Online Advertising Revenue

The Growth in Online Advertising Revenue

Internet ad revenue has been growing steadily year after year with search engine advertising leading the way. The reason is clear: advertisers want to reach their target audiences effectively and efficiently and they want to measure and constantly improve their ROI. Interactive channels are delivering increasingly higher returns on marketing investments and getting a greater share of budgets from large and small advertisers.

Many of these ad dollars are coming from budgets that marketers had previously spent in traditional advertising channels such as broadcast and print.

This shift presents significant opportunities as well as challenges for publishers.

Are You Getting Your Share of Online Ad Revenue?

Search engine marketing has led the growth in online advertising revenue because it typically delivers the highest ROI for marketers. Search is an excellent advertising vehicle, allowing highly specific targeting and connecting with a highly motivated audience. It also provides a window into the mindset of the audience, creating a laboratory for ongoing research and learning.

Some marketers have chosen to focus most or all of their budgets on search, while reducing other online and offline spending. Where does this leave non-search media brands? How can they tap into the power of search to meet the needs of online audiences and marketers? How can they claim their share of the boom in online ad revenue?

Vertical Search Drives New Online Advertising Revenues

Vertical search has provided an answer for many publishers. By developing their own search properties, vertical publishing companies have been able to tap in to the power of search to engage their audiences and drive online advertising revenue.

Vertical search allows media brands to:

more deeply engage their users by providing a search property that is designed around their information needs
provide their advertisers with the power of keyword-targeted search advertising
develop unique sponsorship packages for the advertisers, that leverage opportunities such as paid directory inclusion and SERP category sponsorships

While the major search engines have staked out a huge piece of the market, there are substantial opportunities for vertical and specialty publishers to claim their own share by meeting the needs of their markets.

Search will have an increasingly central role in vertical marketing. Publishers who take the lead will be able to maximize their online ad revenue growth in the short and long term.

< Driving Vertical Search Engine Traffic