Online Adspends 2021

The Internet grew by 22 % in 2021 and confirmed its position as the strongest media type

Online ad spends reached 48 billion CZK in 2021. This is the highest investment so far, compared to 2020, this is a 22 % increase, in which display advertising (+ 21 %) and paid search advertising (+ 27 %) contributed the most in absolute terms. From the point of view of the way advertising space is traded, the programmatic purchase of display advertising grew by 25 %. Expectations for 2022 are a 12% increase in investment in online advertising. The data come from an online ad spend research conducted by the Median agency for the Association for Internet Progress (SPIR). Data for other media types were provided by Nielsen-Admosphere.

Because the performance of all other media types on the market is given in ratecard prices, but the volume of Internet advertising is made up of ratecard and net prices, SPIR decided to methodological adjustment of the research for 2021 to allow comparison with other media types. The adjustment of the methodology consists in recalculating the total online performance to ratecard prices. The performance of online advertising, formed by the sum of ratecard and net prices, reached CZK 48.3 billion last year. In ratecard price it means a volume of CZK 96.6 billion, which thus confirms online advertising the position the strongest media type.

"The Internet is constantly strengthening its position as a communication channel, which is positive news in the post-Covid era. Looking through the ratecard prices, which allow comparisons with other media types, with its ad spend of almost CZK 97 billion, its dominant position is clear,” commented Michal Hanák, Chairman of the SPIR Executive Board.

The research took place in January and February 2022 and involved online publishers, media, digital and specialized agencies, an advertising network and direct advertisers. The research methodology and its modifications for the year 2021 are described in detail here.

Development of total expenditures in Internet advertising

In 2021, advertisers used Internet advertising for CZK 48.3 billion (sum of ratecard and net prices). This is the highest investment so far, representing a 22% increase over the previous year and confirming the ever-increasing trend in the use of online forms of advertising. This year's growth is estimated at 12%, which would mean a total investment of CZK 54.2 billion in Internet advertising in 2022. According to research participants, growth estimates are conservative.


Development of total expenditures in Internet advertising Source: SPIR, MEDIAN, ppm factum, March 2022
* estimation
– mix of ratecard and net prices

Share of individual forms of internet advertising in 2021

The largest part of advertising expenditures falls on display advertising (CZK 32.6 billion in combined prices). Advertising in content networks (especially the Seznam Sklik, Google Ads and Facebook networks), RTB way traded advertising and native advertising are also included in the display advertising. The second most used form of advertising is paid search advertising, in which advertisers have invested CZK 14.3 billion in net prices. For classifieds and directories advertising, the media declared revenues of CZK 1.4 billion in ratecard prices.


Performance of Individual Forms od Internet AdvertisingSource: SPIR, MEDIAN, March 2022
* mix of ratecard and net prices
** net prices
- others in ratecard prices

Video advertising accounted for 26% of the total display advertising (CZK 8.5 billion), increased by 11% year-on-year and is estimated to grow by 14% this year. Native advertising accounted for 11% (CZK 3.6 billion), increased by 15% year on year and is estimated to grow by 11% this year.


Split of Display Advertising in 2021 Source: SPIR, MEDIAN, March 2022
– mix of ratecard and net prices

The share of mobile display advertising (mobile ads and mobile targeted ads) in the total display advertising was 45% (CZK 14.6 billion), an increase of 45% year-on-year and an estimated 15% growth for this year.

Programmatically traded advertising, which relates to content networks and RTB, together accounted for 65% of the entire display advertising (CZK 21 billion) and increased by 25% year-on-year. The estimate for this year is growth of 13%.
The programmatic display includes the advertising performance of content networks (such as Seznam Sklik, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram and others) as well as the performance of advertising through DSP / SSP systems.


Programmatic share of Display in 2021 Source: SPIR, MEDIAN, March 2022
– mix of ratecard and net prices

Performance of individual forms of Internet advertising

Long-term growth is clearly evident in display and paid search advertising. With display advertising, all its parts are growing, but most of them have been growing part of mobile display advertising, which is a logical consequence of the growing penetration of mobile devices and the activity of their users.


Performance of individual forms of Internet advertising Source: SPIR, MEDIAN, ppm factum, March 2022
* estimation
** mix of ratecard and net prices
***net prices
- others in ratecard prices

Performance of individual forms of Internet advertising in thous. CZK

thous. CZK 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022* (estimation)
Display ** 7 378 185 9 204 844 9 967 379 10 481 447 14 164 675 16 400 893 20 139 248 24 207 282 26 998 476 32 577 960 36 803 502
Paid Search *** 2 871 428 2 901 804 3 360 886 3 656 319 4 663 124 5 857 274 7 321 593 9 005 559 11 273 892 14 317 843 16 033 120
Classifieds and
directories		 901 784 1 200 788 1 256 196 906 356 899 652 1 052 715 1 124 984 1 152 238 1 230 314 1 361 078 1 367 147
TOTAL 11 151 397 13 307 436 14 584 461 15 044 122 19 727 451 23 310 883 28 585 825 34 365 080 39 502 681 48 256 881 54 203 769
* estimation
** mix of ratecard and net prices
*** net prices
- others in ratecard prices

Year-on-year changes in individual forms of Internet advertising in 2021 and an estimate for 2022

Display advertising grew 21% in 2021 and media, agencies and direct advertisers estimate a further 13% growth in 2022. Paid for search advertising grew by 27% last year and is estimated to grow by 12% this year. Classifieds and directories grew by 11% last year, and stagnation is estimated this year. Overall, Internet advertising grew by 22% in 2021 and 12% growth is estimated for 2022.

Growth estimates are conservative for research participants each year, and the observed real growth tends to be higher than cautious expectations.


Year-on-year changes in individual forms of Internet advertising in 2021 and an estimate for 2022 Source: SPIR, MEDIAN, ppm factum, March 2022
* estimation
- positive % values mean growth

Share of individual media types in 2021

Nielsen Admosphere monitoring of advertising investments data were used to compare the size of advertising for entire media types. Online advertising, converted for the purpose of comparison with other media types into ratecard prices, has a 50.2% share (CZK 96.6 billion). It is followed by television with CZK 64.4 billion (share 33.4%). Print advertising reached CZK 19 billion last year and has a 9.9% share in advertising budgets. Radio advertising amounted to CZK 8.1 billion (4.2% share) and out of home advertising (OOH) earned CZK 4.5 billion (2.3% share) last year.

Prices do not include self-promotion.


Share of individual media types in 2021 Source: Internet - SPIR, MEDIAN; TV, Press, Radio, OOH - Nielsen Admosphere; March 2022
- ratecard prices

The performance of Internet advertising found in the research was converted into ratecard prices using inverse conversion data used in the European research of online advertising expenditures AdEx benchmark from IAB Europe where SPIR supplies data for the Czech Republic. The total number of digital performance in ratecard prices is composed of two partial values. The first component is advertising forms, which are naturally in the research in ratecard price, ie direct display, classifieds and directories. The second component is the advertising forms programmatic display and paid search advertising, which in the research are naturally in net prices. This second component is converted to ratecard prices by the relevant inversion coefficient used in IAB Europe's Adex research to convert ratecard prices to net prices. More details about the methodology used can be found here.

Development of shares of individual media types

Since 2008, when SPIR's research of online advertising performance began, a long-term trend of growth in advertising spending on Internet advertising has been evident; in the last seven years, there has been an increase in investment in TV advertising as well. Other media types are stagnant.


Development of shares of individual media types (absolute) Source: Internet - SPIR, MEDIAN, ppm factum, Kantar Media; TV, Press, Radio, OOH - Nielsen Admosphere; March 2022
-ratecard prices
* mix of ratecard and net prices
- prices excluded self-promotion
- Radio in 2011 - 2012 without regional sales
Development of shares of individual media types (realtive) Source: Internet - SPIR, MEDIAN, ppm factum, Kantar Media; TV, Press, Radio, OOH - Nielsen Admosphere; March 2022
-ratecard prices
* mix of ratecard and net prices
- prices excluded self-promotion
- Radio in 2011 - 2012 without regional sales

Advertising performance of media types in thous. CZK

absolute, in thous. CZK 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Internet 15 932 582 18 608 298 20 898 202 23 190 986 34 047 039 41 230 214 54 202 239 67 417 293 77 633 036 96 635 290
TV 30 118 949 27 802 137 31 179 208 35 494 680 42 377 364 48 085 155 53 073 779 57 447 800 62 160 679 64 366 924
Press 17 654 511 18 039 126 17 899 192 17 886 632 18 749 540 19 518 003 19 630 978 19 799 707 17 202 426 19 027 930
Radio 1 068 142 5 844 355 6 062 785 6 384 325 7 047 795 7 553 551 8 043 804 7 934 900 7 298 313 8 129 929
OOH 4 001 669 4 528 262 4 816 865 4 888 990 5 124 092 5 299 758 5 260 355 5 430 556 4 383 244 4 458 219
TOTAL 68 775 853 74 822 178 80 856 252 87 845 613 107 345 830 121 686 681 140 211 155 158 030 256 168 677 698 192 618 292
-ratecard prices
* mix of ratecard and net prices
- prices excluded self-promotion
- Radio in 2011 - 2012 without regional sales

Shares of advertising performances of media types in %

relative 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Internet 23,2 % 24,9 % 25,8 % 26,4 % 31,7 % 33,9 % 38,7 % 42,7 % 46,0 % 50,2 %
TV 43,8 % 37,2 % 38,6 % 40,4 % 39,5 % 39,5 % 37,9 % 36,4 % 36,9 % 33,4 %
Press 25,7 % 24,1 % 22,1 % 20,4 % 17,5 % 16,0 % 14,0 % 12,5 % 10,2 % 9,9 %
Radio 1,6 % 7,8 % 7,5 % 7,3 % 6,6 % 6,2 % 5,7 % 5,0 % 4,3 % 4,2 %
OOH 5,8 % 6,1 % 6,0 % 5,6 % 4,8 % 4,4 % 3,8 % 3,4 % 2,6 % 2,3 %
TOTAL 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
-ratecard prices
* mix of ratecard and net prices
- prices excluded self-promotion
- Radio in 2011 - 2012 without regional sales

In the interest of objectivity and protection of sensitive data, the Median agency was commissioned to interrogate and process the results. The research was conducted during January and February 2022, and was based on the current annual financial statements of individual entities. The performance of all types of advertising was based on the declared performance of individual content providers, agencies, direct advertisers and ad network operators.

More information about the used terminology and a description of the methodology.

Press Release - Online Adspends 2021
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SPIR Online Adspends 2021 - PDF