The Internet has turned out to be an enormous source of business productivity. In fact online spending on advertising is said to have surpassed spending on print advertising. Laruen Indvik has reported for Mashable "Online Ad Spending to Surpass Print for First Time in 2012 [STUDY]." For the first time in U.S. history, marketers are projected to spend more on online advertising than on advertising in print magazines and newspapers.
Indvik reports a study released Thursday by eMarketer says online advertising is expected to generate $39.5 billion in sales this year, which is a 23.3% increase from 2011, in comparison to $33.8 billion on print. There was also a 23% jump in online ad spending in 2011. Over the next five years it is projected total online ad investment will hit $62 billion. Meanwhile, marketers are expected to continue cutting their print advertising budgets for the next half-decade, with projections of spending $32.3 billion in 2016, 10% less than what they invested in print ads in 2011.
Although spending on TV promises to be largely unaffected by the growth of online ad budgets, the gap between the two is set to narrow significantly. U.S. marketers are anticipated to spend $72 billion in TV advertising in 2016, which is up 18.6% from 2011. Overall, the ad industry appears to have a bright future with total ad spending expected to reach nearly $200 billion by 2016, of which online spending will account for a third.
