eMarketer: Social to lead online marketing efforts

According to a recent eMarketer report search and display are now two of the leading online ad formats while classified advertising, which has been a perennial top performer, continues to drop. Overall the online ad spend (US) is expected to decrease by more than 4% in 2009; this is down from a 10% growth rate in 2008. This is where the bad news ends, however.

eMarketer is now predicting steady, albeit slow, growth in online advertising through 2014 with 2010 and 2011 seeing at least 5% growth. The prediction becomes even brighter in 2012 when the ad spend is expected to grow by 12%. 2013 (9.5% growth) and 2014 (9.7% growth) are also expected to be good years.

What is changing to give online advertising a steady growth rate when advertising in television, radio and newspapers continues to droop? Primarily social networking. Social networks saw a boom in 2009 and marketers are now becoming more comfortable utilizing the social marketplace to start branded conversations, obtain consumer reviews and simply connect with their customer base on a new level.

A recent Marketing Sherpa study found that social sharing of emails can boost interaction by as much as 25%. Social sharing occurs when a consumer uses brand information - an email message, a status update/Tweet or blog post - in their own blog, Twitter forum or Facebook status update page.

Although this study was specifically about email and social, correlations can be made to other integrated efforts. Using a branded social page to push consumers to a customized landing page or video stream. It is also an indicator of how much social is changing the face of the Internet, and how marketers need to change with the times as well.

Tags: display ads, email marketing, eMarketer, integrated campaign, search marketing, social marketing, social sharing