Australian online advertising has surged again to deliver 33 per cent year on year growth for quarter ending 30 September 2015, reaching $1.565 billion for the quarter.

The data, which comes from the latest IAB/PWC Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER), shows that General Display advertising was the leading sector for the quarter, achieving 53 per cent year on year growth; while Classifieds grew 28 per cent and Search & Directories grew 21 per cent.

Mobile advertising expenditure increased to $418.9 million in the September quarter 2015, with 55 per cent mobile advertising expenditure attributed to mobile display and 45 per cent to mobile search. Smartphones now hold 67 per cent of the device category share and tablets at 33 per cent.

Video advertising also maintained its strong performance, recording an increase of 107 per cent year on year to reach $128.9 million of the total advertising expenditure.  According to the report, FMCG now dominates video advertising with a 17 per cent share which is almost three times higher than its 6.3 per cent share of total General Display advertising.

The Health/Beauty/Pharmaceuticals and Motor Vehicles categories are the other leading industry categories in video display advertising.

IAB Australia CEO Alice Manners commented, “In a time when other advertising mediums are challenged, there is no doubt that consumers adoption of interactive screens is driving advertiser optimism and thus interactive ad budget growth.

“These OAER figures definitively cement interactive advertising’s position as the largest ad segment in the Australian marketplace and confirm marketers’ confidence in using digital to reach consumers.”

Motor vehicles and real estate maintained their dominance of the General Display market in the September quarter 2015, representing 29.9 per cent of the reported market despite a slight dip for motor vehicles share. The same two industry categories made up 27.3 per cent of General Display in the equivalent prior year quarter.