Video leading the charge in Q1 Australia digital ad spend

Video advertising continues to see the biggest growth in Australia’s digital advertising market, according to the latest report from IAB Australia and PwC.

First quarter results saw overall digital ad spend increase to A$2.2 billion (US$1.52 billion), a 4.9% increase compared to Q1 2018 with video accounting for 46% of general display expenditure. In a press release, IAB said video advertising has seen a 15% increase in spend year-on-year.

Following video, the next most popular display ad format is content, native or infeed, accounting for 35%, with standard display coming in at 18%. IAB also found that with each of these formats having a mobile advertising element, it means mobile advertising makes up 66% of total general display ad spend.

Regarding overall digital ad spend, not just display, search and directories continues to see the biggest slice of the pie­­–44%, equating to A$977.6 million (US$677.6 million), followed by general display (36%) and classifieds (20%). Classifieds saw the biggest growth year-on-year at 7.3%.

“There is little doubt that the advertising market is tough across all platforms, but within the breadth of digital advertising there were still bright spots,” said Gai Le Roy, IAB Australia CEO. “The classifieds sector again had a strong March quarter and the display market saw an increased share for government/political spend which will continue into the June quarter numbers. Yet again video continues to gain share in the display sector.”

There is also good news for media agencies as they remained the preferred buying method for display ads at 58%, with 29% of general display ads bought programmatically­–a 5% decrease compared to the previous quarter.  

Analysing digital display advertising by sector, automotive, real estate and finance led the pack in Q1 2019, representing 37% of spend compared to 33.4% in Q4 2018. Government ad spend also went up from 3.1% to 5% ahead of Australia’s general election in May.