Online advertising-spend in Ireland rose by 29% last year to hit €340m, according to the latest IAB PwC Online Adspend Study.
According to IAB Ireland, display advertising had the highest growth rate at 38% accounting for €137m of the €340m in 2015. Display now represents 40% of total digital spend.
Paid-for-Search advertising also grew by 28% year-on-year and remains the dominant digital format with a 52% share of total online ad spend at €176m.
Classified advertising, meanwhile, holds an 8% share of total online ad spend at €27m
Within the display category, social media display saw a 72% growth from €28.5m in 2014 to €49m in 2015. Spend on digital video grew by 71% from €14.3m in 2014 to €24.5m in 2015 reflecting the strong commitment of brand advertisers to the video format.
Also within display, native advertising is tracking at 33% of total digital display with ad spend of €45m. 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 such as news and entertainment sites as well as discover and recommendation units embedded in sites by specialists such as Outbrain and Taboola.
The IAB/PwC survey shows that finance and retail are the top spending categories in digital display with a spend of 14% respectively, followed by telcos at 11%, auto at 10% and FMCG at 9%.
With 75% of Irish people owning a smartphone, mobile advertising, at €141m, now accounts for 40% of total ad spend and was a key driver of total digital ad spend with some 81% of the growth attributable to mobile, according to IAB Ireland. Mobile search accounts for 63% of mobile spend at €89m with mobile display advertising representing a 37% share at €52m.
According to Suzanne McElligott, CEO of IAB Ireland; “the big story from our 2015 report is the acceleration of mobile advertising to representing 41% of the total digital ad spend. Mobile advertising is beginning to catch up with user engagement on mobile devices. IAB’s newly launched LEAN initiative, which promotes the use of ad formats that are Lighter, Encrypted, Ad-choice Compliant and Non-intrusive, will further enable advertisers to enhance their engagement with users across all digital devices”.
“The digital advertising industry in Ireland continues to show very strong growth, which reached 29% in 2015 (YoY). We are seeing significant focus by advertisers on mobile advertising and strong growth on digital display driven by video-on-demand, social media and native advertising,” says Kieran Little, strategy manager, PwC.
