The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers released its study of online advertising revenue for covering both the second quarter of 2005 and the first half of 2005. It’s findings? Ad spending is up—way up. Advertisers spent nearly 43 billion on online advertising during the second quarter of 2005, and approximately $5.8 billion during the first half of 2005. The latter represents a nearly 26 percent increase over the same period in 2004, while the former marks a 6.6 percent increase over the first quarter of 2005. In short, marketers are spending more and more money to reach people online, and—so far—they seem committed to online media.
Greg Stuart, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said "Most agencies and marketers are now committed to interactive as a critical medium in reaching their audiences, as well as engaging them in more immersive brand experiences," The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCooper’s New Media group, found that classified ads had a slight year-to-year growth proportionately, but the biggest jump was found in Referrals and lead generation, which experienced a nearly 300 percent year-to-year growth in terms of the proportion of advertising spending it represented. Nonetheless, Referrals still represented only 6 percent of online ad outlays. Year-to-year, the study’s Sponsorship category declined, but all other categories basically held their own, increasing in proportion to overall ad spending.
The findings suggest a maturity of the online ad market, with paid searches, display ads, and classifieds accounting for the lion’s share of online ad spending, while so-called Rich Media—you know, the stuff undoubtedly bobbing, blinking gyrating, sliding, and flashing all around this text—held steady at 8 percent.
Which is funny, because I could have sworn I just read they accounted for nearly three-quarters of the annoyance associated with online advertising. Where did I bookmark that link…?
