Austria's digital advertising market expanded to 3.24 billion euros in 2025, yet only 14 percent of that sum remained within the country. The rest flowed to international platforms - a structural drain that a new study warns is intensifying year by year, squeezing domestic publishers and media companies to the margins of their own market.

The findings come from the "MOMENTUM Spendingstudie 2025 und Prognose 2026," published on May 6, 2026, in cooperation with iab austria and IAB Europe. The study, now in its 14th edition, is produced by MOMENTUM Wien and represents one of the most detailed annual assessments of Austria's digital advertising economy. This year's edition includes a notable addition: monthly active user figures for major digital platforms in the European Union, derived from Digital Services Act reporting obligations that require large platforms to disclose user numbers every six months. BuzzValue provided the corresponding data for Austria, which appears in the paid full version of the study.

The 9.2 percent growth figure

According to the study, Austria's digital advertising market grew by 9.2 percent in 2025, reaching 3.24 billion euros. Digital now accounts for 61 percent of total advertising spend in Austria. Classical advertising - television, print, radio, out-of-home - holds the remaining 39 percent. Those headline numbers describe a sector expanding consistently and pulling budget share away from legacy media, a pattern that mirrors the broader European picture, where the continent-wide digital advertising market reached 118.9 billion euros in 2024 with 16 percent growth.

The Austrian growth rate also looks robust against a difficult backdrop. According to the study, the first quarter of 2026 showed a declining advertising balance overall. Digital advertising moved in the opposite direction. The study's 2026 forecast calls for a nine percent increase in digital ad revenues, pushing the total to just over 3.5 billion euros for the year.

What the growth figure does not capture is where the money goes. Austrian publishers and marketers collectively generated 265.9 million euros in 2025 - roughly one tenth of what international platforms captured from the same market. The disparity is not new, but the MOMENTUM study frames it in stark terms. According to study author and MOMENTUM co-founder Bernd Platzer: "Der Trend setzt sich unaufhorlich fort: Es wird konsequent mehr Geld in Digitalwerbung investiert, das vorrangig den globalen Plattformen zugutekommt."

Where the money actually goes

The structural breakdown is precise. Search and social together account for more than two thirds of all digital advertising in Austria, combining for over 2.2 billion euros in 2025. Search alone is dominated by Google, which generates just under one billion euros from Austrian advertisers and holds more than 86 percent of the search market. Microsoft's Bing follows at a considerable distance with approximately 61 million euros and a share of just under 14 percent.

Social media is even more concentrated. Meta's platforms - Facebook and Instagram combined - generated around 858 million euros in Austria in 2025, capturing approximately 79 percent of all social media investment. TikTok ranks third with 145 million euros and a 13.2 percent share. LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, accounts for approximately 36 million euros and a 3.3 percent slice of social spending.

Classical online advertising - display and video - reached a net advertising value of just over half a billion euros, representing a 15.5 percent share of the digital market. This category grew by only 0.5 percent. The classifieds segment was the sole category to decline, falling three percent to approximately 117 million euros and a 3.6 percent market share.

When all revenues flowing from Austria to international providers are combined, Alphabet takes the largest portion. YouTube, Google Search, and Google Network collectively account for 46.6 percent. Meta - Instagram and Facebook - holds 31 percent. Amazon ranks third at 10.8 percent. That single figure is significant: Amazon's share exceeds the combined total of all other measured international platforms, including Snapchat, LinkedIn, Bing, Apple, Pinterest, and X.

The digital tax as a structural indicator

The study uses Austria's digital services tax as an independent measure of market concentration. According to the MOMENTUM study, 98 percent of digital tax revenue in Austria flows to the large international platforms. Ad tech companies, publishers, and the broader long tail of digital media account for only a marginal share. This distribution arises partly from how the tax is structured: intermediaries such as demand-side platforms (DSPs) and sell-side platforms (SSPs) are only taxed on their margin, since they pass advertiser budgets through to other participants in the chain.

In 2025, 65 companies were subject to Austria's digital tax. Together, according to the study, they generated 2.74 billion euros in Austrian revenues, equivalent to 85 percent of the total digital advertising market. The Austrian Ministry of Finance has so far declined to publish a named list of these companies.

The digital tax concentration is not just a fiscal curiosity. It maps almost exactly onto the advertising revenue distribution, confirming that the 86 percent outflow figure is a structural feature of the market rather than a measurement artifact. The pattern is consistent with what has been documented in other European markets: in the UK, two of every three advertising pounds now flows to Google, Meta, and Amazon, while in the United States, those three companies control approximately 72 percent of digital advertising spend, according to EMARKETER data published in July 2025.

Pressure on domestic media

Only 265.9 million euros from Austria's 3.24 billion euro digital advertising market stayed with Austrian publishers and marketers. For context, this is approximately one tenth of what international platforms captured from Austrian advertisers in the same period. iab austria president Hannes Wurzwallner (cptr Austria) described the situation in the study as requiring urgent collective action: "65 Unternehmen sind in Osterreich digitalsteuerpflichtig und erreichen gemas Steuerleistung einen Gesamtumsatz von 2,74 Milliarden Euro, der 85 Prozent des digitalen Werbemarktes entspricht. Die Entwicklung ist nicht neu, aber umso besorgniserregender."

The economic pressure on Austrian national media is therefore not primarily a matter of how large the market is - it is growing fast - but of how little of it circulates domestically. Study author Platzer described the trajectory as one heading toward what he called an "Ende mit Schrecken" without rapid restructuring of media funding for digital offerings and their marketers.

The study points to three structural levers. First, it calls for a reorganisation of media subsidies with a clear focus on digital media and their marketers. Second, it emphasises the need for strong alliances among all market participants. Third, it identifies simplified booking processes for quality advertising environments as a critical tool, making it easier for advertisers to reach Austrian audiences through Austrian media at scale. These are not new recommendations, but the MOMENTUM study frames them as more time-critical than in previous editions.

The 2026 forecast by segment

The study projects total digital advertising revenue in Austria at just over 3.5 billion euros for 2026, representing nine percent growth. The forecast shows differentiated performance across segments, with classical online advertising - display and video - expected to record the highest percentage growth at 16.6 percent. Its overall share, however, would expand only slightly, to 16.5 percent, because the category starts from a small base.

Social media and search together are expected to maintain their grip on approximately two thirds of total digital spending. Social media spending is forecast to grow by 8.7 percent and search by 6.7 percent. Classifieds, which fell three percent in 2025, are projected to recover, growing 7.1 percent to reach a 3.5 percent market share - a modest rebound, though the category remains well below where it stood several years ago.

Amazon Advertising receives dedicated attention in the 2026 forecast. The study projects Amazon's share of the Austrian digital advertising market will reach 9.1 percent, equivalent to approximately 125 million euros. This would place Amazon as the third-largest individual platform by revenue in Austria, behind Alphabet and Meta. The trajectory reflects Amazon's wider pattern of expanding its advertising footprint across European markets, where its advertising services revenue reached 15.7 billion dollars globally in the second quarter of 2025, up 22 percent year on year.

Methodology

The MOMENTUM Spendingstudie 2025 und Prognose 2026 is based on 103 individual structured interviews with media agencies, publishers, marketers, and advertising companies conducted between January and April 2026. The study also draws on digital tax data and the global revenues of major platforms. The 2025 figures covered a year in which 65 companies were subject to Austria's digital services tax. The full version of the study is available from MOMENTUM Wien at 3,900 euros (excluding VAT), with a discounted rate of 2,900 euros for study participants and iab austria members. iab members can download the executive summary from the iab membership area.

What this means for the marketing community

The MOMENTUM study's findings sit within a wider set of structural dynamics that the marketing community has been tracking across markets. The concentration of programmatic spend in a small number of demand-side platforms has reached approximately 85 percent of global market share as of 2026, with Google DV360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo, and Amazon capturing that combined share, up from 75 percent in 2022. The Austrian numbers reflect this compression at the national level.

There is also a methodological dimension that matters for buyers. Because DSPs and SSPs are taxed only on their margins under Austria's digital services tax framework, the 85 percent figure attributed to large platforms in the tax data likely understates the actual level of platform dependency in the ecosystem. Intermediary fees flow through the system without appearing as taxable platform revenue, which means the platforms' effective economic leverage is even greater than the tax statistics suggest.

The 2026 forecast also coincides with a period of macroeconomic uncertainty. The study notes that the first quarter of 2026 showed a broadly stagnating or declining advertising balance in Austria. Digital advertising - and in particular the large platforms - is growing against this backdrop, drawing an increasing share of red-white-red advertising euros even as the overall market shows signs of weakness. The same divergence has been documented in the UK and across the United States, where the structural shift toward platform-led digital spending appears to be independent of broader cyclical conditions.

For advertisers in Austria, the numbers have practical implications. Search spending at 86 percent Google dependency means there is almost no viable alternative at scale in the Austrian market for keyword-based intent advertising. Social spending at 79 percent Meta concentration tells a similar story. Amazon's projected 9.1 percent share in 2026 adds a third significant concentration point, particularly relevant for product-focused advertisers in categories such as retail, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods.

The Austrian case is also a benchmark for the broader European conversation about the relationship between digital platform growth, local media sustainability, and public interest media funding. With only 14 percent of digital advertising revenues remaining in the domestic market, Austrian publishers are competing for a shrinking share of a growing pie. The new DSA-based monthly active user data, now included in the full version of the study, may provide additional granularity on where Austrian consumers are actually spending their attention - data that could inform both commercial strategies and policy discussions in the months ahead.

Timeline

  • 2021: Austria's digital advertising market reached 1.94 billion euros net, as reported by iab austria
  • 2022: Austria's digital advertising market grew 22 percent to 2.37 billion euros net
  • May 22, 2024: MOMENTUM Spendingstudie 2023 und Prognose 2024 published by iab austria
  • April 24, 2025: iab austria projected Austrian digital ad market would grow to 3.2 billion euros in 2025, with global platforms benefiting disproportionately
  • May 21, 2025: IAB Europe's AdEx Benchmark Report showed European digital advertising reached 118.9 billion euros in 2024 with 16 percent growth, noting Austria's 17.8 percent growth as one of the strongest performers
  • July 29, 2025: EMARKETER research confirmed Google, Meta, and Amazon collectively controlled approximately 72 percent of US digital advertising spend
  • August 2025: Amazon advertising services revenue reached 15.7 billion dollars in Q2 2025, up 22 percent year on year, reflecting the platform's global expansion into advertising
  • November 18, 2025: IAB Austria published the AdSuccess Handel 2025 report, showing Austrian retail digital advertising achieved 28.6 percent recall rates
  • May 5, 2026: UK advertising market data showed two of every three pounds going to Google, Meta, and Amazon, confirming a structural concentration pattern consistent with Austria's findings
  • May 6, 2026: MOMENTUM Spendingstudie 2025 und Prognose 2026 published in cooperation with iab austria and IAB Europe, showing 86 percent of Austrian digital ad spend going to international platforms

Summary

Who: MOMENTUM Wien, in cooperation with iab austria and IAB Europe, published the findings. The study covers Austria's digital advertising market, its publishers, marketers, and the international platforms that dominate it - principally Alphabet (YouTube, Google, Google Network), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and Amazon.

What: Austria's digital advertising market grew 9.2 percent in 2025 to 3.24 billion euros, with digital accounting for 61 percent of total Austrian ad spend. However, 86 percent of digital ad revenues flowed to international platforms, leaving only 265.9 million euros - about one tenth of the total - with Austrian publishers and marketers. Alphabet holds 46.6 percent of international revenues from Austria, Meta 31 percent, and Amazon 10.8 percent. The 2026 forecast projects further growth to 3.5 billion euros, with Amazon's share expected to reach 9.1 percent (approximately 125 million euros).

When: The MOMENTUM Spendingstudie 2025 und Prognose 2026 was published on May 6, 2026. The underlying research was conducted between January and April 2026, based on 103 structured interviews plus digital tax and platform revenue data.

Where: Austria. The study covers the Austrian digital advertising market in full, with references to European context through the IAB Europe collaboration and DSA platform user data for the EU.

Why: The study exists to document the scale of advertising revenue concentration in Austria and to inform debate about media funding restructuring. Only 14 percent of digital advertising spend remains in the domestic market, creating what the study describes as mounting economic pressure on national digital media and their marketers - pressure that the authors argue requires rapid policy action and market coordination to address.

Share this article
The link has been copied!