Total online advertising clears $4.6b in 2014 as retail takes off
Online advertising has continued its steady growth according to the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Online Advertising Expenditure Report for the quarter ending 31 December, 2014. The report, which is compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the IAB, shows that overall expenditure for the calendar year across all categories reached $4.6 billion, a 16 percent year-on-year increase. Total advertising expenditure for the December 2014 quarter was $1.2 billion, up 7.1 percent from the 2013 December quarter.
All categories delivered strong year-on-year performance, with mobile achieving a 118 percent increase on last calendar year to reach $762 million, while video grew 52 percent year on year to reach $237 million. FMCG has emerged as the largest spending category for video advertising at 16.5 percent share for the full calendar year, while retail had its strongest ever quarter in Q4, reaching 10.9 percent of the total display sector.
“While we are delighted about the sustained and robust growth of online advertising, we are most pleased that the proportion of expenditure in specific categories is aligning to category shares in the advertising market as a whole. This signifies that advertisers are seeing digital categories as being a comparable investment to their traditional counterparts,” said Alice Manners, CEO of IAB Australia.
“That’s good news for the online industry and reflects the hard work done by the IAB to help establish a fair and transparent industry and to promote the digital market as an effective and valuable investment.”
Retail had its strongest ever quarter in Q4 and now accounts for 10.9 percent of general display online advertising. This is comparable to recent market data which indicates Retail accounts for 9.9 percent of the total advertising market. The Finance and Computers & Communications categories also both now closely align with general market advertising spend.
General Display advertising was valued at $1.4 billion for the calendar year, Classifieds at $929 million and Search and Directories was again the largest category at $2.3 billion.
Image: All segments of online advertising experience growth in Calendar Year 2014
Classifieds demonstrated solid growth of 25 percent year on year to reach 20.1 percent share of the total online advertising expenditure, to make Australia one of the strongest classified markets in the world.
Industry category expenditure in General Display showed Motor Vehicles at the top with 16.9 percent of the sector, a slight share decrease year on year. Real Estate continued to embrace Display with 11 percent of the market, up from an 8.7 percent market share in December 2013, and Retail recorded its highest ever share of Display with 10.9 percent.
Image: Top five industry categories by expenditure share, December quarter 2014
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About the Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Limited is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia and was incorporated in July 2010. As one of over 40 IAB offices globally, and with a rapidly growing membership, IAB Australia’s principal objective is to support and enable the media and marketing industry to ensure that they thrive in the digital economy.
IAB Australia’s board includes representatives of Carsales.com, Fairfax Media, Google, Mi9, Network, News Australia, REA Group, Telstra, TressCox Lawyers and Yahoo7. It has four objectives:
- To be the ‘big tent’ for the entire digital advertising industry and define the future of digital advertising
- To deliver the benefits of ad funded interactive experiences to Australians
- To develop, coordinate and promote industry standards and guidelines that make interactive advertising a simpler and more attractive medium for agencies, advertisers and marketers
- To prove and promote the effectiveness of interactive advertising to advertisers, agencies, marketers and the press
For further information about IAB Australia please visit: www.iabaustralia.com.au