Online advertising continues to rival the growth achieved by other media, as new figures reveal that US internet revenues for the first six months of this year grew by nearly 40% year on year to $4.6 billion.
The report said that the growth in internet advertising was because many major marketers are switching a large proportion of their budget from traditional television and radio to the internet.
President of the IAB, Greg Stuart said: “Internet advertising is without question taking share from the other media at this time and for good reason – marketers have figures out that online advertising is often the most cost effective medium for influencing both branding and sales results.”
The study says, the data is further fuelled by recent public announcements that online advertising budgets are dramatically increasing. Major marketers such as Ford’s Lincoln Mercy and Vonage have said that the internet will receive 25% and 50% respectively of their marketing budget.
Search advertising, on engines such as Google, have continued to see a growth in popularity over the period.
Director of New Media at PWC, Pete Petrusky said: “Not surprisingly, search continues its popularity and has been embraced by advertisers due to its innate relevancy, the simplicity of the results and because advertisers can determine more precise response rates”.
During the second quarter of 2004, search grew more than any other internet advertising category, up 40% to $947 million, compared to $481 million in 2003.
Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tom Hyland said: “The industry has been experimenting with different formats since the beginning and while search has been the strongest format recently, we think that evolution process will continue.”
Internet Advertising Formats | ||
Q2 2004 | Q2 2003 | |
Search | $947 million (40%) | $481 million (29%) |
Display Ads | $474 million (20%) | $382 million (23%) |
Classifieds | $403 million (17%) | $282 million (17%) |
Sponsorships | $213 million (9%) | $199 million (12%) |
Rich Media* | $189 million (8%) | $149 million (9%) |
$47 million (2%) | $66 million (4%) | |
Referrals | $47 million (2%) | $17 million (1%) |
Slotting Fees | $47 million (2%) | $84 million (5%) |