Online advertising surges with 33 percent year-on-year growth in September quarter

Australian online advertising has surged again to deliver 33 percent year on year growth for quarter ending 30th September 2015, reaching $1.565bn for the quarter.

The data, which comes from the latest IAB/PWC Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER), shows that general display advertising was the leading sector for the quarter, achieving 53 percent year on year growth; while classifieds grew 28 percent and search & directories grew 21 percent.

Mobile advertising expenditure increased to $418.9 million in the September quarter 2015, with 55 percent mobile advertising expenditure attributed to mobile display and 45 percent to mobile search.  Smartphones now hold 67 percent of the device category share and tablets at 33 percent.

Video advertising also maintained its strong performance, recording an increase of 107 percent year on year to reach $128.9m of the total advertising expenditure.  According to the report, FMCG now dominates video advertising with a 17 percent share which is almost three times higher than its 6.3 percent share of total General Display advertising.  The health/beauty/pharmaceuticals and motor vehicles categories are the other leading industry categories in video display advertising. 

Says Alice Manners, CEO of IAB Australia: “In a time when other advertising mediums are challenged, there is no doubt that consumers adoption of interactive screens is driving advertiser optimism and thus interactive ad budget growth.  These OAER figures definitively cement interactive advertising’s position as the largest ad segment in the Australian marketplace and confirm marketers’ confidence in using digital to reach consumers.”

Motor vehicles and real estate maintained their dominance of the general display market in the September quarter 2015, representing 29.9 percent of the reported market despite a slight dip for motor vehicles share. The same two industry categories made up 27.3 percent of general display in the equivalent prior year quarter.

According to the latest CEASA analysis, for the six months ending June 2015, online advertising accounts for 41.3 percent of total advertising revenue, up from 36 percent last report.