Cook says Australian Online market will continue to grow having surpassed UK and US rates

The Australian online advertising market reached a significant milestone recently. The IAB/PWC Online Advertising Expenditure Report found that for the 2015 calendar year, the Australia market saw a 25% increase in year on year growth. This exceeded both the US and UK, which achieved growth of 20% and 16% respectively.

The signs are looking positive for early 2016 also. While ad spend after the peak Christmas retail season is notoriously lower, digital is one area that has bucked this trend. 2016 first quarter results showing that online advertising expenditure grew by 33.5% to reach $1.731 billion.

Clay Cook (pictured), CEO of digital marketing agency, Bonfire said digital is showing no signs of slowing down.

“We’re seeing very positive trends for digital marketing. And these aren’t short term either. We’ve been in the digital space for 20 years now and over this time we’ve noticed digital adoption steadily increasing while other marketing mediums are experiencing significant drops. It doesn’t surprise us that a recent report by eMarketer predicts that by next year, digital advertising spend will surpass TV.”

The IAB/PWC report also confirmed that advertisers can no longer afford to overlook mobile advertising. Australian mobile advertising expenditure reached $507.8 million in the March quarter, having grown by 81% year on year. Most telling was Google’s recent keynote speech, which confirmed that more than half of all Google searches are from mobile or tablet devices.

“Mobile advertising has exploded in recent years” said Cook. “Where it was once seen as an advertising option for ‘tech-savvy’ companies or those ‘ahead of the pack’, it is now a staple in any digital marketing strategy. Google’s keynote speech stats really hammer home the point that any Australian business that doesn’t have a mobile presence really is behind the eight ball.”

Cook said there’s plenty of room for most businesses to grow their broad digital strategies, be that search, social, content or mobile, and that’s where the continued upward trend will come. He said there’s also a raft of new opportunities offering more engaging digital marketing experiences worth exploring, such as native advertising.

“Internet users are becoming more impatient with poor quality and obtrusive banner ads. They’ve become much better at tuning out to traditional advertising methods. This has forced advertisers to work smarter to earn the attention and trust of this new breed of consumer and native advertising is achieving this.”

Cook believes the growth in Australian digital marketing spend is likely to continue as more businesses realise the value of digital and adjust their marketing budgets accordingly in line with overseas counterparts.