Study: U.S. Internet Ad Revenue Up 37 Percent In First Half 2006

[engine]

U.S. Internet advertising revenue rose 37 percent in the first six months of the year, hitting a record of nearly $8 billion, according to a study released on Monday.

The study, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, comes just days after a revenue warning by Yahoo Inc. raised concerns that ad spending in new media could be slowing.

In warning about its revenue, Yahoo pointed to weakness in advertising from automobile and financial firms, two key sectors in marketing. Since the disclosure, analysts have been divided over whether the issue is solely Yahoo's or signals a wider slowdown in online ad spending.

U.S. Internet Ad Revenue Up 37 Percent In First Half 2006 [today.reuters.co.uk]

[jcoronella]

Seems to contradict what I would have expected given Yahoo's recent comments. [webmasterworld.com]

[WiseWebDude]

Yup, Yahoo! ads simply suck, therein lies the problem with them...

[Marc_P]

Yahoo lost MSN. Not too surprising that their revenue would be down, no?

[iamlost]

The numbers show increases for quarterly internet ad revenues rising about 1B over the same period the year before since mid-2004.

Some interesting notes comparing this year to last:
* search and email ad formats increased volume but remained static as a percentage of the market (40% and 2%).

* referrals/lead generation was the big winner with revenue up almost 85%.

* display related was up in volume but fell 3% against the other formats. The possible bright spot was a 1% gain in the sub-category Ad Banners/Display Ads. Video ads - fad or not?

Historically, the weaker the market the more agressive the automobile advertising so I expect that revenue stream to continue strong.

I meet very few webmasters who have taken the time to learn the ad revenue sources available (other than the ones like AdSense that they're spoon fed). A lot of sites are missing out on a lot of ad money.