Digital advertising revenues in the Irish market rose 17 per cent to €574 million last year, according to figures from industry body IAB Ireland and accountancy giant PwC.
The performance of the online market, led by Google and Facebook, contrasts with a fall in spending on traditional "offline" media advertising in 2018.
Within digital, mobile was the star performer last year. The IAB Ireland/PwC online adspend study found €376 million was spent on mobile ads in the Irish market, a rise of 43 per cent.
Mobile ads now represent two-thirds of total digital adspend, it said.
Search advertising grew 17 per cent to €286 million, giving it a 50 per cent share of the total Irish digital ad market. Display advertising rose 18 per cent to €250 million, IAB said, while online classified advertising was 10 per cent higher at €38 million.
‘Positive momentum’
"IAB Ireland and its members are focused on maintaining this positive momentum and building a sustainable future for the Irish digital advertising industry," said the organisation's chairman Shane Nolan, who is Google's director of new business sales in the EMEA region.
IAB Ireland and PwC's figures are based on actual numbers provided by 24 online publishers, estimates of RTÉ's online ad revenues and estimates of what Google, Facebook (including Instagram), Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn earn from Irish advertisers.
