Digital ad spend jumped 11.6% last year, claims IAB and PWC
The Australian online advertising market passed $8.8bn expenditure in calendar year 2018, an increase of 11.6% on the previous year, says IAB Australia’s Online Advertising Expenditure Report.
Published by PwC, the report found mobile advertising was the online ad sector’s main driver, with 39% growth on the previous year.
Mobile now makes up 63% of general display advertising, which itself represents $3.3bn of overall online ad spend.
The report, which has been published since 2007, includes for the first time data points about the rate of programmatic buying, along with connected TV video advertising revenue data.
General display advertising’s $3.3bn spend for 2018 was a 15.8% increase on the previous year, while search and directories grew 9.2% to touch $3.4bn. Classifieds increased 9.5% to reach $1.6bn spend for the year.
The report also found 51% of display inventory in the last quarter was bought through media agencies using either an insertion order or another non-programmatic method.
Programmatic buying made up 34% of general display advertising, broken down into 9% fixed CPM or guaranteed inventory. 25% was taken by variable CPM based on real time bidding via an exchange or private market place. Direct sales made up 9% of all display advertising.
Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, said: “Marketers continue to reinvest their budgets in a range of digital advertising options because they know it helps grow their businesses.
“2019 will see the IAB demonstrate to marketers how they can increase the effectiveness of their spend across a wide range of digital formats and how it can work together efficiently with other media channel investments.”
Megan Brownlow, partner at PwC, said: “We are pleased to release the latest version of the Online Advertising Expenditure Report with a number of new features. The market had headline growth and is now worth $8.8B with video again the bright spot, making up 42% of the general display market and up 26.2% on 2017.”
