The UK’s digital advertising industry weathered the pandemic remarkably well. Among the industry sectors we track, digital ad spending will rise across the board (which was not universal last year), but these growth patterns will fluctuate wildly across categories.

In 2020, digital spending increased 8.0% and will rise another 16.8% this year to £19.23 billion ($24.66 billion), cementing the UK’s position as the largest market for digital ad spending in Europe. For the first time, digital will account for more than three-quarters of total UK media spend this year.

Despite some deceleration through to the end of our forecast, gains will still be significant each year, with digital’s share approaching four-fifths of all spend in 2024 at £25.93 billion ($33.26 billion).

Looking at the breakouts of spend across industries, though, the pandemic heralded something of a rollercoaster ride. Ad spending growth was relatively even across the board in 2019, but we saw massive declines in 2020 for some segments like travel (-51.0%) and huge growth for others like computing products and consumer electronics (38.8%).