If you want to know where the money is online, all you have to do is follow the ads. A new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that total online advertising revenues for 2005 exceeded $12.5 billion, which would represent a 30 percent increase over the record $9.6 billion spent on online promotion in 2004. Online ad revenues in the fourth quarter of 2005 alone topped $3.4 billion, marking the quarter as having the highest online ad spending ever recorded and the second consecutive quarter to exceed $3 billion.
The IAB figures are still preliminary, and are estimated by surveying and compiling data from the top 15 online ad sellers, with the results then extrapolated to the entire industry. The IAB’s complete 2005 Internet Advertising Revenue Report is set to be released in April, 2006.
“The media landscape has clearly changed with more and more marketers realizing that there is much to be gained from online advertising.” said David Silverman of PricewaterhouseCoopers. “With the increase in broadband penetration further enhancing how messages get delivered, we should continue to see a favorable environment for increased Internet ad spend[sic].”
IAB CEO Greg Stuart noted, “This continued increase in spending supports the cross media research that proves Interactive as often the most cost-effective way to drive increased ROI. We fully expect Interactive to continue to play an ever increasing role of importance for marketers.”
