IAB: Second Quarter Ad spending Up 97%

The Internet Advertising Bureau said its figures show that second quarter spending on Internet ads rose 97% to $423 million compared to $214.4 million in the same period a year ago.

Figures from the IAB’s “Advertising Revenue Reporting Program” showed that Internet ad spending was up for the ninth consecutive quarter.

According to the report, which was presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers at the IAB’s annual membership meeting in New York City at the @d:tech New York Forum, Internet advertising continues its billion-dollar run-rate for the third consecutive quarter, and “continues to trend towards a traditional media model, with computer and consumer-related advertising leading the way.”

“The continuing growth of online advertising revenue only reaffirms the vitality of the medium as an increasingly important component for advertisers’ campaigns,” said IAB Chairman Rich LeFurgy in a statement. “We are seeing increasing numbers of large advertisers integrate online spending into their overall media plans. . . Additionally, the industry is experiencing a surge of interest from all quarters–agencies, advertisers, publishers, technology enablers and research companies. . . ”

Leading online spending categories were computing (26%), consumer-related (24%), financial services (13%), new media (13%) and telecom (9%) .

The survey also found that the overwhelming number of revenue transactions (95%) continue to be cash-based with barter deals accounting for (5%) of total spending.

Banner advertisements continue to dominate spending (58%) with sponsorships (37%), interstitials (3%) and others (2%) rounding out the expenditures.

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers on an ongoing basis, with results released quarterly, the “Advertising Revenue Report” was started by the IAB in 1996, and represents data from more than 200 companies representing over 1,200 Web sites.