Australians turned to comparison, cashback and rewards platforms in growing numbers in April as cost-of-living pressures continued to bite, according to Ipsos iris digital audience data.
Budget Direct's audience rose 33.3% month-on-month to 1.49 million as people sought cheaper insurance.
Coles Group's online audience grew to 12 million from 11.2 million.
Comparison site Canstar recorded a 40.6% year-on-year audience increase to 1.85 million from 1.29 million.
Everyday Rewards reached a record 11.7 million users, up 15.8% year-on-year with 18 to 39-year-olds making up 40% of its audience.
ShopBack grew 41.9% year-on-year to 6.3 million from 4.4 million, while OzBargain rose 21.6% to 2.1 million.
Both skewed heavily to 18 to 39-year-olds — 40% and nearly 51% of their audiences respectively.
The findings align with the Ipsos Issues Monitor, in which 63% of Australians named cost-of-living as their number one concern.
More than 21.5 million Australians used a news website or app in April, reaching 95.4% of online Australians aged 14+.
The Iran-Israel-US fuel crisis dominated news consumption, alongside ANZAC Day coverage and the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith on suspicion of war crimes.
NRL, AFL, the Alice Springs murder case and the Geelong oil refinery fire were among other trending stories.
The career category recorded the highest year-on-year audience growth for the second consecutive month, up 9.8%, followed by automotive (+7.2%), homes and property (+4.4%), energy suppliers and utilities (+3.4%) and entertainment (+2.9%).
In April, 22.57 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet, up 2% year-on-year, spending an average of five hours daily online, up 2.6%.
The top news brands by online audience in April were ABC News (12.6 million), news.com.au (11.5 million), nine.com.au (9.7 million), The Guardian Australia (7.4 million) and 7news.com.au (7.3 million).
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