The Advertising Association and WARC have 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.
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.
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.
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.”
