A recent report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCooper advise that in the first six months of 2009, online marketing became the main advertising medium in the UK, overtaking TV marketing for the first time. In this time frame, Online Marketing grew by 4.6%. During the same period, the total amount of money spent on advertising overall was down 16.6%. Online marketing now has 23.5% of the market share whereas TV has 21.9%, down 17% from the same episode last year.
The current recession is seen as a large factor in speeding up a system which was in reality imagined by the end of 2009 in which online advertising made the number 1 spot in the UK. The UK is at present the world leader of online marketing. Users of the online services are increasing as the cost of broadband is becoming lower and more households have faster broadband connections. Of these homes, more than half are wireless connections, making usability much friendlier. In these days of insecurity, therefore, it is no revelation that advertisers are following this market which is more easy to target, measurable and accountable than other media systems.
Advertisers have to be more attentive in this current time of where their budget is spent and with Sky+ in many homes, people are tending to skip adverts as they playback their desired television programmes. This could account for the decision of many to place their reduced budget on Search Engine Placement positioning for example, rather than the usual TV advertising.
Thinkbox marketing director, Lindsey Clay, is of the opinion that now that online marketing is more middle aged, email advertising, classified advertising, display advertising and search advertising should be classed as separate entities, rather than all being shoved under the one umbrella of online advertising.
Of all the money spent on marketing online in the first half of 2009, over 60% was spent on paid for search advertising. This is very well liked due to the fact that these adverts can target exactly the right consumers for the advertisers’ services. Most internet users are also repeated users of search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, so it should be no surprise to us that businesses are opting to spend their marketing budget on search advertising.
TV advertising has not gone completely and as discussions are underway regarding marketing within TV programmes, known as product placement, this may well develop the TV advertising market again. However, now that online marketing has become prevalent, and as advertisers see positive results, this is a market for the SEO company and it is certainly worth investing.
