$100m in Q1 digital media wastage: 'Brands could be doing so much better'

The latest figures from digital media agency Next&Co show that digital advertising spend reached $97.1 million between January and March this year—an average of 42% of total audited digital media spend.

The Q1 2024 figure is a slight decrease from the same time last year, in which the overall ad spend wastage reached $104 million for the quarter, comprising 43% of the overall digital media spend.

However, Next&Co's data shows brands wasted a record $6.149 billion in 2023, representing nearly half (43%) of the $14.1 billion invested in digital advertising Australia-wide.

The data, compiled from Next&Co’s Prometheus proprietary media auditing tool, represents the millions of advertising dollars that failed to further digital advertising objectives across a range of verticals, including real estate, retail, insurance, finance and FMCG.

In the first quarter of 2024, 33 companies were audited, with digital ad budgets of between $500,000 and $21 million, including multinational (45%), national (35%), ASX-listed (10%), and SME (10%) companies.

John Vlasakakis, Next&Co co-founder, said: "Given the current economic climate, with the cost-of-living crisis affecting overall consumer spending and advertising budgets, brands could be doing so much better if they simply addressed efficiency in their media spending.

"Wasted advertising dollars have a flow-on effect across the business, affecting everything from day-to-day operations to recruitment, production and more. Brands could improve their overall budget and costs by investing in better understanding their digital advertising platforms and audiences.

"Businesses need to undertake an independent assessment of how their ad spend is delivering - this audit effectively enables a brand to become ‘recession proof’ by significantly cutting back on wasted ad dollars."

The finance sector came in second for Q1, with $26.2 million wasted, followed by insurance ($12.6 million), education ($11.6 million), health ($9.7 million), and real estate ($8.7 million).

$49.5 million in ad spend was wasted on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram - an increase on the $45 million of waste recorded in the same period in 2023.

Additionally, $38.8 million was wasted on Google, while $6.8 million was wasted on LinkedIn, and $1.9 million on Bing.

Next&Co’s auditing platform Prometheus has now been used by more than 500 companies across Australia.

See also: Next&Co launches Australian first digital media auditing tool, Prometheus