may not reflect external shocks, regulatory changes or platform-specific disruption.
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