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June 7, 2009 1:07 PM PDT

Internet advertising slumps in first quarter

by Jonathan Skillings

Spending on Internet advertising took a big drop in the first quarter of 2009 as troubles across the broader economy took their toll.

For the three-month period, Internet advertising revenue in the U.S. was $5.5 billion, down a notable 5 percent from the $6.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report Friday from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Internet ad revenue, 2001-2009 (Credit: Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Aside from a handful of smaller quarterly declines, Internet advertising revenue has risen steadily since the middle of 2002, as the sector began to recover from the dot-com bust.

The IAB put a positive spin on the first quarter's downward motion.

"Consumers are spending more and more time with interactive media. For this, and other reasons, interactive media continues to gain share of marketing spend." Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, said in a statement. "We're confident that growth will resume as the U.S. economic climate improves. Interactive advertising is the most accountable way to reach consumers--and in this economy, digital media will be a core component of any successful marketing campaign."

Internet companies such as Yahoo are banking on businesses continuing to migrate to online advertising.

"Your brand is not defined by 20 keywords. You have to put a persona out there," Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Wednesday at a luncheon with Wall Street analysts, talking about the potential allure of online display or video advertising to businesses used to buying ad time on television. But, she said, Internet ad sales forces need to get rid of some of the friction in their line of work that isn't there on the TV side.

Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon.
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by solitare_pax June 7, 2009 5:39 PM PDT
Quote: "Interactive advertising is the most accountable way to reach consumers" - unquote

Actually, this is not quite true - Anyone who knows how to send spam or a half-decent website can also set up a computer to keep on hitting a site to drive up its traffic and make it look like a large number of people are viewing the online ads.

More traffic, real or fake = more money from the advertisers, simple as that.

For those in the habit of doing this, I would advise them to stop using old machines. Its embarrassing when the browser / os stats are listed and Windows 95 accounts for 90% of the inquiries.
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by missie52 June 7, 2009 5:40 PM PDT
I wonder if there is a place I could go to find good internet traffic. I joined some traffic exchange programs and find that they are ineffective. All you do is click for credits but you don't get results from advertising with these traffic exchanges.
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by t8 June 7, 2009 6:18 PM PDT
Bing enters the search arena to grab some declining advertising dollar and in turn will decline in traffic. Not looking good for Redmond.
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by property_video June 8, 2009 11:00 AM PDT
Its no wonder that markerters are moving online and video is certainly where its @! Video is far more valuable than other adverting mediums because it so targeted...you are able to communicate your offering by speaking directly to your potential customers on demand, and track/measure perfomance!

Its no longer about a holiwood production or needing to spend enormous money to stand out!
Look out for a site called
[url=http://www.propertysyndication.com]www.propertysyndication.com[/url] to maximize your business ROI from its marketing efforts far more effectively!!!
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