Online advertising hits a wall

Economic headwinds keep spending flat

As you can see from the chart below, online advertising has flattened out.

Online advertising grew to $5.9 billion in the third quarter, up 2% from the second quarter, and up 11% from the same period a year ago, according to the just-released report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The upside is that online advertising continues to hit new records. For the first nine months of this year, online ad revenue totaled a record $17.3 billion, up nearly 14% from the record set in the same period last year.

"The growth of interactive advertising that we’ve been experiencing over the past few years has stabilized due in large part to the difficult current economic climate,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Interactive advertising continues to be the most measurable and cost-effective way to reach consumers, and we see more and more marketers seeking to harness its power.”

Quarterly $ Revenue Growth Comparison – 2000-2008 YTD

Source: PwC/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (www.iab.net)