Digital audio advertising spend in Australia reached $51.9 million in the March quarter, reflecting a 13 per cent jump over the same period a year ago, according to IAB Australia’s Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) prepared by PwC.
Podcast advertising surged by 20.7 per cent to $19.8 million in the quarter, while streaming audio spend grew 8.8 per cent to $32.1 million.
This is the first release of quarterly spend data resulting from collaboration between IAB Australia and Commercial Radio & Audio. Figures released in February showed ad spend on digital audio totalled $221.2 million in calendar year 2022.
“Digital audio has not only been resilient but is showing strong sustained growth in a tough advertising market,” said Ford Ennals (lead image), chief executive officer of CRA.
“Advertisers are following audiences into podcasts and streaming. With the latest Infinite Dial research confirming Australia is the leading podcast market in the world, we expect online audio to attract an increasing share of ad spend.
“Radio streaming audiences are also growing strongly and the changes we are making to radio audience measurement to better understand streaming listeners are designed to tap into the digital revenue opportunity.”
The IAB online advertising report showed digital audio accounted for only 4.2 per cent of total general display advertising expenditure in the March quarter.
The radio industry will soon launch its new Radio 360 audience measurement system, aimed at providing more granular data across all platforms of listening.
The 2023 Infinite Dial study by Edison Research shows 81 per cent of Australians, or around 18 million people, listen to online audio monthly, up from 78 per cent in 2022 and 56 per cent in 2017. Forty-three per cent listen to a podcast monthly.
The long-running Infinite Dial Australia study provides insights on consumer digital media behaviour, including online audio, radio and podcast listening trends, smart speaker ownership and more. The results will be presented in a webinar in June.
