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Executive Summary
3 months ended 31 March 2009
Online advertising expenditure in Australia for the first-quarter 2009 (3 months ended 31 March 2009) totalled $439.5 million, the largest first-quarter recorded. This is a decrease of $22.5 million (or 4.9%) from the fourth-quarter 2008 3 months ended 31 December), and is an increase of $55.0 million (or 14.3%) from the first-quarter 2008.
General Display advertising and Classifieds advertising accounted for 24.9% and 23.9% of the total advertising expenditure for the first-quarter 2009, respectively, while Search & Directories advertising comprised the remaining 51.2%.
Search and Directories achieved minimal growth compared to the prior quarter, however General Display and Classifieds advertising experienced decreases for the quarter.
Finance, Computers & Communications and Motor Vehicles sectors continue to be the dominant industries using General Display advertising, and comprise 46% of the General Display spending.
Motor Vehicles – Manufacturers was the largest subcategory which comprised 12% of the General Display spending for the quarter.
Recruitment continues to be the leading category for Classified Advertising expenditure, followed by Real Estate, then Automotive.
Within the Search and Directories market, Directories grew at a faster rate than Search for this quarter as compared to the previous quarter, however year-on-year growth was higher for Search than for Directories.
With the exception of Search & Directories, the March 2009 OAER does not include any estimates for non-contributors. The Search & Directories category includes an estimate of advertising expenditure received by Google, the largest company in the Search market.
Due to estimates not being included for non-survey contributors for the General Display and Classified categories, these markets can be considered to be larger than as reported in the OAER.
As estimates were included in figures reported for periods prior to, and including, December 2006, growth rates in this Report for March 2007 and subsequent quarters (when compared to the figures reported for any period prior to the March 2007 quarters) can be considered to be understated.
