Online advertising expenditure in Australia in the past year to 30 June has leapt 14.6 per cent to $3.6bn, according to the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) figures.

One of the surprises over the first six months of the year was that total online advertising exceeded free-to-air television spending for the first time since the report began in 2002. According to the IAB, online expenditure was valued at $1.88bn against $1.8bn on television.

The annual Online Advertising Expenditure Report, produced for the association by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found mobile continues to outpace other categories in terms of growth, increasing 190 per cent year-on-year. Search and directories advertising rose by 18 per cent over the same period, while general display was up by 12 per cent.

Australia’s online advertising market contributes $17.1bn to the nation’s GDP and provides more than 162,000 direct jobs, according to the new Digital Dollars report. The first-of-its-kind report was commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and completed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and is based on the 2011/2012 financial year. Alongside the current economic result, the report also claimed the online advertising will be worth $26.5bn by 2017, reflecting a compound average annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent.

In its previous March quarter report, the IAB found tablet-based advertising was exceeding smartphone spending within the mobile category, representing 58 per cent of total spend. Over the most recent quarter to 30 June, mobile spend reached $45.9m and again 58 per cent was tablet-based.

Over the April-June quarter, general display advertising accounted for 27.3 per cent of all online advertising ($265.6m), while classifieds advertising represented 18.9 per cent ($183.3m)and search and directories 53.8 per cent ($523m).

Video display advertising is also on the rise, and increased by 56 per cent year-on-year in the June quarter to $35.7m. In total, online advertising over the most recent quarter totalled $971.9m, up just over 15 per cent year-on-year.