Mixed Signals Cloud Online Ad Outlook, Estimates Vary From Up To Down

Mixed signals continue to cloud the online advertising outlook. While U.S. ad tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence reported this week that the Internet display advertising marketplace grew 6.5% during the first half of 2009, consulting firm Strategy Analytics on Thursday said the global online advertising marketplace continues to be feeling the effects of the global economic recession.

"While the overall market trend is positive, the second quarter performance of online advertising was that of stabilization rather than a full recovery," Strategy Analytics said in the release of its second quarter 2009 Online Advertising Index.

The index estimates that the global online advertising marketplace fell to $57.6 billion for the 12-months running through the second quarter of 2009. That indicates a quarterly decline of 3.1% from the second quarter of 2008, though the global online ad market managed to expand 0.6% from the first quarter of this year.

"Similar to last quarter, all the U.S. online advertising companies, except Google, continued to see revenues decline," Strategy Analytics said, adding, "while the majority of, international online advertising companies were still growing."

That finding runs contrary to the U.S. online ad market intelligence released Wednesday by TNS MI, which found that the U.S. online display advertising marketplace actually expanded 6.5% during the first half of 2009. While that is a somewhat lower rate of growth than the 8.2% expansion TNS MI reported for the U.S. display ad market during the first quarter of 2009, its tracking does not include online search ad spending.

Confusing matters further, Nielsen Co. reported a slight decline of 1% in first half online display ad spending in the U.S. earlier this month, though that also is a relative improvement from Nielsen's estimate of a 3.4% rate of decline for the online display ad market in the first quarter of 2009.

In its last quarterly release in early July, the ad forecasters at Publicis' ZenithOptimedia Group estimated global online ad spending would expand 10.1% to $56.8 billion.

1 comment about "Mixed Signals Cloud Online Ad Outlook, Estimates Vary From Up To Down".
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  1. Gian Fulgoni from 4490 Ventures, September 18, 2009 at 8:52 a.m.

    It's important to note that TNS includes both CPM and pay-for-performance display ad deals (CPC/CPA) in its numbers. Nielsen only includes CPM. Consequently, taken together, the data suggest that the display ad market grew nicely in Q2 2009 but that advertisers continued to move to pay-for-performance ads.

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