US industry leaders expect online advertising spend to double by 2007, according an American Advertising Association survey.
There is also good news for the internet in terms of future inclusion of online advertising within the media mix. Currently 17.5% of advertisers claim not allocate any spend to advertising online, but this is projected to fall to just 8.4% by 2007.
Percentage of Media Budget Allocated to Online Ads | |||
(average of all respondents) | |||
Budget Allocated To Online Ads (%) | Median (%) | Reporting ‘Zero’ (%) | |
2001 | 5.25 | 2 | 25 |
2004 | 8.35 | 10 | 17.5 |
2007 | 17 | 15 | 8.5 |
The AAF report states, “far from the over-hyped promises of the late ’90s, there is now greater clarity about the real benefits of online, including its ability to complement and enhance the use of traditional media and its precision targeting.”
The ability to complement and enhance the use of traditional media was flagged as an online advertising benefit by 95% of the survey respondents. More importantly, however, 75% agreed that online advertising had a real ability to deliver a return on investment. The ability of online ads to precisely target an ever fragmenting audience was also cited as a benefit by 84% of respondents.