Credit: Steve Donoghue via Unsplash
Advertising spend in Australia is expected to lift by 5.4% in 2025 in a resilient market, below earlier forecasts but ahead of the nation’s economic growth, according to the latest estimates by IPG’s MAGNA
This is a downgrade on the outlook released in December 2025 when MAGNA forecast advertising spend to grow 6.5%.
However, the performance is ahead of IMF projections of 1.6% real GDP growth and 2.6% inflation in Australia.
And is in line with Australia’s advertising market growth of 5.7% in calendar 2024.
The analysts at MAGNA say the local advertising market has strong fundamentals, with some risk from geopolitical uncertainty
Long-term momentum will be driven by digital media scale, a consolidated media owner landscape and Australia’s role as one of the most advanced advertising economies in the world.
The mid year estimates show Australian ad spend hitting $A29.9 billion, again making it the world’s seventh largest ad market.
The MAGNA numbers are ahead of updated forecasts by WPP Media (formerly GroupM) which predicts Australia's advertising market to grow 4.1% in 2025. That outlook is slightly stronger than the 3.7% forecast in December 2024.
The MAGNA analysts say conditions for improvement in the Australian ad trading market are positive.
However, volatilities surrounding US tariffs, and geopolitical upheavals are causing some shortened market visibility and potential for uncertainty.
“Some return to growth evident for the Australian market in 2025,” said Ros Allison, head of product & innovation, MAGNA Australia.
“Early recovery in H1 and strong market fundamentals despite some dark clouds of geopolitical upheaval and tariff uncertainty.
“Digital platforms dominate the Australian market, taking over three quarters of ad revenue.
“Renewed positivity for traditional media owners - including their digital assets - with stabilisation of TV audiences, growth for streaming and podcasting, and a standout market for OOH vendors.”
Digital media will continue to expand, with revenue up 6.7% to $A23.0 billion, and increasing share to 77% of total ad sales.
Within digital, search will grow 3.5% to $10.8 billion, social media will climb 14.3% to $8.7 billion, digital video by 1.% to $2.3 billion.
In Australia, revenue for traditional media owners will rise 1.1% to $6.9 billion.
Television will be flat, down just 0.7%, to $3.7 billion, with audience losses stabilising.
OOH continues to stand out, up 10% to $1.5 billion.
Audio will be flat overall, up just 0.2% to $1.1 billion, with growth for podcasting and streaming.
MAGNA’s Global Ad Forecast projects global advertising revenues for media owners to increase 4.9% to $979 billion in 2025.
The advertising revenues of traditional media owners, including TV, radio, publishing, and out-of-home, are expected to erode by 3% to $261 billion, due to economic uncertainty.
Digital pure players ad sales will grow 8% to $709 billion (73% of total ad sales). DPP growth is driven by rising usage, AI innovation, e-commerce competition, and retail media networks.
Search and retail media ads (such as Google, Amazon, Walmart) will rise 8% to $359 billion
The global ad market will re-accelerate in 2026 as the economy stabilizes and major events return, including the Winter Olympics (Italy), FIFA World Cup (US) and US Midterms. Global ad sales are projected to rise 6.3%, surpassing one trillion dollars for the first time.
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