Internet ad spend overtakes TV

Have you heard the news? No, not the one about BT Tradespace changing (although that one is important) but the ground breaking news that online advertising expenditure has grown 4.6% in 2009 and is overtaking TV for the first time ever! (Source: Internet Advertising Bureau)

Yes it’s official. The web is now the most influential medium! The IAB announced that online advertising not only weathered the recession early 2009, ad expenditure online is up £82m to record market share of 23.5%.

What’s interesting about these stats (and why it should matter to you) is the fact that it shows – one, the shift in the value advertisers are seeing and getting from the online channel and two, the reality that the returns on investment are proving to be far greater from the web.

The web has always proven itself to be the most cost-effective way for a small business to market and promote itself but now, it could be the medium that is showing the best returns.

One fact that stood out from the research is that “paid-for search has continued to grow, proving itself a mainstay of marketing budgets. As the purest form of direct response advertising, search is proving recession-friendly and equates to 59.8% of all online advertising expenditure.”

I, for one, am not surprised by this. In my recent article on PPC (Pay Per Click) uncovered, I talked about how 90% of all online journey’s begin with search. Search is the way to be found.

Not so long ago, we launched our own search marketing product BT SearchSmart because we, ourselves anticipated the trend that consumers are now putting their faith in what they see online and what their peers online are saying.

In fact, according to research from Quidco, 62% of shoppers consult online communities before making a purchase making the objectives of being found and building reputation online key for any small business.

…And BT Tradespace aims to help you do both.

It’s not just the fact that you are able to have a good mix of content (blog posts, video, pictures, etc) that’s easily updated on your Tradespace but, as you’ll find out, with the new BT Tradespace, there’s plenty more opportunity to drive search traffic to your site and build your reputation. The long term aim for us is, we give you the tools to do it yourself or if you want, we offer you the services you need to get you to that ultimate goal of being on page one!
If there were two things to take away from these new figures it’s this -

Search is the way forward – so the more opportunity you have to drive your traffic via search, the better the returns in the long term.

Online spend is not wasted. If advertisers weren’t seeing the returns, we wouldn’t be seeing a 4.6% growth in investment. It shows that online is the hottest new channel to be on. The good news is – it’s cost effective, it’s accessible (to one and all), and when it comes to free services like BT Tradespace? It doesn’t get any better.

What do you think of the new figures? Has online advertising worked better for you? Leave a comment and let us know!

Also read:
PPC uncovered
Search Marketing made easy with BT SearchSmart