The Advertising Association and WARC worked with industry stakeholders to update channel definitions, simplify public reporting, and include new standalone channels
London, April 30, 2026: The Advertising Association and WARC have today published a refreshed advertising Expenditure Report, following extensive collaboration with industry stakeholders to ensure advertising investment reflects the evolving media landscape.
The latest report – drawn from a survey of media owners and the industry bodies that represent them – reveals that UK advertising investment increased by 6.4% year-on-year in 2025 to reach £46.7 billion, with data showing £12.9bn was committed to media during last year’s Q4 festive season alone.
AA/WARC’s refresh includes updated channel definitions, developed in consultation with stakeholders responsible for each channel, as well as a simplified reporting format. This includes retail media and social media, which are now being presented publicly as standalone channels for the first time. The result is a refined dataset for public use that reflects an even deeper understanding of the dynamic media marketplace in 2026, while subscribers can continue to enjoy further analysis of spend by channel and by category.
The Advertising Association and WARC worked closely with representative industry bodies, including IAB UK, IPA, ISBA, Newsworks, Marketreach, Outsmart, the Cinema Advertising Association, PPA, Radiocentre and Thinkbox to redraw media definitions to reflect current trading practices.
Q4 2025 Performance
The new figures reveal a total investment by advertisers of £12.9 billion in media space during Q4 2025, an increase of 8.0% year-on-year. Within this, retail media (30.5%), addressable TV (26.9%) and social media, including YouTube, (22.0%) all saw strong double-digit growth. Search, now excluding retail media, rose 8.6% during the festive season while out of home (4.5%) and radio (2.1%) both saw overall spend increases.
Full year 2025 and forecasts
Across 2025, advertising investment increased by 6.4% year-on-year to reach £46.7 billion. Double-digit growth was recorded across addressable TV (37.0%), social media (21.0%), retail media (17.5%) and online radio (14.9%) that year. Search (5.8%), cinema (3.4%) and out-of-home (2.3%) also saw an increase in year-on-year growth. Search has continued to account for the biggest share of UK advertising investment at 38.3%, followed by social media (24.7%) and TV (11.2%).
Looking ahead, AA/WARC forecasts predict an increase in advertising investment by 6.6% to £49.8 billion in 2026, and by 5.6% to £52.6 billion in 2027.
This refresh represents phase one of a programme to update AA/WARC’s Expenditure Report in line with the UK’s dynamic advertising and media landscape. A second phase will see a working group of stakeholders convened to address further areas for refinement, including developing a clearer understanding of investment in the influencer / creator channel, how to address investment in the emerging Gen AI / LLM advertising channel, and increased understanding of how investment in media may differ between large brand advertisers and the long tail of SMEs, which together are estimated to comprise 3.5 million UK businesses alone that advertise each year in the UK, as well as many more from overseas.
Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive of the Advertising Association, said:
“I would like to thank all our stakeholders for their feedback, collaboration and active participation in this process. This evolution of the AA/WARC Expenditure Report will ensure the industry has the best possible information to guide understanding of investment across the UK advertising and media landscape, reflecting how dynamic and diverse that landscape has become.”
James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting, WARC, said:
“The AA/WARC Expenditure Report has been a staple for practitioners for over four decades, and this latest iteration – developed in close consultation with industry stakeholders – ensures our investment benchmarks will continue to accurately reflect the pace of change in advertising trade for many years to come. The result is greater clarity and transparency around media investment in the UK, to the benefit of both the media industry and the public at large.”
| MEDIUM | 2025 | 2025 | 2026 | Q4 2025 |
| £m nominal |
Yr-on-yr % change | Yr-on-yr % change | Yr-on-yr % change | |
| Cinema | 219.8 | 3.4% | 4.1% | -22.0% |
| Direct Mail | 966.9 | 0.3% | -1.8% | -3.3% |
| Online Classified | 899.3 | -2.2% | -1.3% | -0.4% |
| Other Online Display* | 2,513.4 | -20.0% | -25.3% | -22.5% |
| Out of Home | 1,426.3 | 2.3% | 3.1% | 4.5% |
| of which digital | 954.6 | 3.0% | 4.5% | 7.0% |
| Published Media | 1,552.2 | -5.1% | -2.3% | -4.3% |
| Magazine Brands | 445.2 | -5.1% | -4.6% | -3.9% |
| of which online | 258.3 | -0.2% | -2.6% | 5.6% |
| National News Brands | 695.2 | -4.6% | -0.9% | -3.4% |
| of which online | 345.4 | -0.9% | 2.1% | 2.8% |
| Regional News Brands | 411.9 | -6.0% | -2.0% | -6.7% |
| of which online | 243.0 | -2.2% | -0.3% | -7.6% |
| Radio | 747.3 | 1.4% | 2.2% | 2.1% |
| of which online | 89.5 | 14.9% | 6.2% | 11.9% |
| Retail Media | 3,749.9 | 17.5% | 14.6% | 30.5% |
| Search | 17,876.1 | 5.8% | 7.3% | 8.6% |
| Social Media | 11,515.4 | 21.0% | 14.5% | 22.0% |
| TV | 5,216.1 | -1.2% | 3.7% | -5.3% |
| of which addressable | 1,839.0 | 37.0% | 13.4% | 26.9% |
| ALL MEDIA TOTAL | 46,682.7 | 6.4% | 6.6% | 8.0% |
| Source: AA/WARC Expenditure Report, April 2026 | ||||
* Excludes display revenues from magazine brands, news brands, radio, retail media, social media and TV. Includes audio, gaming, video outstream, display embedded formats, native advertising and section take-overs.
Notes to editors:
Table: Definitions of the mediums represented
| Medium | Definition |
| Cinema | On-screen ads. These are video or static advertisements shown on the big screen before the movie begins. They can range from short commercials to longer promotional content. |
| Direct Mail | Based on a total of postage and non-postage costs. The postage element is based on direct mail sales and survey data. Direct mail includes items such as unrequested catalogues and vouchers/money-off coupons but excludes requested catalogues. Non-postage elements include production costs such as design, printing and packaging. |
| Online Classified | Classified ads for online companies listing specific products or services, e.g. jobs, cars, property, services, B2B. |
| Other Online Display | Excludes display revenues from magazine brands, news brands, radio, retail media, social media and TV. Includes audio, gaming, video outstream, display embedded formats, native advertising and section take-overs.
Audio: Audio ads placed within digital music services (e.g., Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora) and podcasts. Formats include pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and sponsored playlists. Ads in podcasts include sponsorships, host-read ads, or short radio-style spots. Ads can be inserted in real time when you play an episode, edited directly into the audio, or read by the podcast host. |
| Out of Home | Includes classic and digital ad formats across key environments: transport, roadside, and retail as well as other environments. |
| Published Media | Encompasses the total print and online advertising revenue generated by consumer, business, national, and regional magazine and news brand title. To include:
Magazine brands – Includes print and online ad revenues for consumer and business magazines across display and classified. Online ad revenues include audio and video.
News brands – Includes print and online ad revenues for national and regional news brands across display and classified. Online ad revenues include audio and video, online brand partnerships and distributed content. |
| Radio | Radio includes spot, branded content and online ad format revenues. Online radio includes targeted in-stream radio/audio advertising sold by UK commercial radio companies, together with online S&P inventory. |
| Retail Media (online) | Advertising that takes place within a retailer’s or marketplace’s owned digital properties, such as their website, app, or marketplace platforms. These ads often use the retailer’s first-party data to enhance targeting capabilities and are placed directly within their ecosystem. |
| Search | Excludes retail media. Includes affiliate search listings, search ads and search shopping ads. Affiliate search listings: Paid listings that appear on search engines through affiliate marketing partnerships, where publishers earn commission. Search ads: Text ads that appear in search engine results when people look for keywords. Advertisers pay when someone clicks their ad. Search shopping ads: Visual ads that show products from a retailer’s catalogue in search results. These ads link directly to product pages and are usually paid for on a cost -per-click basis |
| Social Media | Includes ads delivered on social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube). Includes influencer-created video content that is promoted or sponsored. |
| TV | Includes spot advertising, sponsorship, addressable and other TV: Spot: linear advertisements Sponsorship: sponsorship and partnerships Addressable: all addressable formats, including linear addressable, BVOD, pause ads, SVOD, AVOD, FAST, etc. Other TV: all other revenues not included elsewhere, including product placement, AFP, broadcaster revenue from YouTube, licensing, etc. |
FAQs
- What are the AA/WARC figures?
The Advertising Association/WARC quarterly Expenditure Report is the definitive guide to advertising expenditure in the UK. Impartial and independent of any media channel or agency affiliation, it is the only source of historical quarterly ad spend data and forecasts for the different media for the coming eight quarters.
- How often are the AA/WARC figures published?
AA/WARC figures are published every quarter, and the Report also includes comprehensive forecasts for the next two years, helping agencies, analysts, media owners and advertisers allocate budgets, analyse risks and make better-informed decisions based on reliable data.
- Why is this set of figures different to previous editions of the expenditure report?
We have gone through extensive collaboration with industry stakeholders to ensure advertising investment reflects the evolving media landscape. The refresh includes updated channel definitions, a simplified reporting format and new standalone channels, including retail media and social media.
Definitions
- How have the definitions changed?
The Advertising Association and WARC worked closely with representative industry bodies, including IAB UK, IPA, ISBA, Newsworks, MarketReach, Outsmart, the Cinema Advertising Association, PPA, Radiocentre and Thinkbox to redraw media definitions which reflects the evolving media landscape.
Context behind AA/WARC
- Why do these figures differ from those reported by the IAB?
They don’t, the AA/WARC cites IAB data and as such search, display and classified components will sum to the totals published by the IAB, with the exception of digital OOH which is counted separately in WARC reporting. The only difference is in how these formats are represented.
This approach now aligns with WARC’s reporting around the world.
- Is this approach used for the whole UK market?Yes, the approach is consistent for all media.
- Is this measurement approach specific to the UK, or is it used in other markets?WARC uses this approach in all 100 markets it monitors internationally, and it has been developed alongside industry stakeholders and practitioners.
- Why is the data from the IAB pre-2024 not comparable to current data?IAB UK changed supplier to Oliver Wyman in 2024, where previously data was compiled by PwC. PwC’s approach was modelled at a company level and therefore did not account for the full online market, whereas Oliver Wyman’s modelling is grossed up to represent total online spend. Therefore, comparison of data between the two differing methodologies is not like-for-like.
- When do you expect to begin measuring and reporting spend on generative AI?
This is an area for discussion – we’re exploring it, though not committing to it at this stage.
- What is the difference between what is publicly available in the AA/WARC Expenditure report vs for WARC subscribers?Far more granular detail is available to AA/WARC subscribers, including more detailed format splits from all media, product category level data, and access to the full dataset dating back to 1982.
- When will the next report be released?
The next AA/WARC Expenditure report will be released on 29 July 2026.
