The Australian internet advertising market grew 9.7% year-on-year to reach $15.6bn in spend for the financial year ending 30 June 2024.
The IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report (IARR), prepared by PwC Australia, found strong growth in formats that are considered short-term performance drivers and mixed market growth across other formats and environments.
According to the report, video advertising grew 18.6% year on year to reach $4.1bn, while search & directories increased 10.4% to reach $6.9bn.
Classifieds advertising revenue grew 4.3% year on year to $2.5bn, while general display (excluding video) advertising fell by 1.1% year on year to $2bn. Traditional standard display formats fell by 13.1% to $558.5m. Digital audio performed strongly over the year, increasing 23.6% to reach $290.2m.
For the financial year, connected TV continued to yield the greatest share of content publishers’ video inventory expenditure, increasing to 55% (up from 47%), with both mobile and desktop expenditure decreasing.
Buying internet advertising from an agency via insertion order decreased year on year, down from 46% in FY23 to 42% in FY24. Over the same period, client direct buying increased from 15% to 18%, while programmatic purchasing increased 39% to 40%.
Retail remained the number one advertiser industry category for display inventory representing 17.7% share of the ad spend, followed by automotive at 15.4% which has been steadily regaining share over the last few years after a slump with a lack of new car launches and lack of supply during COVID lockdowns.
Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, said: “The results for financial year 2024 show that marketers continue to increase their investment in reaching audiences across a range of digital advertising environments.
“While video and audio formats continue to grow the overall market, there is still a strong skew towards driving short term sales results with strong investments in search and social.
“In the June quarter results we saw a solid growth uptick in the classified listings revenue category, which was up 21% versus the previous June quarter, led by automotive and real estate activity.”
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Top image: Gai Le Roy