Internet advertising is continuing to recover, according to statistics released last week, and publishers should be asking themselves if they’re ready to get their share of increased online ad spending.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Internet advertising revenue in the United States reached $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 7.5 percent over the same three months last year. That’s also a first-quarter record.
It was the second consecutive record-setting quarter, according to the IAB. The fourth quarter of 2009 set an Internet ad revenue record of $6.3 billion.
Meanwhile, comScore Inc. said U.S. Internet users received a record 1.1 trillion display ads in the first three months of the year. That total is up 15 percent from the first quarter of 2009. In addition, comScore estimates that $2.7 billion was spent on online display advertising (static banners and rich media, only — no video).
ComScore said it’s also seen an increase in online display spending, but it used a different method to compute the figure this year and couldn’t provide a comparison.
The IAB Internet revenue estimate includes search, display (banners, rich media, videos, and sponsorships), classified, referrals and e-mail. The IAB doesn’t break out the amounts in each category in its first-quarter report.
In the comScore report, Facebook ranked first as the top publisher of online display ads (176.3 million, 16.2 percent of the total). Following Facebook were Yahoo!, Microsoft, Fox Interactive, AOL and Google. ComScore said AT&T was the top advertiser (26.3 million impressions, 2.4 percent of the total), and was followed by Verizon, Scottrade, Experian Interactive and Sprint/Nextel.
Although the statistics suggest advertisers are showing more faith in Internet advertising by shifting more dollars into the space, the gain in the number of ads served doesn’t necessarily mean a boon to individual publishers. Granted, it’s risky to match the IAB and comScore numbers, in a broad sense, however, a 7.5 percent gain in revenue against a 15 percent gain in ads served could mean a weaker CPM rate.
And that means online publishers will have to continue working hard to demonstrate the value of their particular audiences to local and national advertisers.