Online Ad Spend up 40 percent in the UK

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Internet Advertising Bureau report that online advertising in the United Kingdom exceeded $1.72 billion for the first half of 2006 — a 40.3 percent increase over this time last year. With the surge, Internet advertising has become the UK’s fastest-growing advertising medium, accounting for 10.5 percent of the U.K’s total ad spend.

At present, PPC appears to be the UK’s online advertising method of choice, making up almost 58 percent of the market — a 60 percent increase over the last year. Online display advertising is also on the rise, up 32.2 percent.

The latest numbers reaffirm the Internet’s importance for UK business owners. The days of relying solely on traditional media are gone. Today, if you want to reach your customers, the way to do that is by advertising online.

Experts attribute Internet advertising’s rapid growth to several factors:

• The UK’s Rapid Broadband Adoption — The Office of National Statistics recently released figures stating that nearly three quarters of all connections to the Internet were on broadband, about 10 million users in all. This represents an almost 20 percent jump from 2005. Faster Internet means more pages viewed, which means more chances to for customers to come across your ad.
• Backed by Big Brands – Back in March, ClickZ reported that one reason online advertising was more prevalent in the United States than in the UK was because of the willingness big U.S. brands to move their offline budgets offline. Well, it seems big UK brands have woken up to the power of online advertising. Maybe it was that stat that the average user spends 23 hours of a week online that did it.
• Smaller Companies See Potential – The Internet remains a relatively cheap way for small business to effectively target niche markets. As a result, more and more small companies are moving their advertising budgets online. Instead of shelling out thousands to launch ignored billboard campaigns, they’re implementing trackable PPC campaigns and using other online display advertising tactics. As a result, Internet ad spend is now double the market share of outdoor advertising and consumer magazines, and triple that of radio advertising.
• The Blog Boom – With the increased number of blogs, podcasts and social networking cluttering up the UKs Web space, brings more opportunity for companies to advertise online. Marketers know that just because Brits don’t understand geekspeak, it doesn’t mean they’re not using the technology. If you want to find your audience, targeting them on the sites they frequent daily is the way to do it.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

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