Australian online ad spend grows 29.7 per cent, showing no signs of slowing down

The latest IAB/PwC Online Advertising Expenditure Report has just been released and has found that the Australian online advertising market has again delivered robust double-digit growth.

Online ad spend grew by 29.7 per cent to $6.8 billion in the year to June 30 this year making it the fastest growth of Australia’s online advertising market for five years.

The rapid rise of advertising on smartphones and tablets is the main driver.

Double-digit growth was achieved by all online advertising segments, but general display advertising was the big winner.

Increasing 43.3 per cent to $2.5 billion making it the highest year-on-year growth since the inception of the report 13-years-ago.

Our CEO, Clay Cook, admits he was surprised by this increase as our AdWords team has noticed the popularity of display advertising dissipate in recent years. However, when you take into account that this includes video advertising, which grew 55 per cent, it’s easier to understand the growth.

At current growth trajectories, display advertising should take over from search as the largest area of spend in the second half of 2017.

The industry-leading the way in online advertising spend is real estate which increased its category share to 13.2 per cent from 10.8 per cent the previous year. However, the automotive industry is still the largest online advertiser.

Both of these industries are very competitive. The real estate agency industry is growing by around 3.4 per cent per year so that increased competition is putting more pressure on agencies to spend on advertising to be seen online.

Clay suggests that the key for advertisers is to find the right balance to achieve effective advertising for their spend.

The best advertisers know how to use content, technology and data to help achieve their marketing goals efficiently, instead of just throwing money at it and hoping for the best.