Online’s classified spend down, but overall digital spend grows
Internet advertising has joined the long list of media sectors affected by the downturn.
Fort the first time, online classfied spend has fallen compared to the same period a year before, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s quarterly Online Spending Report.
The document, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, says that the online classified market fell fractionally from $107m to $105m in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same time in 2008.
However, overall spending in the total online advertisng market rose by 14% in the same year on year period from $385m to $440m.
But , this was still a 5% fall on the last quarter of 2008 when the market was worth an estimated $462m.
The biggest quarter-on-quarter drop came in display advertising, which fell by 16% from $130m to $110m. In part this was probably driven by a general decline in the CPM that publishers have been able to command as inventory grew.
Paul Fisher, CEO of the IAB, said: “The fact that both the general display, and search and directories sectors experienced positive growth and the classifieds sector saw only a minimal decline is encouraging in the current climate.
“Continued economic pressure on some of the key advertising industry sectors notably automotive, financial services, travel, and in the classifieds sector real estate, employment and automotive, resulted in these sectors dampening the previous rate of growth in the industry.”
Linkedin