Australia’s online advertising market reached $14.2 billion last year, a growth of 9.1 per cent year-on-year (lead image: Gai Le Roy, IAB Australia CEO).
However, while all categories experienced growth, the overall market is growing slower than it was in 2021. Two years ago, the online ad market was growing at a staggering 36 per cent.
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, general display ads grew 7.7 per cent to $5.5 billion, search and directories grew 8.5 per cent to $6.2 billion, and classifieds grew by 14 per cent to $2.5 billion. Video advertising increased 12 per cent year-on-year to reach $3.3 billion.
The top five advertiser categories in general display advertising remained the same as last year, with retail, automotive and FMCG all stable. Entertainment’s share increased slightly and finance’s share declined slightly.
The share of content publishers’ inventory bought via an agency insertion order has increased from 42 per cent in 2021 to 44 per cent in 2022.
Programmatic guaranteed deals share increased from 13 per cent to 15 per cent. This was largely driven by video investment.
“2022 had two distinct growth phases, with 15% for the first six months compared to 2021 and 4 per cent growth in the second half of the year. Despite this slowdown, we are seeing encouraging signs including automotive advertiser’s share of display advertising returning to levels not seen since early 2021,” said Le Roy.
For the quarter ending December 2022, overall growth slowed to just 1.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2021. Classifieds’ share of the digital ad market dropped 3 per cent points compared to the previous quarter reflecting changes in the job and real estate markets.
Video investment represented 60 per cent of all display advertising — up from 56 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2021. Retailers’ investment in digital display advertising represented 18 per cent up from 15 per cent in the same quarter in 2021.
Digital audio ad spending surged to be worth more than $221 million last year.
