Thirty per cent of all UK advertising budgets are spent online, new research has found. That gives the UK internet industry the highest share of national ad spend of any market in Europe.

Its nearest challenger are the Nordic markets, at between 20% and 25%, while France and Germany are close to the European average of 18-19%, according to the Interactive Advertising Europe survey of annual advertising expenditure.

Its figures show that online advertising across 23 European markets grew despite recession by 4.5% last year to €14.7bn. This, however, represented a sharp slowdown in the rate of growth compared to previous years. In 2008, the market grew by 20% and in 2007 by 40%. The US market came to €16.3bn in 2009.

In the UK, spend on online advertising grew by 4.6%, compared to 1.7% for France and 5.2% for Germany.

The biggest growth came in search advertising, which rose by 10.8% across Europe while growth in display advertising was flat, expanding by just 0.8%. In the UK, the value of display advertising fell by 5%.

Alain Heureux, president and chief executive of IAB Europe, said praised the “resilience” of the market.

“We are at a crossroads for the online advertising market,” he said. “We have a booming search market supporting traffic and sales and lead generation, and online display is ripe for further growth due in part to the success of video and social media.

“New techniques and business models provide the perfect platform for the next phase of online display growth. We believe the time is perfect for advertisers to move their branding campaigns online.”

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