The online ad industry raked in more than ever in a first quarter this year, though the rate of growth has slowed since Q1 2011. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that online ad revenue hit $8.4 billion in the first three months of 2012.
The total represents a 15 percent rise in digital ad revenue compared to Q1 2011, when the total reached $7.3 billion. In the first quarter 2011, that $7.3 billion represented a 23 percent increase over Q1 2010. Still, 15 percent is twice the rate of growth when comparing Q1 2010 to Q1 2009 – which the IAB measured at 7.5 percent.
As always, research for the Q1 2012 report was conducted in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers. According to IAB, the report includes mobile ad revenue along with search, display, and other ad formats, as it did in Q1 2011.
Search advertising accounted for 46.5 percent (or $14.8 billion) of the $31 billion spent on digital advertising in 2011. Knowing that, it’s likely that paid search is responsible for driving somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.9 billion in advertising in the first quarter of this year.
This article was originally published on ClickZ.
Related reading
The end of DoubleClick and Adwords? Google simplifies its branding with Google Ads, Marketing Platform and Ad Manager
Google is rebranding Adwords and DoubleClick. How will these changes affect us? Here’s everything you need to know.
How to avoid these common PPC mistakes
Not only beginners make mistakes, here is an overview of the most common fails that PPC professionals make and how to avoid them from now on.
How to transfer insights from search to social campaigns
Sana Ansari shares some of the easiest ways to gather learnings from search engine marketing and leverage them in paid social.
Four ways you can use AI to optimize your AdWords campaigns
As AI becomes mainstream within the PPC industry, marketers will need to begin shifting their areas of expertise away from micromanaging keywords and bid prices, and towards higher-level strategy. Manish Dudharejia shares four ways to use AI in your AdWords campaigns.
