The Australian internet advertising market has grown by 9.7% year-on-year to reach a total spend of $15.6bn for the financial year ending 30 June 2024, according to the Internet Advertising Revenue Report (IARR) prepared by PwC Australia. The report, commissioned by IAB Australia, indicates strong growth in formats considered to be short-term performance drivers, with mixed market growth across other formats and environments.

Video advertising saw a significant increase of 18.6% year-on-year, reaching a total spend of $4.1bn. Meanwhile, search and directories experienced a 10.4% increase to reach $6.9bn. Classifieds advertising revenue also grew by 4.3% year-on-year to reach $2.5bn. However, general display advertising (excluding video) fell by 1.1% year-on-year to $2bn. Traditional standard display formats saw a sharper decline, falling by 13.1% to $558.5m.

Digital audio performed strongly over the year, increasing by 23.6% to reach $290.2m. Connected TV continued to yield the greatest share of content publishers' video inventory expenditure, increasing to 55% (up from 47%), with both mobile and desktop expenditure decreasing.

The report also highlighted a decrease in internet advertising bought from an agency via insertion order, down from 46% in FY23 to 42% in FY24. Client direct buying increased from 15% to 18%, while programmatic purchasing increased from 39% to 40%.

Retail remained the number one advertiser industry category for display inventory, representing a 17.7% share of the ad spend, followed by automotive at 15.4%. For the June 2024 quarter, automotive advertising reached 14.9% of content owner investment, just behind retail at 15%.

"The results for financial year 2024 show that marketers continue to increase their investment in reaching audiences across a range of digital advertising environments. While video and audio formats continue to grow the overall market, there is still a strong skew towards driving short term sales results with strong investments in search and social. In the June quarter results we saw a solid growth uptick in the classified listings revenue category, which was up 21% versus the previous June quarter, led by automotive and real estate activity," said CEO of IAB Australia, Gai Le Roy.

The IAB is an independent industry association with more than 170 members in Australia and nearly 9,000 globally, spanning media owners, publishers, technology companies, agencies, and advertisers.