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Google spent £15 million on television advertising in 2013, £5 million on outdoor media, £4 million on cinema and £3.5 million on press, according to new data.

The 50 per cent increase in advertising last year was enough to make Google the UK's 31st biggest advertiser, rising from £30 million to £45 million, according to Nielsen Ad Dynamix, which monitors TV, print, radio, cinema, outdoor, direct mail and online display spend.

The marked increase in advertising spend resulted in Google leapfrogging food giant Mars Confectionery (£44.6m), high street bank Halifax (£44m) and Telefonica's telecommunications giant, O2 (£41m).

Google, which celebrates its 18th year in 2014, famously eschewed traditional advertising during its formative years.

The company only began running traditional TV campaigns in the summer of 2009, to promote its web browser Chrome, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

The internet giant has since steadily increased its online and offline marketing activity around its Chrome browser and email service Gmail, ahead of a concerted push for its Chromecast dongle in 2014.

In 2013, Google's TV activity also included a Christmas campaign promoting its Nexus 7 tablet created by Joint, and a series of ads documenting the most searched-for terms of 2013 by Adam & Eve/DDB. Media planning and buying for the campaigns was handled by OMD and Essence.

Google's biggest year yet on advertising in the UK preceded the company reaching an all time high market capitalisation of $400 billion in February 2014, placing it behind only Apple in terms of value.

BSkyB continues to lead

In the face of mounting competition, BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster, stretched its lead as the UK's biggest advertiser in 2013, with £246m representing a near 10 per cent lift year-on-year. Meanwhile, second placed Procter & Gamble cut its media spend by nearly 10 per cent to £177.3m.

A strong contender for the biggest surprise fall in adspend last year came from the third biggest advertiser, telecoms giant BT. Despite the major launch of its first TV channels, BT Sport 1 and 2, the company's media activity dropped nearly 17 per cent to £150 million as it refocused its marketing.

The improving economic outlook for the general consumer appeared to be confirmed by a rise in adspend by most of the major car brands, led by Renault (67 per cent), Ford (45 per cent), BMW (38 per cent), Skoda (34 per cent) and Vauxhall (6 per cent).

However, bucking the trend were falls in adspend by German automotive marques Volkswagen (-13 per cent) and Audi (-20 per cent).

The Nielsen figures are estimated based on rate card calculations, Advertising Association discounts, monthly revenues figures, seasonal weightings and industry averages.