Digital advertising spend in the Irish market for 2021 was c.€830m, an increase of 27%, according to an estimate prepared by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PwC.
To come up with the estimate, IAB and PwC canvassed 20 publishers and two sales houses, as well as some advertising agencies.
According to IAB, participating publishers were selected on the basis of traffic data and market knowledge, and IAB/PwC estimates that their study accounts for 90% of online ad spend in Ireland.
Adspend revenue was drawn up on the basis of figures provided by the study participants on a confidential basis to PwC.
Google, Meta (including Instagram), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn do not publish their earnings from Irish advertisers.
In Association with
PwC and IAB estimate the platforms’ ad revenue in Ireland by extrapolating from spend data provided by a sample of their clients.
RTÉ does not submit data to the IAB PwC Adspend Study. The digital spend across RTE properties is estimated through a Freedom of Information request as well as discussions with media buyers, according to the IAB.
The main trend identified in the report is a 40% increase in display advertising to an estimated €500m, with Social growth estimated at 41% and Video at 53% YoY. According to the estimate, digital display advertising has 60% share of the total Irish digital advertising market.
Search advertising grew by 10% YoY in 2021 with an estimated ad spend of €290m and a share of 35% of the total Irish digital advertising market.
Suzanne McElligott, CEO, IAB Ireland, commented: “2021 saw a dramatic take off in eCommerce as businesses increasingly adopted digital channels to recruit, engage and fulfil consumers during the pandemic. The digital adspend growth recorded in 2021 reflects digital moving centre stage for SMEs and large local and global brands.”
Connor Mace, Strategy Manager at PwC, added: “Non-social display grew by 28% in 2021 and is 14% higher than in 2019, which reflects a strong performance for publishers in the Irish market.”
