The Boston Globe features an Associated Press article today that explores the general direction of online advertising and marketing in the next five years. That direction is apparently up...and then some. While the IAB says that online advertising is on target to top $16 billion this year, a new report estimates that that number could hit $43 billion by the end of 2011. What does that mean to you?

It means that there's still plenty of growth potential for businesses of all sizes.

"Advances in targeting are driving increases in ad spending, as strong return on investments are made more evident by rising deployment of Web analytics," wrote Susquehanna analyst Marianne Wolk in a note to investors. She pointed to expected growth in geographic and demographic targeting practices in coming years.

"Marketers believe consumer satisfaction will increase if advertising helps them find the products they seek and is less intrusive," Wolk added.

It also means that new online advertising opportunities are going to continue to pop up. With paid search advertisement on mainstream search sites like Google, Yahoo and Windows Live Search bound to level out in the coming years, it's likely that we'll see much of that projected growth in areas that are currently underrepresented. Online advertising will find it's way into social media sites, specialty search services and local search services. I also expect that we'll see an expansion of advertising on blogs as more companies introduce aggregated advertising options like AdSense and Chitika so that smaller publishers can get matched up with advertisers as well.

In other words, the game's not over yet. It's really still just beginning.






About the Author

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.