Australia’s online ad market grows 14% to A$19.8 billion as video nears a third

Australia’s internet advertising market grew by 14.0% to A$19.8 billion in the financial year that ended in June 2026. That is the fastest yearly growth since the 2022 financial year, and a little above the six-year average of 13.7%. The figures come from the Online Advertising Expenditure Report, which PwC Australia puts together for IAB Australia. It came out on August 31.

Video did most of the work. Money spent on video ads rose 18.8% to A$5.9 billion, which is 30% of the whole market. Inside that, social video jumped 29.5% to A$2.4 billion. Its share of video money went from 38% to 41%. Search is still the biggest part, at A$8.6 billion, or 43% of the total, after growth of 13.2%. Classified ads grew 12.6% to A$3.1 billion, their first rise above ten percent in four years. Display ads without video grew more slowly, up 6.9% to A$2.2 billion. Audio rose 6.6% to A$353 million, and podcasts are now 40% of that.

Growth picked up near the end of the year. The June quarter alone was worth A$5.4 billion, up 16.3% on the same three months of 2025, with video up 22.6%. Government reached the top five spending sectors for the first time, with 6.3% of general display. Among publishers, connected TV, meaning TVs joined to the internet, took 60% of video money, up from 51% a year earlier. Desktop computers fell from 37% to 25%.

Small firms and foreign advertisers pay for Australia’s growth

The interesting part is who is paying. Gai Le Roy, chief executive of IAB Australia, said many long-standing advertisers have budgets that are not growing. The extra money comes from small and medium-sized businesses, from shops, and from advertisers abroad who want to reach Australian shoppers. Much of it runs all the time rather than in short bursts. She said a lot of the new spending comes from outside the usual group of advertisers.

A very different set of figures supports this. Guideline’s SMI numbers for July 2026, which track bookings made through media agencies, were reported by Mumbrella on September 2. They show agency bookings down 1.2% on a year earlier, and only 0.7% ahead for the calendar year so far. Digital booked through agencies was flat, up 0.4%, even though streaming video grew 28% and content sites 13.5%. Television in the big cities fell 4.1%, newspapers dropped 16.1% and cinema fell 41.7%. Government spending almost doubled, because of the 2026 Census and Defence Force recruitment campaigns. So the strong digital growth in the IAB report is mostly going around agencies and straight into platforms where advertisers buy for themselves.

Agency bookings point to a stronger August in Australia

The agency booking data suggests August will be stronger. The second half of the calendar year also brings the busy shopping season, when video and search usually do better than other formats. Separately, IAB Australia published a review of measurement on September 2. It argues that the industry needs shared rules for data, because working out which ad led to a sale is getting harder. That debate will shape how the next A$20 billion is counted and compared.