Website advertising finally eclipses newspaper ads for first time 

Friday, December 24 2010 by Catherine Ferguson

Website promotion activities look to be booming after a new survey revealed that businesses are spending more on internet ads in 2010 than newspaper equivalents for the first time ever.

According to the newest estimates drawn up by leading research company eMarketer, online ad spending will grow by 13.9 per cent to $25.8 billion (£16.7 billion) by the close of 2010, while companies are expected to invest just $22.78 billion (£14.7 billion) on print newspaper ads in the same 12-month period. This represents an 8.2 per cent drop on 2009 figures.

Even the revenues from print and online ads will only hit $25.7 billion (£16.5 billion) this year, it was added.

Geoff Ramsey, the chief executive officer of eMarketer, said that the use of such website promotion and the increased interaction with internet consultants is not just because of the increased uptake of the web, though it certainly forms a large part of this trend shift.

"Marketers are devoting bigger shares of their budgets to digital media as they see more customers shifting time toward the web," he said. "It's something we've seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point."

He continued: "The bad economy has actually accelerated the shift to digital advertising. Online ads, especially search ads, are increasingly seen by many marketers as a more reliable bet than print ads, which are often difficult to tie to a measurable financial result."

eMarketer's researchers added that total ad spending in the US is expected to bounce back this year, experiencing around three per cent growth in 2010 to $168.5 billion (£109 billion), though newspaper spending will continue its decline in 2011. 

This week, ForeSee Results released its fourth annual customer satisfaction survey regarding the top 40 online retailers in the UK. Keen website promotion, among other things, led Amazon.com to come out on top, followed by Amazon.co.uk and Play.com.

Living Streams "Improving clients' profitability through better use of the internet".