Advertising Pays 2025: what’s advertising ever done for us?

What does advertising and marketing do for the UK? Well, quite a lot as it turns out. It drives economic growth. It helps businesses, large and small, to compete and innovate. It creates jobs. It exports all around the world. And it directly funds many of the UK’s essential services.

The Advertising Association’s latest report, Advertising Pays 2025, evidences the economic impact of advertising and marketing in all its glory. The report also takes stock of our industry and how it has changed during the first quarter of the 21st Century.

This period, perhaps more than any other, is characterised by rapid change for our industry, and indeed, society as a whole. People now live, work, communicate, and shop quite differently. However, despite rapid change, there is one thing that remains as true today as it did 25 years ago, if not more so: advertising’s economic contribution to the UK is both vital and extensive.

Let’s look at the numbers:

·       In 2024, brands spent £66.6 billion on ad campaigns, media placement, and marketing talent.

·       Two-thirds of UK businesses (some 3.5 million) paid for advertising in 2024.  

·       On average, every £1 spent on advertising returns £4.11 for large advertisers and £1.89 for smaller ones.

·       Advertising and marketing contribute £108.6 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy and support 1.7 million jobs across the UK.

Those figures may seem high until you consider the breadth of our industry’s contribution. Over 600,000 people are employed directly in the advertising and marketing industry, across agencies and in-house marketing teams. And these jobs are spread right around the UK, with 60% of industry employment based outside of London.

Another 400,000 are employed in advertising’s supply chain, from printers and delivery drivers to bankers and tech professionals. There’re also jobs, some 72,000, directly funded by the ad revenues of media and digital businesses - from our public sector broadcasters, to commercial radio, through to the tech giants.

Then there are the 600,000 jobs generated by the ROI from advertising. Successful campaigns can create new jobs. From increased shifts around Christmas time following big brand campaigns, through to a hair and beauty salon employing an extra person following a successful local campaign.

The UK is also a leading hub for advertising and marketing services around the world, with advertising’s export figures reaching £17.9 billion in 2024, outstripping industries such as engineering, legal services, publishing, and film and TV. Indeed, the value of the UK’s advertising exports is second only to the U.S. and has been closing the gap in recent years.

But the work of our industry also pays back in many other ways. It helps to fund the UK’s much-loved media and creative sectors, giving people free access to online services like maps, search and email. It's created thousands of content creators, many forging careers in this area. It brings much needed revenues into sports, the arts and culture. And from benches to bus stops, it provides us with much of the urban infrastructure in our towns and cities that we take for granted. This is an industry which continues to grow and strengthen. 

So, in future, when asked, “what does advertising do for the UK?”, you can confidently respond, “…well, quite a lot actually”.