Online Advertising Grows 17% In 2011
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Paul Fisher
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The Australian online advertising market has continued to record double digit growth reaching $2.66bn for the 2011 calendar year.
The results, announced today by IAB Australia in its Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), reveal overall market growth of 17 per cent, almost $400 million, year on year.
Total spend for the final quarter of 2011 was a record $716m.
Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia, says Australia well on track to surpass the $3bn mark in 2012 as forecast by IAB and PwC and to 20 per cent of the total advertising market.
These results mirror the strong growth being experienced by online advertising in the US, UK and other international markets.
“The continued and much publicised consumption of media content and services online which is driving this double digit growth is in turn driving a change in the advertising expenditure habits of media buyers and importantly, advertisers," Fisher said.
With the current challenging financial climate predicted to continue, we believe advertisers and their agencies will increasingly turn their attention and budgets to the branding and direct response opportunities that can only be found online."
Overall market growth was powered by the Search and Directories category which now comprises 53 per cent of the total spend, valued at over $1.4 billion for the past 12 months.
General Display advertising accounted for 23.8 percent of the total spend and $632m spend, while Classifieds advertising accounted for 23.1 per cent and $615m of the total spend.
The General Display category grew strongly for the second half of the year, reaching 17 per cent year on year growth.
"However it was disappointing over the full year, achieving just four percent year on year growth. Within the category however, video advertising performed well and outpaced the Display category with 31 per cent year on year growth."
The FMCG and retail sectors finally started to show signs of adopting online advertising but the motor vehicle category continues to show the most growth year on year at 13 per cent.
Government spend for the year online is still embarrassingly low though, according to Fisher.
“In the current political climate, with the impending State election in Queensland a Federal election in the next two years, I would expect to see a strong surge in the advertising expenditure online by all State and Federal political parties,” said Fisher.
However, the much publicized challenges facing the retail sector may well have started to influence their advertising spending confidence, as we see small but notable growth in the retail and FMCG sectors’ general display spending.
Within General Display, CPM based pricing was the dominant expenditure type with 78 per cent of advertising expenditure on a CPM basis, and 22 per cent on a Direct Response basis, raising questions around the impact of DSPs on the total online advertising market.
Real Estate was the leading Category for Classifieds advertising expenditure in the 12 months ended 31 December 2011 followed by Recruitment then Automotive. This is the same as the prior year.
February 13, 2012
