Online Ad Spending Predictions Dip

[Pharma Newshound]

Source: ADOTAS

Spending forecasters are getting less bullish by the second and interactive advertising hasn’t escaped the cycle of bad news. eMarketer revised its happy-go-lucky October online ad forecast to reflect the more somber economic times we’re grinning and bearing.

Last fall, eMarketer said U.S. advertisers would spend about $27.5 billion online in 2008, but now they’re predicting about $25.8 billion will be shelled out on the Web. There’s a silver lining: interactive advertising will still grow by about 23% from 2007 – and will survive much better than other forms of traditional advertising.

“Several elements unique to the Internet will support continued U.S. ad spending growth even if other media falter,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer. “The greater ability to measure ads online will likely encourage marketers with reduced budgets. Those same marketers are finding that the audiences they need to target are spending more of their media time on the Web.”

The healthiest sector of interactive advertising? Search – it should account for the about 40% of online spending this year. The rate will decrease slightly through 2012, when it will account for about 37.3% of interactive ad spending.

The opposite is true for rich media and video advertising – which will grow from 10.2% in 2008 to 18.5% in 2012.

Overall, spending growth will slow down in 2009 to 16%, but will spurt up again in 2012 with a growth rate of about 20%. Stay tuned for further tweaks.