As the Internet Grows, Online Advertising Grows

May 14, 2009•Blog Posts•Online & Digital Media• by author

Alan S.

As a result of online growth, Facebook has just reached a milestone 200 million users and, interestingly, 26-44 year-olds make up the majority of new members.

Trends like this suggest that age gaps no longer remain prevalent among Internet users, which provides marketers with a wider target audience that are susceptible for viewing online advertisements.
eMarketer states that online retail sales rose 11% over the first three months in 2009, even in the midst of recession.

While spending cutbacks are permeating across nearly all households, marketers have seen an increase in online sales compared to the same quarter last year when the economy was still near its peak. In fact, eMarketer says, “The Internet’s share of total media ad spending is rising by at least 1 percentage point every year.”

Another recent eMarketer study found that 40% of shoppers are likely to use coupons found online, while clipping coupons from newspapers is on a steady decline. The prevalence of online coupons highlights that firms are allocating more funds to online ads and away from traditional sources.

Even less aggressive predictions have online ad spending to rise in all facets, whereas print mediums are currently struggling to weather the economic storm. Another good example of this is online video ads, which are expected to grow twenty two and half percent in 2009.

Marketers have only uncovered the tip of the vast online iceberg.  It appears that these statistics will increase with more velocity in the next decade compared with the last.