Digital advertising adds $94B to GDP: IAB Australia

Australia’s peak trade association for online advertising, IAB Australia has found that the country's digital advertising industry contributed $94 billion to GDP last year.

The research report Ad’ing Value, produced with PwC reveals that digital advertising created $13 billion in direct revenue and 24,600 direct jobs in 2021.

According to Gai Le Roy, IAB Australia CEO, “Digital advertising is a key driver of the Australian economy. It creates new opportunities for businesses to grow, provides consumers with billions of dollars’ worth of value and will be critical for our economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19.”

While the pandemic fuelled an increase in digital consumption, digital advertising has also seen significant growth according to the report.

“Presently, digital advertising is supporting growth across nearly all media channels, from broadcast television and video-on-demand services, through gaming and news media, to podcasts and digital streaming radio. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is also reported as being the leading driver of growth within the OOH sector as it transitions from paper-based billboards,” the report states.

Community benefits

The report highlights economic activity and increased productivity as key business benefits of digital advertising, but moreover breaks out the community benefits into consumer and social categories. The report found that free ad-supported digital content provides a value equivalent to $8.8bn to consumers annually and $1100 per household.

According to the authors, the consumer benefits of digital advertising include:

• Access to free online services and content (supported by advertising)
• Consumption personalised to preferences
• Reduced transaction costs

The social benefits of the industry include:

• Community connectedness
• Increased equity through lowered access costs
• Second-hand market creation

“This report shows the huge value that digital advertising provides to the community through free ad-supported content and services, freely available news and information, the ability to connect with others as well as transactional savings – totalling a whopping $55.5bn.  There is no doubt the main winners are consumers,” Le Roy said.