Online advertising spend in Australia increased by 4.9% year-on-year to reach $2.2billion in the first quarter of 2019.
The figures, from the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER), revealed mobile and video advertising continues to drive strong growth in the category increasing by 26% and 15%, respectively.
The report, which is published by PwC, also revealed a 4.3% decrease in online advertising expenditure in Q1 compared with Q4 last year, however, the softening is seasonal and consistent with previous years.
Search and directories maintained the lion’s share (44%) of online advertising expenditure reaching $977.6m, followed by general display advertising (36%) at $799m, while classifieds grew 7% to secure a 20% share of the market at $426.2m.
Video advertising spend made up nearly half of total general display ad expenditure at 46%, followed by content, native and in-feed advertising at 35% and standard display formats at 18%.
Automotive, real estate and finance continue to be the strongest categories for online ad spend in the general display category.
Gai Le Roy, chief executive officer of IAB Australia said, “There is little doubt that the advertising market is tough across all platforms, but within the breadth of digital advertising there were still bright spots. The classifieds sector again had a strong March quarter and the display market saw an increased share for government/political spend which will continue into the June quarter numbers. Yet again video continues to gain share in the display sector.”