CTV and programmatic boosts Australian digital spend to $8.8bn in 2018
The Australian digital advertising market reached $8.8 billion expenditure in 2018, an increase of 11.6% from 2017.
The findings are part of the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) published by PwC.
This is due to the continuing shift in consumer media consumption as Australians now spend nearly 100 hours a month on desktop, smartphone and tablets. In addition, nearly five million people access Internet content on their TV screens daily.
The findings, which are part of the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) published by PwC, includes data points about the rate of programmatic buying and connected TV video advertising revenue data for the first time since it was published in 2007.
According to the report, in 2018, the General Display Advertising category experienced considerable growth, reaching $3.3bn for the year, which is a 15.8% increase in 2017. This places the category at 37% of total online advertising, the strongest share of the overall online ad market to date.
Search and Directories meanwhile, reached $3.4bn for 2018, a 9.2% increase, while Classifieds increased 9.5% to reach $1.6bn spend in 2018.
For CTV, the report found that in the fourth quarter of 2018, 23% of video advertising revenue for content websites was generated by connected TV inventory, while 48% of video advertising revenue for content websites was through desktop and 29% by mobile video advertising.
Mobile advertising also continued to drive strong growth in both General Display and Search and Directories, reaching $4.2bn in 2018, a 34.9% increase year on year. This makes up 63% of total General Display advertising.
Video advertising grew 26.2% to reach $1.4bn in 2018, demonstrating the continued positive trend for publishers as brands continue to seek premium environments in which to showcase their offerings.
The report says that with CTV advertising remaining a big focus, the use of technology and strength of content will be pivotal in differentiating publishers in this segment.
“Marketers continue to reinvest their budgets in a range of digital advertising options because they know it helps grow their businesses,” said Gai Le Roy, the chief executive of IAB Australia.
“2019 will see the IAB demonstrate to marketers how they can increase the effectiveness of their spend across a wide range of digital formats and how it can work together efficiently with other media channel investments.”
The digital ad market reached $2.1bn in the first quarter of 2018.