Irish advertisers spent €726m on digital advertising last year according to the latest IAB PwC Online Adspend report. This represents an 8% growth on the figure for 2019.
According to the report, display advertising grew by 12% to €367m in 2020. This was largely driven by a 22% growth in social at 22% and a 30% growth in video advertising. The report also notes that display advertising now holds a share of 51% of the total Irish digital advertising market
Search advertising, meanwhile, grew by 5% to €321m, giving it a 44% share of the market.
Classified online advertising, meanwhile, declined by 9% to €37m, giving it a 5% share of the overall market.
According to Suzanne McElligott, CEO, IAB Ireland: “2020 was a most challenging year for the advertising industry. However, the pandemic has resulted in digital becoming increasingly central to our lives as people turn to digital to stay informed, in touch and entertained during the periods of lockdown.
The 5% growth in Search and 12% growth in Display advertising reflect advertisers use of digital to maintain engagement with their customers during these uncertain times. The strong 12% growth in Display has been driven by Video and Social formats and we are very conscious that many of our members did not experience growth in 2020. With Core predicting 12.9 % growth in 2021 and our adspend participants predicting a growth of between 10 and 20% we look forward to a better year for the Irish advertising industry.”
Connor Mace, Manager at PwC, added: “The resilience of digital advertising in Ireland with an 8% growth in 2020 can be seen across markets with a 12% growth recorded in the 2020 IAB US PwC adspend report. The key growth drivers continue to be Social and Search with Video driving Display advertising growth. Social adspend at €272m now represents 74% of total display spend in 2020. The 30% growth recorded in Video adspend to €168m includes social and non-social video and demonstrates advertisers’ commitment to this format”.
David Monaghan, Chairman of IAB Ireland Board and Head of Commercial News UK and Ireland adds: “The ongoing periods of lockdown in 2020 with restricted trading and travel impacted adversely on our advertising industry. It is worth noting that during this period that IAB Ireland’s publishers reported an average increase of 11% in unique users, 17% increase in page views in 2020 with average time spent on site (dwell time) up 16%. This strong growth in digital audiences signals that our members are well placed to respond to the opening up of our economy in coming months and the take off of advertising .”
