Online advertising breaks the $billion barrier

Beverley Head
Monday, 11 April 2011 14:23

IT Industry - Strategy

Combined online display and online classified advertising budgets broke the $billion barrier for the first time in 2010 - outstripping the combined advertising revenues of Australia's tope 160 magazines.

Market analyst Frost & Sullivan has released figures showing that the online classified market grew 22 per cent in 2010 to a total value of $617 million. The Nielsen Company meanwhile claims that in 2010 the value of online display advertising in Australia was $511 million.

According to Nielsen while metropolitan TV advertising, at $3.9 billion, is still advertising's juggernaut, online is making a steady rise through the ranks. Online display advertising has already outstripped outdoor advertising (posters, billboards etc.) and is twice the size of the direct mail advertising spend.

The company however is still grappling with how to measure total online advertising spending, and in Australia it currently only tracks display advertising.

The company last week released its Global Advertising Review which saw a marked increase in traditional market advertising in TV, radio, newspapers and magazines after a GFC impacted 2009. However that Global Advertising report does not feature online advertising spend.

According to spokesman Warren Gillmer, this is because the company has not yet found a method of reliably tracking all online advertising spending. He said that the company was currently investing about $30 million a year in order to develop a system which would allow it to provide a comprehensive measurement of the online advertising budget both in Australia and internationally.

At present however he told iTWire that; 'In the online space the technology and the robustness of reporting in online advertising is in its infancy.'

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