Ad spend soars by 163 per cent

Online advertising spend is rocketing, according to a new report. UK advertisers increased their Web spend by 163 per cent last year – from &£19.4m in 1998 to &£51m in 1999, says the study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Using data supplied by online media owners, the findings prove there are “no signs of slowing down”, says IAB chairman Danny Meadows-Klue.

The report also shows advertisers prefer to deal directly with online media owners rather than use a media buyer. Directly invoiced deals accounted for 97 per cent of advertising revenues last year, up from 93 per cent in 1998.

Banner ads remain the dominant form of display advertising, comprising 73 per cent of the full year’s revenue, but sponsorship deals are becoming “increasingly popular”.

Richard Hartley, a partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, says these figures show that the growth in Internet advertising is “outstripping even the most aggressive expectations of the market’s size, and indicate that the recent sizing of the European market may also be underestimated”.

Banner ads tend to have a now-or-never effect on consumers, according to a report from AdKnowledge, a division of online ad network Engage.

Sixty per cent of consumers who register or make a purchase after clicking on a banner ad will do so within half an hour of clicking, says the report.

The study also found that 30 per cent of people who clicked on the banner registered or made a purchase within seven days of doing so.