The latest quarterly report from the IAB Australia shows further growth in online advertising expenditure in Australia. Another record quarter of $571.75 million in spend reflects a 23% year on year growth, up by $105.5m.

The Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) shows that there was annual growth in all the categories tracked - general display (26%), classifieds (30%), search and directories (18%) - for the July-September period compared to 2009. The classifieds category showed the strongest growth for the quarter, following some declines in expenditure over the previous year, whereas search and directories is showing a slower level of growth in an already strong sector.

General display advertising and classifieds advertising accounted for 26.5% and 24.6% respectively of the total advertising expenditure for the third-quarter 2010, while search & directories advertising comprised the remaining 48.9% (a slight decline in share compared to the previous quarter).

Within the general display category, email based advertising comprised $7.6m of advertising expenditure, while video based advertising comprised $8.4m of advertising expenditure, slightly down on Q2 2010. CPM based pricing continued as the dominant expenditure type with 75% of advertising expenditure on a CPM basis, and 25% on a direct response basis.