Internet ad revenues rise to historic levels

Internet advertising revenue climbed to an all-time high of $17 billion during the first half of 2012, according to an IAB Internet Advertising Bureau report. Some important highlights included:

• Mobile advertising experienced explosive growth, almost doubling to $1.2 billion during the period.
• Search engine advertising continued its growth – up 18% over the previous year’s first six months.
• Performance-based online advertising accounted for two-thirds of the total Internet ad spend.

These results are impressive, considering the slow growth of the economy and lackluster consumer and business spending. The strong uptick in mobile advertising underscores the important adoption of smart phones and tablets as daily business productivity devices. B2B marketers should be developing a mobile strategy as part of their demand generation and brand building programs.