Irish digital advertising spend on the rise

Irish digital advertising spend grew by 10% in 2017 according to the latest IAB / PwC Online Adspend Study.

The study for the year ended December 2017, which has tracked the growth of digital advertising annually since 2009, reveals the online advertising market in Ireland was worth around €491m in 2017, made up of €264m on mobile and €227m on desktop.

The Irish digital ad market has grown from €97m, as an emerging advertising channel in 2009 to €491m in 2017, reflecting a mature advertising medium. 2017 has been a challenging year for the advertising industry both globally and locally due to economic uncertainty and this has been reflected in a consolidated advertising market.

Let’s break it down…

Digital advertising formats (desktop and mobile combined)

  • Paid-for-Search advertising has grown by 12% and remains the dominant digital format with a 50% share of total digital adspend at €245m.
  • Display advertising experienced a growth rate of 7% representing €212m in 2017 and 43% share of total digital adspend.

Note: The total of €491m comprises: €244.8m (Search) + €211.5m (Display) + €34.8m (Classified)

Within the Display category (desktop and mobile combined)

  • Social Media saw a spend of €123m in 2017 up from €114m in 2016, representing a growth of 8%.
  • Video advertising grew by 46% to reach a spend of €68m in 2017 reflecting brand advertisers’ strong commitment to this format.
  • Native formats (excluding social media) grew by 37%. This was largely attributable to growth in Premium Publisher Controlled Content and Discovery/Recommendation units.

 

Other key takeaways from the report…

Irish Mobile Adspend now represents 54% of total Digital Adspend

Reflecting the global growth trend in Mobile Adspend, the Irish market experienced a 14% growth in mobile advertising to €264m in 2017. Mobile now constitutes 54% of the total digital advertising spend in Ireland. This onward trajectory in mobile adspend is also reflected in research by eMarketer which predicted that global mobile adspend would reach 62.5% of total digital advertising in 2017.

Key Drivers for Digital Adspend growth:

  1. Mobile devices are an integral part of consumers’ daily lives.
    • 59% of consumers in Ireland use their mobile device at least every 30 minutes;
    • Ireland ranks 2nd in terms of average number of mobile websites used in a typical day – 7.29 per day – global average 5.82; and
    • when it comes to mobile app usage, Ireland sits joint 3rd with Canada in terms of average number of apps used in a typical day, close to global average. (Source: IAB On Device Always On – A Global Perspective of Mobile Consumer Experience 2017).
  2. Digital / Online is one of the top 3 areas of spend for 70% of Marketers.

    50% of Irish marketers with budgets of +€1m predict they will allocate up to 30% of their budget to digital. A further 10% will spend +50% of their budget on digital in 2018. (Source: Alternatives/ The Marketing Institute Salary & Market Insights Survey 2017).