Online advertising in Australia grew more than a third in 2021 after two years of slow growth.

The IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report – prepared by PwC – shows the online ad spend was close to $13 billion in calendar year 2021, up 35.8 per cent on the preceding year.

The biggest growth is in video advertising, up 48 per cent year-on-year to $2.88 billion. Other growth categories were classifieds $2.2 billion (+41.5 per cent), general display advertising $5.1 billion(+38.2 per cent), and search and directories $5.7 billion (+31.7 per cent).

IAB Australia chief executive Gai Le Roy said the “exceptional growth” was driven by a combination of two key factors. “Businesses have accelerated their digital transformation and investment over the last two years, but we’ve also seen a resurgence in marketing spend by businesses to drive economic growth as we exit COVID lockdowns and restrictions,” she said.

Retail was again the top category, accounting for 16.3 per cent of the general display market (+15.6 per cent), while autos fell again to 10.7 per cent from 12.9 per cent.

Total programmatic spend was stable at 42 per cent.

Connected TV now represents 43 per cent of content publishers’ video investment followed by desktop (32 per cent) and mobile (25 per cent).