Online Ad Revenues On the Rise

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers released their latest Internet advertising numbers for the third quarter. According to the organizations, Internet advertising revenues reached nearly $5.5 billion for the quarter. That is an increase of 1.7% from the second quarter.

The numbers are still significantly down from the same period last year, but any increase is a good sign of things to come. There has been a 5.4% decline from last year.

"The Internet has transformed the consumer experience of media, providing marketers with unprecedented opportunities to engage with their customers," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "The advertising sector overall has been hard hit by the economy, but digital media has been a bright spot within the larger economic downturn as it is capturing an ever-increasing piece of marketers’ advertising spend."

"While all segments of the media industry have experienced declines, online advertising remains resilient and is once again showing signs of growth," said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The information from the IAB/PWC is considered the most accurate measurement of interactive ad revenue, the IAB says, because its compiled directly from info supplied by companies selling advertising on the web. The IAB releases a full report twice a year to reflect half-year periods. It will be interesting to see how the second half of the year plays out in its entirety.

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More Marketers Focused On Digital Spending

More marketers are planning on shifting their media spending budgets to digital during the economic downturn, according to a second quarter survey by Round2 Communications.

Email marketing is one area where spending is set to increase with 40 percent of respondents planning to do so, while half expect their amount of spending to remain the same and just 10 percent plan a decrease.

Nearly a third (31.3%) of marketers plan to increase spending on interactive advertising while 52.1 percent say their investment will remain the same and 16.7 percent plan a decrease.

Nearly a quarter (23.5%) of marketers indicate their spending on search advertising will increase and almost 60 percent say their budgets will remain the same.

The most likely areas to see a cut in spending due to the economy is print with 37.5 percent of marketers planning to do so, followed by TV (21.4%), radio (8.9%) and outdoor (5.4%).

When it comes to an economic recovery, almost 60 percent of marketers expect it in 2010, while nearly one-fifth believed it would happen this year and 17.3 percent thought recovery would come in 2011.

Overall, 50 percent of marketers said they expected their expenditures to return to peak levels in 2011 and less than one - third thought 2010 would bring them back to their previous budgets.