Video and social roar as Australia’s digital ad market hits $4.6b

The Australian internet advertising market reached $4.6 billion in the September 2025 quarter, up 9.7% YoY, according to IAB Australia’s Internet Advertising Revenue Report (IARR).

The data shows that the local market remained flat relative to the June 2025 quarter, which experienced elevated Federal Election ad spend.

Search advertising expenditure grew 12% YoY to $2,005 million for the September quarter, while video advertising continued to outperform the broader display advertising market, rising 16.7% YoY to $1,347 million.

Classified advertising increased 0.9% YoY to $768 million and audio advertising grew 3.5% YoY to $82 million.

Display advertising dipped 1.5% to $497 million.

Video represented nearly 73% of the total general display, with social video investment growing 29.4% YoY.

“Growth in the Australian digital ad market continues to be driven particularly by social, video and search in the September quarter,” said IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy.

“It has again been a tough quarter for many local publishers, with display revenue (including in-feed) down 1.5% year-on-year and standard display down 6.8%.

“This fragmentation in spend does, however, provide opportunities for marketers to diversify their investment across a broader range of environments.”

Home products entered the top five display advertiser investment categories for the first time with a 5.6% share, nudging out travel.

Retail remained the top performing category with 16.8% share, followed by automotive, entertainment and media and finance.

Connected TV grew its share to 62% of spend, supported by winter sports coverage.

Desktop investment declined to 24%, while mobile expenditure edged up slightly to a 14% share.

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