Online advertising in Australia surges past $3 billion mark

Online advertising, sustaining its strong growth, has surpassed the $3 billion expenditure mark for the financial year ending 30 June 2012. The result announced today of an Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) show total online advertising was up 21 per cent year on year with revenues for the financial year reaching $3,135.95 million, an increase of $549.1 million (or 21 per cent) on the 12 months ended 30 June 2011.

The increase comes with growth across all categories, including a 30 per cent increase in search with directories advertising 15 per cent increase in general display and classifieds increasing 11 per cent from the prior year.

Total online advertising expenditure for mobile advertising for the 12 months ended 30 June 2012 stood at $47.5 million, with growth over the 12 months of 212 per cent. Mobile advertising comprised general display advertising (60.3 per cent) and search advertising (39.7) per cent for the three months ended 30 June 2012.  The same quarter saw smart phone advertising make up for 67.7 per cent and tablet advertising 32.3 per cent.

The IAB Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) for June 2012 took a new approach, adding to the data collected from industry participants estimates for Google display, video, and mobile advertising as also Facebook display advertising.

The report used a refined methodology for estimating  - Google search also including historical mobile advertising data collected from industry participants from March 2011, which was combined with estimated Google mobile advertising to give a picture for the first time of the aggregated mobile advertising market and the growth trends.

According to Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia, ''this report captures the truest picture of the online advertising industry in Australia with the inclusion of methodical estimates for Google and Facebook, and the inclusion of mobile advertising. The total advertising expenditure exceeding $3 billion is on track with our forecasts and trends and we expect online advertising will surpass free TV in calendar year 2013 and print in FY13-14.