Investment in digital advertising in the first half of 2015 rose by 25% to €162m, according to the latest figures from IAB Ireland and PwC.
Display advertising recorded the highest growth, at 31%, to hit €59m in the first half of the year. Display now represents 36% of total digital spend. Within the display category, social media display saw a doubling in growth from €10.7m in H1 2014 to €22m in H1 2015. Also within display, the H1 2015 adspend study calls out native advertising for the first time at €16m in the period, representing 27% of total digital display. Native formats include in-feed advertiser controlled ads such as those appearing on Facebook and Twitter, publisher controlled in-feed advertising which is a feature of content rich sites and discovery/ recommendation units. Spend on digital video advertising, meanwhile, grew by 57% from €7m H1 2014 to €11m H1 2015 reflecting brand advertisers’ strong commitment to this format.
Elsewhere, paid-for-search advertising grew by 26% year-on-year and remains the dominant digital format with a 55% share of total online adspend at €89m. According to the figures classified advertising accounted for 9% share of total online adspend at €14m in the first half of 2015.
The IAB Ireland/PwC figures also show that finance and retail are the top advertiser categories in display spend, holding a 15% share of total display spend. Automotive, telecommunications and FMCG advertisers were in joint second position with each holding a 10% share.
In terms of mobile, the Irish market saw a 72% growth in mobile advertising during the period to hit €65m with mobile search accounting for around 70% of this.
