Tara Conlan 

Google increased its UK advertising spending by 50% to £45m in 2013

Tech firm 31st in list of top UK advertisers, with £15m spent on TV adverts despite 'digital first' approach to marketing
  
  

Google Nexus 7
Much of Google's increased spending on UK advertising last year was on promoting its Nexus 7 tablet, above, and its Chromecast media player. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

It may take the lion's share of advertising spending online, but Google is also raising its spending on adverts in the UK, which was up by 50% last year to £45m, ahead of telecoms firm O2, National Lottery operator Camelot and confectionery firm Mars.

After five years of advertising in Britain Google is at No 31 in the top 100 UK advertisers, according to Nielsen Ad Dynamix – which monitors ad spending on TV and radio, in print, online and direct mail.

Google may be using technology that can track the "viewability" of online adverts to help it lure big brand advertisers away from television but according to industry estimates in 2013 it spent £15m on traditional TV adverts. But it does not give a breakdown on where its ad spending goes and declined to comment.

Google began advertising on television in 2009. Since then it has used traditional media to promote products such as its Chrome browser, although it still pursues a "digital first" approach to marketing and advertising.

Much of last year's increase in Google's ad spend was on promoting its Chromecast media player and Nexus 7 tablet, particularly in the Christmas period.

According to Nielsen's Rob Tavendale there was a marked rise in the advertising of smartphones and tablets in 2013, with Google and Microsoft both increasing their year-on-year spending by 50%, and Sony Mobile by 108%.

Google's spending on promoting the Nexus 7 rose by 170%, while Sony and Microsoft increased their smartphone advertising by 162% and 484% respectively, Tavendale said.

Last year, Microsoft spent £60m on advertising in the UK – putting it in 18th place. Sony Mobile came in at 77th in UK ad spend with £24m.

The biggest UK advertiser in 2013 was BSkyB, spending £264m.

Tavendale said: "In the fiercely competitive telecoms sector, BSkyB's spend was up 10%, as it faced increased competition from BT, while TalkTalk recorded a 90% increase."

But despite the launch of its sports channels, BT reduced its spending by 16% to £150m, putting it in third place – behind household products group Procter & Gamble (£177m) and ahead of Unilever (£119m)

Neilsen's research also revealed that the total amount spent on UK advertising fell by 2.35% compared with a year earlier. In 2012 spending had increased 2.4% on the previous year.

 

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