Digital adspend in Ireland continued to power ahead to €216m in the first half of 2016 according to the latest IAB PwC Online Adspend Study with as much as €50.8m of this spent on social media sites like Facebook.
Of the €216m – which was a 33% increase on the previous year- €108.5m was spent on mobile and €107.5m on desktop. Paid-for advertising with the likes of Google, MSN and Yahoo amounted to €108m while digital display amounted to €94m with classifieds accounting for another €14m.
Within the display category, social media display saw a spend of €50.8m up from €22m in H1 2015, a staggering 130% increase.
Video advertising, meanwhile grew by 85% from €11m in H1 2015 to €20m in H1 2016 reflecting brand advertisers’ strong commitment to this format. For its part native advertising (cross platform) weighed in a €36.6 m and now accounts for 39% of total digital display in H1 2016.
In digital display, finance and retail were the top advertising categories. Finance accounted for around 15% of display spend while retail accounted for 13% of the display market.
Reflecting the global growth trend in mobile adspend, the Irish market experienced 67% growth in mobile advertising to €108.5m in the first half of the year. Mobile search accounts for 58% of total mobile spend with mobile display representing a 42% share.
According to Suzanne McElligott, CEO, IAB Ireland: “Smartphones are increasingly being used as the main online device for users to access information, transact business, consume news and entertainment. It is very exciting to see Irish advertisers really embrace this platform which is the first device consumers reach for in the morning and is with them wherever they go throughout the day.”
Richard Phelan, strategy manager, PwC adds: “One of the key drivers of mobile Adspend this year has been the continued growth in Display advertising. It accounted for the majority of mobile growth and now represents over 40% of mobile spend, up from 30% last year.”
