THE online advertising industry directly contributed $3.4 billion of Australia's economy last year and may indirectly be responsible for another $13.7bn.
That was the finding of a PwC study on the sector released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau today.
The sector directly generated just over 40,000 jobs and indirectly helped generate another 122,000 jobs in interdependent sectors and sectors that derive some level of financial support from online advertising activity.
PwC estimated that the sector direct and indirect contribution to the Australian economy could reach $26.5bn by 2017.
For instance PwC found that video online advertising and promotion contributed to higher use of bandwidth and social media on smartphones thus making an indirect contribution in the hardware and ISP industries.
IAB chief executive Samantha Yorke said that the association commissioned the report in response to rapid growth of digital advertising compared to other sectors.
The findings foreshadow PwC's advertising outlook report to be released next week which is expected to confirm its forecast last year that online advertising spending would exceed free-to-air advertising for the first time this year.
"We are very quietly confident that digital is going to be a huge success story when the new outlook numbers are released next week," Ms Yorke said.
Ms Yorke said that mobile was a major contributor digital advertising accounting for $36 million in revenue for the quarter to March 31.
The PwC report also attempted to place an overall value on ad-supported online services for consumers.
The consultancy estimated that consumers derived an estimated $43bn in value from ad-supported services.
