New data reveals the UK had a bumper year for advertising in 2023, but news publishers lost out as more went to the big tech platforms.

The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report estimates the total UK ad market grew by 6.1% in 2023 to £36.6bn – with online formats now accounting for more than three quarters of the total.

All the growth went to tech giants with Alphabet the biggest winner. Search advertising grew 11.9% last year to £14.7bn, meaning up to around £14bn was spent with Google on search alone. Google also makes money from selling advertising on Youtube and across the web via platforms like Google Adsense and Google Ad Manager.