The IAB, Interactive Advertising Bureau, announced that internet advertising revenues reached $5.8 billion in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 18.2% over the same period in 2007.
Although the figures were the second highest in history, there was a slight slide of 1.7% from the previous quarter which recorded the largest ever figures, where revenues reached $5.9 billion for Q4.
Commenting on the figures, Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, said: “We continue to experience significant growth and vitality in interactive marketing, media and advertising. We expect growth to continue, as consumers spend more and more time online, and marketers find more and more innovative ways to reach them through digital media.”
David Silverman, partner, Assurance at PricewaterhouseCoopers, added: “The fundamentals of interactive advertising spend continues to be positive and I would expect to see continued growth in the future. The cyclical fourth quarter to first quarter drop in traditional media advertising spend, combined with an overall economic slowdown, resulted in a not so unexpected first quarter slowdown in the growth of online advertising.”
Although Silverman appears to have expected this decline, and industry pundits claim that ad spending does typically peak in the fourth quarter of the year during the Christmas holiday season, this is the first time in last few years that this dip has occurred in the online industry.
In Q1 2007, ad revenue reached $4.9 billion, an increase of 2% on the previous quarter, while in the 2006 ad revenue had reached $3.9 billion which was increase of 6% over the previous quarter.
Final US internet advertising figures for 2007 were estimated to grow to $21.1 billion, according to preliminary figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (see US Online Ad Revenues For 2007 Estimated To Reach $21bn).
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