Online advertising expenditure in Australia has seen a year-on-year increase of 9.3%, according to the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report prepared by PwC Australia.

The total advertising expenditure for the quarter ending 31st March 2024 reached $3.746bn, despite a 4.2% decrease from the preceding quarter, in line with seasonal trends.

Search and directories experienced a 9.3% year-on-year growth, reaching $1.724bn. General display advertising reported a 14.8% increase ($1.410bn), driven by social, audio and video, while classifieds expenditure dropped 1.8% year-on-year ($612m). Video and audio advertising both delivered double-digit growth year-on-year, with video expenditure increasing 21% to reach $944.9m and audio expenditure increasing 26% to reach $65.6m.

"Search, social video and audio have been the star performers, helping bolster the traditionally slower first quarter results. The report suggests that many marketers are focused on short term sales targets with the continued economic downturn and lack of consumer confidence," said Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia.

"However, it is encouraging to see continued investment in digital advertising, and we encourage marketers, where possible, to ensure that they are diversifying their investment to take advantage of the media multiplier effect Standard display (a subset of general display for traditional display banner formats) dropped back 6% and now represents just 9% of the general display market. Travel and finance remained in the top five general display industry categories despite decreases in share against the March 2023 quarter, joining retail, automotive and health & beauty, each of which experienced increased market share. FMCG and home products showed a preference towards video advertising for the quarter. The share of content publishers' inventory bought via an agency insertion order increased again reaching 25% for the quarter, while inventory purchased direct increased to 18% and the balance of inventory bought programmatically (guaranteed deals and RTB/PMP) decreased slightly.