Digital ad spend growth slowed in the third quarter but remains positive, up 3 per cent on the  the previous quarter, according to the latest IAB figures and up 6.5 per cent year on year to $2.38bn.

While spend in many top categories within general display declined, the travel sector saw share of spend double to 8.2 per cent.

Video was the main driver within general display advertising, reaching $413m and 48 per cent of the total display spend, fuelled by retail, FMCG and technology sectors.  Connected TV is now the dominant device for video inventory expenditure, increasing to 38 per cent from 31 per cent for the September quarter, while desktop (34 per cent) and mobile (28 per cent) expenditure both slightly decreased.

Programmatic trading continued to increase, with content publishers reporting that 36 per cent of all general display advertising inventory was sold programmatically in the September quarter.  By contrast, agency direct buys, via insertion order, which is the dominant buying method for general display advertising, reduced to 47 per cent of inventory.  Within video inventory, some 49 per cent was bought programmatically versus 46 per cent via agency buys.

The full report, compiled by PwC, is available for IAB Australia members.