Australian online advertising grows 20 percent year-on-year to post record quarter of $688m

The Australian online advertising market has continued its strong growth, recording an increase of 20 percent year on year to reach $688 million for the third quarter 2011 ending 30th September 2011. The increase is the ninth consecutive year-on-year increase since the commencement of data collection in 2002.

The data, which was released today by IAB Australia in its Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), reported that general display advertising accounted for 23.9 percent of expenditure, while classifieds advertising accounted for 23.4 percent and search and directories advertising accounted for the remaining 52.7 percent for the quarter.

Within general display, email based advertising increased 38 percent year on year to $10.5m of advertising expenditure while video based advertising grew 43 percent year on year to $12.0m.

According to Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia, these results are consistent with the forecast growth trajectory for the industry to exceed $3billion expenditure in 2012.

“The recent CEASA figures for all media advertising expenditure for the 6 months to 30 June 2011 also showed the interactive advertising share of total media has grown to 19 percent. Both the PwC and CEASA data reflect the accelerating confidence in interactive advertising by media agencies and advertisers as they continue to shift their budgets into digital media. This shift is expected to increase further as the full impact of the IAB Australia recently-endorsed Nielsen Online Ratings online audience measurement methodology is published to the market,” said Fisher.

All categories achieved growth compared to the prior year quarter – Search and Directories experienced the strongest growth at 30 percent, general display grew eight percent and classifieds 15 percent.

The finance, computers & communications and motor vehicles sectors continue to be the dominant industries using general display advertising. These industries represented 40.7 percent of the advertising market in the third-quarter 2011 compared to 44.3 percent in third quarter 2010. Motor vehicles – manufacturers was the largest subcategory which comprised 12.7 percent of the general display spending for the quarter, down slightly from 12.9 percent in the second-quarter 2011.

Real estate was the leading category for classifieds advertising expenditure in the third-quarter 2011 followed by recruitment then automotive. This is the same order as the prior quarter.