Online Marketing Has Made It’s Mark Far Sooner Than Anticipated Due Probably To The Economic Downturn

A topical report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCooper advise that in the first 6 months of 2009, online promotion became the biggest advertising style in the UK, overtaking TV promotion for the first time. In this time frame, Online Marketing grew by 4.6%. During the same period, the total amount of money spent on advertising overall was down 16.6%. Online promotion now has 23.5% of the market share whereas TV has 21.9%, down 17% from the same period last year.

The current credit crunch is seen as a big factor in speeding up a procedure which was actually imagined by the end of 2009 in which online advertising achieved the number 1 spot in the UK. The UK is currently the world leader of online marketing. Users of the online services are increasing as the price of broadband is becoming cheaper and more households have faster broadband connections. Of these homes, more than half are wireless connections, making usability much easier. In these days of doubt, therefore, it is no surprise that advertisers are following this market which is more easy to target, quantifiable and accountable than other media methods.

Advertisers have to be more alert in this current situation of where their budget is spent and with Sky+ in many homes, people are opting to skip adverts as they playback their favourite television programmes. This could account for the decision of many to put their reduced budget on Search Engine Placement positioning for example, instead of the typical TV advertising.

Thinkbox marketing director, Lindsey Clay, is of the view that now that online marketing is more fully grown, email advertising, classified advertising, display advertising and search advertising should be taken as separate media, rather than all being placed under the one category of online advertising.

Of all the money spent on promotion online in the first half of 2009, over 60% went on paid for search advertising. This is very well liked due to the fact that these adverts can target exactly the right customers for the advertisers’ products. Most internet users are also regular users of search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, so it should be no surprise to us that businesses are opting to spend their marketing budget on search advertising.

TV advertising has not gone completely and as discussions are underway regarding promotion within TV programmes, known as product placement, this may well develop the TV advertising market again. However, now that online marketing has become widespread, and as advertisers see positive results, this is a market for the SEO company and it is absolutely worth investing.