The Advertising Association and WARC’s latest expenditure report records a 6.4% increase in spend – a trend which it predicts to continue.
UK advertising investment rose to £46.7bn in 2025, signalling a 6.4% year-on-year (YoY) increase, according to the latest expenditure report from the Advertising Association (AA) and WARC
Figures show total investment from advertisers hit £12.9bn in Q4 2025 alone, which marks a 8% YoY. Among the channels that saw double digit growth during the quarter were retail media (30.5%), addressable TV (26.9%) and social media, including YouTube, (22%).
Search, which now excludes retail media, also saw investment rise by 8.6% during the golden quarter, as well as out-of-home (OOH) (4.5%) and radio (2.1%).
For the full year, there was significant growth in addressable TV (37%), social media (21%), retail media (17.5%) and online radio (14.9%). Search saw moderate growth in spend at 5.*%, alongside cinema (3.4%), OOH (2.3%) and and radio (1.4%).
While published media (5.1%), TV (not addressable) (-1.2%), and national news brands (-6%) all saw a decline in growth.
Search has continued to have the biggest share of UK ad investment at 38.3%, followed by social media at 24.7% and TV at 11.2%.
AA/ WARC’s report noted that although investment into the industry itself has improved, only half of the categories laid out in the study experienced growth, outlining an inconsistency with some verticals struggling against dominant platforms like search and social media.
Looking ahead
In 2026, AA/WARC predict that advertising investment will grow a further 6.6%, coming to £49.8bn, and again to £52.6bn with 5.6% growth in 2027.
The consolidation of popular advertising verticals, while likely to continue, could also be disrupted by the emerging AI. The AI industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, and is becoming so prolific that even Google’s dominance in search is wavering.
The figures on spend are more positive than the IPA Bellwether report for Q4 2025, which marketing budgets flatline. Although the Q1 2026 report, paints a more upbeat picture with more than a quarter (26.8%) reporting an increase in marketing spend.
