• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 3, 2006

Political ad spending online is growing fast, but the overall share of ad dollars going to the Web remains small--just $40 million, or 1% of all political ad dollars this year--according to a report issued Thursday by research firm PQ Media.

Although the total dollar figure devoted to online is low, it still represents a 38% increase from 2004's $29 million and an eightfold increase from $5 million in 2002. PQ Media reported that other fast-growing media segments include cable TV (up around 40% since 2004 and 311% since 2002) and newspapers (up around 79% since 2004 and 206% since 2002). At the same time, broadcast television's share of political ad spending dropped to around 50% from 56% four years ago.

While online ad spending is up, it doesn't appear that candidates are using the Web to persuade voters to cast ballots in their favor. Instead, politicos are harnessing Web sites to raise funds, and are supplementing direct mail campaigns with e-mail efforts, according to the report.

"The primary function of websites will be fundraising, not the placement of banner ads or streaming video on non-candidate websites," stated PQ Media in an executive summary of the report.