The data comes from the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released today (Mar. 30) by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). This is said to be the fifth consecutive year of record results.
Despite a difficult U.S. economy, the report says, interactive advertising’s continued growth, albeit at a slower pace, confirms marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online where they are spending more and more of their time.
Other researchers look at online ad business with eyes of suspicion. Click Forensics, a company that monitors traffic quality for the online advertising community, has released industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the fourth quarter 2008. The industry average click fraud rate grew to 17.1% for Q4 2008. That’s up from 16.0% in Q3 2008 and from the 16.6% rate reported for Q4 2007.
Creating effective digital advertising operations, says Gartner, is crucial for media companies regardless of the current adverse economic climate. The research firm suggests 10 measures for digital advertising transformation.
According to IAB-PwC report, full-year 2008 revenues totaled a record $23.4 billion, exceeding 2007’s performance, itself the former record of $21.2 billion, by $2.2 billion or 10.6%.
And the fourth-quarter revenues of $6.1 billion mark the first time the interactive advertising industry achieved, and surpassed, $6 billion in a single quarter. The figures represent a $154 million or 2.6% increase from 2007’s fourth quarter, which had revenues of $5.9 billion.
