Digital Ads Make Record Money in First Quarter

In the first quarter of 2012, the online ad industry made $8.4 billion, a new record that showed a 15 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.

However, the rate of increase slowed over a year ago.

The first quarter of 2011 saw a 23 percent revenue increase over the first quarter of 2010, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau‘s statistics.

The statistics include “mobile ad revenue along with search, display, and other ad formats, as it did in Q1 2011,” writes ClickZ.

In all of 2011, digital advertising revenues totaled $21.2 billion, and by 2016, that number is expected to climb to $38.5 billion, according to AdWeek.

The growth of web and mobile use by consumers has led to an increase in investment when it comes to digital ads. On mobile alone, Americans are spending $811 million per year on items that show up in web searches.

In an interview with Tech Journal, David Kardstedt, vice president and general manager of advertising solutions and digital marketing business at Adobe, explained that businesses can save money on digital search ads.

“Search is still the key driver of digital marketing ROI,” he said.  “With the emergence of tablets, mobile creates a new opportunity for search investment with efficiency gains to their overall program, at least in the short-term.”

It seems like businesses across the board are gaining from the growth in digital ad revenue, with the notable exception of newspapers. That industry only saw a 1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011.

“A flood of excess advertising space, the rise of electronic advertising exchanges that sell ads at cut-rate prices, and the weak U.S. economy are all contributing to the slowdown,” according to the Reuters report on the lagging newspaper industry.

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