IAB Spain this month published its annual Estudio de Inversión Publicitaria en Medios Digitales, confirming that Spain's digital advertising market closed 2025 at €6,211.2 million - a figure that represents 11.2% growth over 2024 and a 24.8% cumulative increase from 2023. The study, produced in collaboration with PwC and based on data from 78 participating companies, is the most comprehensive annual measurement of digital advertising investment in Spain, conducted annually by IAB Spain since 2002.

The headline number matters not just for its size but for what it says about the changing shape of advertising spending across the country. Digital now accounts for 69.1% of all measured advertising investment in Spain, up three percentage points from 66.0% in 2024. Television, by contrast, fell 8.7% to €1,513.7 million, dropping its share of total media from 19.6% to 16.8%. The full advertising market across all controlled media - digital, television, radio, outdoor, press, magazines, and cinema - reached €8,984.4 million in 2025, growing 6.0% year on year, according to data sourced jointly from IAB Spain and Infoadex.

Search and social still dominate, but margins matter

Search remains the largest single category in Spanish digital advertising. Investment reached €1,992.6 million in 2025, representing 32.1% of total digital spend, and grew 11.3% compared to 2024 - closely matching the market's overall growth rate. The category's momentum was notably stronger in the second half of the year, growing 13.3% in H2 against 9.8% in H1, suggesting that search spending continued to accelerate through the back end of 2025. For the wider marketing community tracking Spain's programmatic landscape, IAB Spain's 2026 trends report flagged that search may moderate its growth in 2026 amid emerging AI-based discovery tools and new agents entering the search ecosystem.

Social networks ranked second, with €1,832.5 million invested - 29.5% of total digital spend. Growth reached 13.2% year on year, though the category decelerated from a stronger first half (16.2% growth in H1) to a more modest second half (10.0% in H2). The methodological note in the study is worth observing: YouTube's investment is counted within the video display category, not social networks, which means the social figure reflects platforms like Meta's properties, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and others, but excludes YouTube.

Display (excluding social networks and branded content) totalled €1,225.9 million and grew only 1.4% year on year. The overall muted performance masked diverging subsegments. Display non-video actually declined 3.3% for the full year, falling to €654.0 million, though the category recovered in the second half, growing 2.9% in H2 after contracting 9.4% in H1. Video display, at €535.2 million, posted 7.9% growth, with H1 particularly strong at 13.8%. Native advertisingreached €36.8 million with a slim 1.2% gain, its half-year pattern moving from a 10.5% contraction in H1 to a 13.9% rebound in H2.

The programmatic split across segments that support automated buying - display non-video, video, native, audio, CTV, and DOOH - shows direct deals still commanding 60% of investment against programmatic's 40%, according to data from Market Monitoring by OJD and PwC analysis. That 40% figure positions Spain broadly in line with more mature European markets, and the forecast suggests programmatic will grow further in specific segments, particularly DOOH. Magnite's recent decision to open its first Madrid office reflects that calculation directly, with the company identifying Spain's programmatic growth potential as a key strategic priority.

Connected TV: the year's standout performer

No category moved faster in 2025 than connected television. CTV investment reached €174.9 million, growing 48.4% over 2024. The first half of the year drove particularly intense growth - up 59.0% versus H1 2024 - before moderating to 40.9% in H2. The cumulative gain from 2023 stands at 121.5%, according to IAB Spain's report. Despite this acceleration, CTV accounts for only 2.8% of total digital advertising investment, indicating that rapid percentage growth is happening from a comparatively modest base. The category is defined as investment in video across broadcasters and OTT platforms within their CTV products, including HbbTV formats such as ad replacement and display advertising - without filtering by device.

The forecast for 2026 is wide: IAB Spain and PwC project CTV growth of between 30% and 60%, reflecting genuine uncertainty about how quickly advertisers will shift budgets toward streaming environments as linear television continues to lose share. The structural mechanics of that shift were examined in detail when IAB Spain published its first harmonization guide for connected TV bid request parameters in January 2026, establishing P1 and P2 field priorities for programmatic CTV transactions across sixteen participating companies including Atresmedia, Google, Smartclip, The Trade Desk, and WPP Media.

The standardization push matters because fragmentation has been one of the persistent structural barriers to CTV scaling faster in programmatic channels. IAB Tech Lab published standardized CTV ad format guidelines in December 2025covering six formats - pause ads, menu ads, squeezeback, overlay, in-scene insertions, and screensaver ads - that exist outside traditional ad pods and had previously been implemented inconsistently across platforms. For buyers planning CTV campaigns in the Spanish market, industry analysis flagged four common execution mistakes including open-market buying without curation and the application of web-based measurement approaches to fundamentally different streaming environments.

Influencers: a category that has doubled since 2023

Influencer marketing reached €158.4 million in 2025, growing 25.9% over 2024. Since 2023 - when IAB Spain began formally tracking the segment separately - the category has grown 100.1% in cumulative terms, effectively doubling in two years. The growth was more pronounced in the first half of 2025 (31.2%) than the second (22.3%), though both periods showed double-digit expansion. For 2026, IAB Spain projects continued growth of between 20% and 40%.

The study's methodology distinguishes between online and physical influencer investment through a specific analytical split. The study defines influencer investment as marketing expenditure directed at influence marketing in digital environments. This granularity is relevant given that the creator economy has been shifting toward in-person experiences, with a significant portion of creator activity now occurring at live events and physical activations. IAB Spain's third annual guide to reaching new generations, published in November 2025, found that 65% of brands most effectively connecting with Spanish Gen Z audiences are domestic fashion companies, underlining the national character of much influencer activity in Spain.

The IAB Spain report notes that influencer growth will create measurement and regulatory challenges. Return on investment remains difficult to quantify consistently, and regulatory frameworks governing influencer disclosure continue tightening across European markets.

Audio digital and classified advertising

Audio digital reached €144.4 million in 2025, up 8.5% year on year. Within this total, streaming - which includes music platforms and live radio consumption - accounted for €132.4 million, representing 91.7% of audio digital investment. Podcast advertising stood at €12.0 million, or 8.3% of audio, but posted 27% year-on-year growth - substantially faster than streaming's 7.1%. The divergence points toward evolving consumption patterns, with on-demand audio formats attracting stronger advertising momentum than real-time streaming despite the latter's larger share. The 2026 forecast for audio digital spans 8% to 16%, with both streaming and podcast positioned as opportunities for radio revenue to migrate into digital measurement.

Classified advertising delivered one of the sharper accelerations across the study. At €423.4 million - 6.8% of total digital investment - the category grew 20.2% in 2025, against 5.1% growth in the prior year. The second half proved stronger, with H2 growth reaching 23.2% compared to 18.4% in H1. IAB Spain's report describes this as a reactivation of demand. The 2026 forecast moderates expectations to between 4% and 8% growth.

Branded content reached €115.5 million, growing 8.7% in a pattern described as notably stable, with H1 up 8.8% and H2 up 8.5%. IAB Spain noted the category exceeded 2025 growth forecasts. DOOH stood at €143.5 million, up 8.9% year on year, with consistent first-half (8.4%) and second-half (9.4%) performance. Since 2022, cumulative DOOH investment growth has reached 29.6%, although the rate of expansion has slowed compared to earlier periods.

Affiliate marketing, the annex data

The study's annex segment covers affiliate marketing, which is tracked separately from the main digital investment totals. The category reached €250.9 million in 2025, growing 22.0% compared to 2024. Since 2020, affiliate marketing has tripled from €84.0 million, growing through consecutive annual rates of 29.1% (2021), 24.9% (2022), 38.1% (2023), 10.0% (2024), and 22.0% (2025). The consistency of that growth trajectory across economic conditions suggests structural demand rather than cyclical fluctuation.

Advertiser mix: who spent the most

The study uses Adjinn data to break down digital advertising spending by sector share of voice. Editorial and publishing leads with 9.6% of measured investment, followed closely by automotive at 9.5% and leisure and entertainment at 9.1%. Distribution comes in at 8.7%, and institutional advertisers at 7.8%. Finance accounts for 7.4%. Consumer electronics, food and drink, industrial sectors, and tourism round out the upper tier. The breadth of advertiser sectors represented reflects digital advertising's role across the full economy rather than concentration in a single vertical.

Methodology and participants

The study draws on two data streams: controlled investment reported directly by participating companies, and estimated investment for the non-participating segment of the market, modelled through a PwC econometric framework that incorporates historical data, sectoral reports, macroeconomic variables, and publicly available annual accounts. Data collection uses structured questionnaires and qualitative interviews, tracked biannually across a panel of companies.

The 78 participating organisations span media agencies, specialist agencies, classified platforms, affiliates, publishers, intermediaries, and DOOH operators. Among them are Havas Media Network, Dentsu, Publicis Groupe, IKI Group, WPP Media, Omnicom Media Group, IPG Mediabrands, Alma Mediaplus, Teads, Alkemy, ROI Up Group, T2O, Elogia, Atresmedia Publicidad, Prisa Media, Unidad Editorial, Vocento Medios, Adevinta, JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Webedia, Smartclip, and Webgains, among others. Additional sources used in the study include Adjinn for sector distribution, Adomik for programmatic investment modelling with 70% market representativeness, Infoadex for non-digital media spend, Market Monitoring by OJD for buying model distribution, and PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook for international analysis.

Why this matters for marketers

The 2025 data confirms a structural shift that had been building across several years. Digital has crossed 69% of Spain's total measured advertising investment. Television, historically the default for brand-building at scale, declined both in absolute terms (€1,513.7 million, down 8.7%) and as a share of total spend. The shift is not evenly distributed across digital channels: search and social account for more than 60% of total digital investment on their own, while CTV, influencers, and audio collectively represent fast-growing but still relatively modest shares.

The CTV growth rate - 48.4% - is the number most likely to attract sustained attention from marketing professionals planning 2026 budgets. At 2.8% of total digital investment, CTV remains well below its potential ceiling, and the trajectory from 2023 (when it was less than half its current volume) shows that advertiser adoption is accelerating, not plateauing. For programmatic buyers, the combination of IAB Spain's bid request harmonization guide, IAB Tech Lab's format standards, and expanded supply-side capacity from platforms with Spanish market presence creates a more structured operating environment than existed a year ago.

Influencer marketing's 100% cumulative growth from 2023 to 2025 is another significant benchmark. At €158.4 million, the category has moved well past experimental status and sits alongside podcast advertising as one of the two fastest-growing formats in the IAB Spain study on a two-year compounded basis. The forecast range of 20% to 40% for 2026 suggests continued double-digit growth but with wider uncertainty around the upper bound.

Timeline

  • 2003: IAB Spain publishes its first annual digital advertising investment study, recording €72.6 million in investment
  • 2017: Study methodology expands to include branded content, native advertising, and connected TV for the first time
  • 2019: Classified advertising added to the study's tracked categories; methodology transitions to include intermediaries and agencies alongside publishers
  • 2021: Influencer marketing formally incorporated into total digital investment computation; affiliate marketing begins appearing in annex data
  • 2022: Spanish digital advertising reaches €4,533.0 million; cumulative DOOH investment growth tracking from this baseline
  • 2023: Digital market reaches €4,978.6 million; CTV investment begins its rapid cumulative rise
  • 2024: Digital advertising totals €5,584.2 million, growing 11.5%; social networks post strong annual performance; CTV begins gaining material budget share
  • January 2026: IAB Spain publishes harmonization guide for CTV bid request parameters with sixteen companies, establishing P1 and P2 fields for programmatic CTV transactions in Spain
  • January 2026: IAB Spain's Top Digital Trends 2026 report positions agentic AI as the dominant force reshaping Spanish digital advertising, alongside privacy reform and sustainability mandates
  • February 25, 2026: IAB Spain presents the Estudio de Inversión Publicitaria en Medios Digitales 2026 with PwC, recording €6,211.2 million in 2025 digital advertising investment, 11.2% growth year on year
  • February 27, 2026: Magnite opens first Madrid office, citing Spain's programmatic growth opportunity as a strategic priority

Summary

Who: IAB Spain, in collaboration with PwC and 78 participating companies spanning media agencies, publishers, classified platforms, affiliates, and DOOH operators across Spain's advertising ecosystem.

What: Publication of the Estudio de Inversión Publicitaria en Medios Digitales 2026, measuring total digital advertising investment in Spain for the 2025 calendar year at €6,211.2 million across categories including search, social networks, display, CTV, influencers, audio digital, DOOH, classified, branded content, and affiliate marketing.

When: The study was presented on February 25, 2026, covering full-year 2025 results. IAB Spain has conducted the study annually since 2002. The data is collected on a biannual basis through structured questionnaires and qualitative interviews with industry participants.

Where: Spain's digital advertising market, measured across all major digital investment categories. The total advertising market including non-digital media reached €8,984.4 million, with digital representing 69.1% of that total.

Why: The study provides the industry's primary annual benchmark for digital advertising volume in Spain, enabling advertisers, agencies, publishers, and platforms to track market evolution, allocate budgets against verified market data, and model forward projections. The 2025 results confirm digital's continued structural gain against traditional media, with connected television, influencer marketing, and podcast advertising posting the fastest segment growth rates in the most recent year.

Share this article
The link has been copied!