• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 20, 2005

aQuantive's Avenue A/Razorfish last year accounted for $312 million in domestic online media billings, out of a total U.S. online ad spend estimated at $9.4 billion by research firm eMarketer.

"The Internet industry's outlook provides much to be optimistic about," stated the upbeat report. "Major advertisers are no longer experimenting online; they are investing heavily in it." For 2005, Avenue A/Razorfish Vice President, media Jeff Lanctot forecast a 25 percent bump in online advertising--more than eMarketer's predicted increase of 20.7 percent.

In total, Avenue A/Razorfish took out ads on 654 sites last year, up from 476 in 2003. Among the new properties were entertainment site dvdtalk.com, dating and romantic advice site ecrush.com, and bicycle enthusiast site bicycling.com.

The single largest portion of Avenue A/Razorfish ad dollars--39 percent--went to vertical sites, including travel, entertainment, and news and weather sites, according to a report recently released by the agency. Among the vertical categories, travel saw the largest growth, said Lanctot. He also predicted that entertainment would show continued momentum this year.

Paid search, while estimated by eMarketer to account for 42 percent of last year's ad dollars, was responsible for only 28 percent of Avenue A/Razorfish online spending, according to the report. One explanation is that many marketers who advertise on search engines don't use agencies--JupiterResearch reported last month that just 31 percent of search marketers use an agency to manage search campaigns.

Twelve percent of the Avenue A/Razorfish online media spend went to networks, such as Advertising.com, Fastclick, DRIVEpm, and ValueClick. Lanctot said he expects networks to show the most growth this year.

Avenue A/Razorfish spent 11 percent of its online budget at the three major portals--Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL.