Online advertising growth is set to slow into single digits for the first time in 2009 according to eMarketer’s revised projections.
eMarketer is basing its projections on the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) data. It says online ad spending will reach 25.7 billion in 2009, which is 8.9 percent over the $23.6 billion that will be spent in 2008.
Previously eMarketer predicted in August that online ad spending would grow 14.5 percent in 2009.
The IAB recently released its Q3 figures for online advertising spending and found the numbers to be 2 percent higher than the Q2 results. In fact Q3’s $5.9 billion represents the second highest quarter results ever, which is an encouraging sign for online advertising.
In the first nine months of 2008, revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from the $15.2 billion in the same period a year ago and surpassed the record set in the first nine months of 2007 by almost 14 percent, according to 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,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.
David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, added that, “a weakening economy will continue to be a challenge to all forms of advertising-supported media. However, the Internet should be better poised to withstand the storm given its ability to combine performance-based advertising along with broad-based branding.”
