The Australian digital advertising market is showing signs of growth, recording an 11.3% growth from Q2 to reach A$2,263m in Q3 ending 30 September 2020, according to the latest IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER).

The report found that all advertising categories have achieved growth after the pandemic induced declines in the previous quarter. Search and directories now represent 45% of all expenditure and A$1,006m in the quarter ending September 2020; general display 38% and A$871m; and classifieds 17% and A$386m.

The general display formats of video, standard display, and infeed/native advertising all experienced double-digit quarter on quarter recovery, growing at 11%, 10% and 19% respectively. Video advertising is shifting towards pre-pandemic results with CTV inventory experiencing the highest growth across digital screens.

“It’s been a challenging year but the growth this quarter in terms of digital formats signals the industry is bouncing back,” said Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia. “We are now entering what is traditionally considered the industry’s’ strongest quarter and we anticipate a continuation of the growth through to the end of the year.”

Additional findings from the report from PwC include:

  • Although the search and directories and classifieds sectors were still down on the previous year (-6.9% and -11.5% respectively), general display revenue was marginally up with a 0.9% increase assisted by the strong growth in video revenue.
  • Retailers remained the number one investment industry and FMCG advertising has broken into the top five industries for general display expenditure for the first time since June 2017.
  • Advertisers’ buying preferences for content publishers’ inventory remained stable this quarter despite the uncertainty of the times, with 40% opting to buy via an agency, 16% direct, 11% via programmatic guaranteed and 33% via programmatic RTB/PMP. Investment continues to trend towards connected TV, shifting share from both desktop and mobile devices.
  • Mobile now represents 67% of general display advertising and 63% of search and directories.

WARC Data is releasing the latest forecasts for 2020 and 2021 advertising spend by market, media, format and product category on 30 November. Register your interest here.

Sourced from IAB Australia