When new technologies emerge, there is often a bell curve of adoption into mainstream culture. At the front end are a handful of early adopters, consumers quick to grab on to the latest innovation or advancement. That curve rises to the early majority and then falls to the late majority and a smaller group of laggards. At this point, internet marketing is growing to the point where it may still be in the early to late majority, as a new report by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has shown.
According to the report, internet advertising revenues for the first half of 2012 jumped to an all-time high of $17 billion. This is a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Of this growth, mobile marketing generated the most revenue, up 95 percent from the $646 million of last year to the $1.2 billion market it is now. Digital video came in a close second, rising by 18 percent to just over $1 billion.
Furthermore, search engine advertising revenues totaled $8.1 billion and display ad revenues brought in $5.6 billion.
“This report establishes that marketers increasingly embrace mobile and digital video, as well as the entire panoply of interactive platforms, to reach consumers in innovative and creative ways,” Randall Rothenberg, CEO of IAB, said in the press release. “These half-year figures come on the heels of a study from Harvard Business School researchers that points points to the ad-supported internet ecosystem as a critical driver of the U.S. economy. Clearly, the digital marketing industry is on a positive trajectory that will propel the entire American business landscape forward.”
As the industry experiences such massive gains in revenue, it’s clear that targeted internet marketing is a key component to any business’s marketing tactics. In order to ensure that this growing opportunity is fully taken advantage of, companies should partner with an experienced digital advertising agency.