Digital Ad Revenues Will Grow 13% in 2012

Local digital advertising revenues will grow by 13 percent by the end of 2012, according to statistics from BIA/Kelsey. The US Local Media Forecast 2011-2016 report also predicts that several local media segments will exceed this overall growth rate. Mobile search is set to grow by 77 percent, for instance. Meanwhile, online video by 52 percent, and social by 26 percent. Additionally, digital ad revenues will be the only source of growth for newspapers, according to BIA/Kelsey.

The forecast also suggests that digital will account for 25 percent of the local ad market in the future as spending on various media segments evolves. Emerging media sectors like mobile, video and social are garnering significant revenues from ad dollars. Meanwhile, Kelsey sees newspapers using digital platforms to drive ad revenue and offset losses on the print side.

“With traditional media getting more than three-quarters of the total local media ad budget, coordination between traditional and online media is the best way to explore how to effectively optimize new media, such as social networks and online video, to increase the chance of achieving business goals,” said Mark Fratrik, VP and chief economist at BIA/Kelsey, in a press release.

The report also lists compound annual growth rates for the period of 2011 to 2016 for digital ad revenues for key media segments:

• Mobile – 45 percent
• Online video – 37 percent
• Social media – 21 percent
• Email, reputation and presence management – 15 percent
• Internet Yellow Pages -13 percent
• Television online revenues -13 percent
• Radio online revenues -12 percent
• Digital out-of-home – 12 percent
• Online – 9 percent
• Newspapers online revenues – 5 percent

BIA/Kelsey’s research is based on proprietary data including information from company, industry and public national statistics.