Australian online advertising expenditure totalled $5.9 billion in the 2015 calendar year, says the IAB, and it won’t be long before we break the $6-billion mark.

This represents a 24% increase over 2014.

The growth, as reported in the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)/PwC Online Advertising Expenditure Report, is a major milestone for the industry, which has now achieved year-on-year growth of at least 21% each year since 2010.

Each advertising category measured in the report experienced significant growth from 2014 to 2015, most significantly:

• General display, up 46% to reach $2.1 billion,
• Classified advertising, up 22% to $1.1 billion, and
• Search and directories grew 14% to reach $2.8 billion.

Other categories in the report also expressed huge growth in expenditure, most notably mobile advertising, which grew 81% from 2014, an extra $695 million to reach $1.55 billion.

Mobile advertising now accounts for 40% of all general display advertising, up from 25.5% in 2014.

Video advertising grew 75%, reaching $484 million, and now accounts for 23% of general display advertising.

As far as industry representation, retail, real estate and motor vehicles remain dominant of the general display share of advertising.

“This is an outstanding result for the industry,” says IAB CEO Alice Manners.

“This is representative of all the hard work that has been done by both the IAB and the entire industry over nine years to establish a fair and transparent online market. We have come a long way, but there is still much room for improvement and we are already looking forward to the next major milestone being achieved,” she says.

2015’s $5.9 billion total was partly the result of a big final quarter, a $1.7 billion, representing a 28% increase on the same quarter in 2014.

This huge quarter saw a 47% increase in general display, 18% growth in search and directories and 22% increase in classifieds.