New data from Australian born payments company Airwallex records ad spend plummeting, with a 16 percent drop in 12 months.

Lachlan Millist of Airwallex speaks about the major drop in ad spend, with nearly a $2 billion decrease in domestic advertising. 

“The expense data track shows that Aussie businesses are scaling back ad spending in the face of a tough economic climate,” Millist says.

“What we are seeing from the way thousands of Australian businesses use our expense management products are that domestic and international advertising spending is being displaced by higher costs in areas like travel and recruitment,” he finishes.

Ad spend plummeting by nearly 20 percent

All data reviews by Airwallex were comparing January to May 2022 through to January to May 2023. During this time, it was international advertising that took the hardest hit, as it was down by 19 percent. 

In some positive news, although the advertising spend tap is being turned off, it doesn’t mean that businesses are turning off the lights. Some of this budget is being diverted to other areas. In fact, it’s gotten up to a nine percent increase across other areas of the business that might have suffered during lockdowns.

“What we are seeing from the way thousands of Australian businesses use our expense management products is that domestic and international advertising spending is being displaced by higher costs in areas like travel and recruitment,” Millist says.

So, it might be up to marketers to fight for some of the sparing budget. 

“Marketers and advertisers are having to fight harder for a share of the pie while businesses carefully review internal expenses,” Millist explains.

“More and more businesses are picking expense management partners like us to keep a close real-time watch on expenses, while accessing competitive foreign exchange rates for the overseas marketing trends.”