Web’s Share of Ad Dollars Set To Rise
Posted by Dan Sachar on April 9, 2009
I’ve long argued that this recession is a perfect time to invest in digital marketing, and it looks like that trend may actually start happening. According to a new eMarketer report, web’s cut of ad dollars is going to pass 15% by 2013, and it should hit 10% by the end of this year:
Ironically, that rate of growth should accelerate because of the ongoing recession, which is causing many brands to reevaluate all of their ad and marketing budgets, according to the report. That optimistic assessment comes just after eMarketer revised its 2009 online ad spending forecast, dropping an earlier prediction of 8.9 percent growth to 4.5 percent.
And why will the share grow? Well, in a great example of stating the obvious:
“Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst . “Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media.
This produces more efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.”
What this article leaves out is the notion that – while the share of the pie that goes to web will grow, the overall pie will likely shrink due to the recession. Still, a percentage or two shift to the web may not seem like much on the surface, but for digital agencies, this would represent a flood of new money.
Yet, amazingly, there are still agencies out there without a strong digital service and with clients demanding one.
I’ve said it before and will say it again: the time to invest in digital is now.
