Growth rate of 3.7% slower than previous year but gained ground in second half of 2023
Monday 26th February 2024: The Australian online advertising market reached $14.7bn spend for the 2023 calendar year according to data released today in the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) prepared by PwC Australia. Total advertising expenditure increased 3.7% year-on-year. This was a slowdown from the growth of 9.1% reported in 2022, however, a positive trajectory in a tough year for advertising, with stronger growth experienced in the second half of the year.
General display grew 3.9% ($5.7bn) year on year, search and directories grew 6.1% ($6.6bn), whilst classified listings dropped by 2.6% ($2.4bn) impacted by slower property and job market activity.
Total advertising expenditure by calendar year ($million)
Within general display advertising (up 3.9% year on year) growth was mixed. Video was up 14% ($3.78b) and overall digital audio was up 21% ($265.8m) with podcast investment up 21.7% to almost hitting $100m ($99.1m) and streaming up 20.6% to reach $166.7m. However, standard display was down 22% ($569.2m) and infeed/native formats were down 12% ($1.07 billion).
Connected TV yields the greatest share of content publishers’ video inventory expenditure (50%) taking share from mobile.
Gai Le Roy CEO of IAB Australia commented: “Advertisers continue to invest in a range of digital advertising opportunities to support what is now a $14.7b market. It was pleasing to see stronger growth in the second half of the year, but growth was mixed across categories as marketers under pressure for short term sales focused on strengthening their performance investment.”
Across industry categories, health and beauty replaces FMCG in the top five industry categories for general display in 2023, with retail and automotive on a growth trajectory compared to the previous year.
December 2023 Quarter Data
- $3.914bn, up 7.5% compared to the 2022 December quarter
- Search and directories grew 9.4% ($1.69bn) and general display grew 9.3% growth ($1.65b). This offset a 2.0% decline in classified listings.
- Within general display, video and audio were again the key contributors to growth (up 20% and 38% respectively) whilst standard display dropped 26%.
- In December 2023 $0.36 of each dollar of expenditure on content publisher’s general display was captured by retail and automotive.
- In terms of methods of buying for content publishers inventory the overall picture is similar to the previous year, but there are some shifts within programmatic guaranteed: its share of video buying has increased from 26% to 27% but for standard display it has decreased from 10% to 7%.
IAB Australia members can download the report here.
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