Internet advertising market in Australia has grown 11.1% year-on-year to reach $16.4bn spend for the full calendar year 2024, according to the IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report (IARR)
The report, prepared by PwC Australia, found that video investment has significantly increased to 19.6% growth year on year to reach $4.5bn in 2024.
Search and directories increased 10.1% year on year to reach $7.2bn spend for the year, while classifieds expenditure increased 8.3% to $2.6bn. Display (excluding video) grew just 1.7% year on year to reach $2bn and audio expenditure increased 17.8% to reach $313 million.
All video formats experienced double-digit growth through 2024, with video displayed on social platforms now represents over one third of total video expenditure by video platform, ahead of BVOD and other video expenditure. Olympics investment in the third quarter was one of the key drivers for the strong growth for the video market.
For the financial year, connected TV continued to yield the greatest share of content publishers’ video inventory expenditure, reaching a new peak of 51% for the calendar year, with both mobile and desktop expenditure decreasing.
The buying type for content publishers display inventory remained steady, with internet advertising from an agency via insertion order stable at 44%, client direct buying at 17% and programmatic purchasing at 39%.
Retail remained the top industry category for display advertising at 17.1% share of the ad spend for 2024, followed by automotive, which continued its post COVID climb to reach 14.8%, with finance rounding out the top three, despite slightly dipping to 8%.
“After a modest growth rate of 3.7% in 2023, the digital advertising market again achieved double-digit growth in 2024 sustained by an ever-increasing range of ad formats and environments, as well as spend from the SME market right through to the big end of town,” Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, said.
“As always growth is mixed across the market, and it is tougher for those content publishers who do not have significant video inventory and are relying on standard display inventory.”
The Report also included a break down of December 2024 quarter data. Key highlights include:
• Total revenue $4.258bn, up 8.8% compared to the 2024 December quarter
• Year on year search and directories grew 8.8% ($1.834bn for the December quarter); non-video general display dropped 2.4% ($540m); classifieds grew 0.1% ($575m), video grew 19.2% ($1.309bn) and audio grew 15.1% to $90m.
• Across advertiser categories, auto advertising share dropped back year on year to 17.3%, ahead of retail where share also dropped slightly to 14.6%. Entertainment at 7.6%, FMCG (7.5%) and Finance (7.5%) all increased share.