European retail media increased 16.7% in 2025

The European spending on digital advertisements has increased 10.5 percent last year, compared to 2024. The total came to 131.1 billion euros. Retail media had a stronger increase, of 16.7 percent. The market reached a spending of 13.3 billion euros.

These data come from the latest IAB Europe report. It covers 30 European markets and tries to give insights into growth trends across channels, formats and markets of digital advertising investment across Europe. According to the report, every one of the 30 markets that were covered grew in 2025. Previous research already mentioned that spending on digital ads is likely to continue growing.

It seems that the digital advertising market growth has normalized last year, just below its pre-pandemic long-run average. The growth of 10.5 percent is slightly lower than between 2023 and 2024, when the market increased 16 percent. In 2021, the market had a peak of 30.5 percent growth compared to 2020.

Retail media grows above market level

When looking at the different formats, it becomes clear that video-led and retail media were the fastest growers last year. Total video advertising increased 19.6 percent, to 34 billion euros. For the first time, video accounts for more than half of all display investment in Europe. Social advertising increased 19.2 percent, and reached 35.5 billion euros. It is led by social video, which was the fastest-growing format at 25.7 percent.

It is the first time that retail media crosses the threshold of 10% of the total European digital ad spend

In 2025, retail media reached a total of 13.3 billion euros. It is the first time that this market crosses the threshold of 10 percent of the total European digital ad spend. This means that investments in ads on websites of online stores, shopping apps or platforms are making up a bigger share of all digital ads.

United Kingdom biggest digital advertising market

Looking at all digital ad spend across the 30 markets, it becomes clear that the United Kingdom is by far the largest market. Advertisers in the country spent 46.9 billion euros on digital ads. It is followed by Germany (21.6 billion euros) and France (12.7 billion euros). They contribute 62 percent to the total European market.