• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 6, 2005

Media buyers and planners anticipate that their second-quarter online ad buys will surpass those of the first quarter, according to a new report by Deutsche Bank and MediaPost (See "Internet Ad Spending Up In First Quarter"). Seventy-one percent of the 108 media executives who responded to a joint Deutsche Bank/MediaPost survey reported that they expected second-quarter spending to rise. A total of 51 percent of respondents expected clients to spend at least 11 percent more in the second quarter, while 20 percent of respondents forecast an increase of less than 10 percent. An additional 21 percent of respondents predicted no change, while only 7.4 percent of executives surveyed believed their clients' online ad budgets would fall.

Most executives surveyed predicted an increase in both premium display ad prices and run-of-network prices. For premium inventory, 71 percent of respondents forecast a price increase: 51 percent predicted modest increases of 1 to 10 percent, while 20 percent believed increases would be higher than 10 percent. Likewise, 60 percent of respondents predicted a price increase for run-of-network inventory: 44 percent predicted increases in the range of 1 to 10 percent, and 16 percent believed the prices would increase by more than 10 percent.

Respondents similarly predicted a second-quarter increase in cost- per-click fees. Seventy-two percent said they expected the price-per-click to rise: forty-seven percent predicted an increase of 1 to 10 percent, and 25 percent believed that costs would rise by more than 10 percent.