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We were happy when eMarketer predicted a 10.5% rise in online ad spending back in December 2010. Now, they’ve revised that number, saying the increase will be more like 20%.
How does that translate into dollars? Try $31.3 billion spent on online advertising this year.
eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman says:
“The internet has become as fundamental as television to advertisers. As consumers continue to increase their time spent online and as a resurgent economy continues to bolster ad budgets, we’re going to continue to see an influx of dollars toward the internet. More ad formats, such as video, and more channels, especially social media and mobile, are also key contributors to the spending gains.”
Search is still eating up most of the budget. Video is the fastest growing category but the percentage of the overall pot is still very small, only $2.16 billion right now.
From the chart, it looks like they’re expecting 2011 to be a “banner” year for online advertising. Though the dollar amounts will continue to rise, note that the percentage of change actually takes a drastic dip over the next few years. Is that because eMarketer doesn’t sense anything new on the horizon?
My guess is that while online ad spending will begin to level out, the mobile ad spending chart will be the one showing the large increases year-over-year from now until 2015.
