The Australian internet advertising market grew 9.7% to $4.6 billion in the September quarter compared to the same three months last year.
The data, which comes from the IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report released today, also showed the local market remained flat relative to the June 2025 quarter, which had experienced elevated federal election advertising spend.
Search advertising spend increased 12% to $2,005 million.
Video advertising continued to outperform the broader display advertising market, growing 16.7% year to $1,347 million.
Classified advertising increased by 0.9% to $768 million. Audio grew 3.5% to $82 million.
Display advertising dipped by 1.5% to $497 million.
Video represented nearly 73% of the total general display spend in the September quarter, with social video investment experiencing the fastest growth within the video category at 29.4%.
"Growth in the Australian digital ad market continues to be driven particularly by social, video and search in the September quarter," said IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy.
"It has again been a tough quarter for many local publishers, with display revenue including in-feed down 1.5% year on year and standard display down 6.8%.
“This fragmentation in spend does, however, provide opportunities for marketers to diversify their investment across a broader range of environments."
Home products entered the top five display advertiser investment categories for the first time with a 5.6% share, nudging out travel.
Retail remained the top performing category with 16.8% share, followed by automotive at 13.7%, entertainment and media at 10.8% and finance at 9.4% share.
Connected TV grew its share of video investment with content publishers and local broadcasters this quarter, increasing to 62% of spend in the September quarter, supported by winter sports coverage.
Desktop investment continued to decline to 24%, while mobile expenditure edged up slightly to a 14% share.
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