DMA: Mobile leads growth in digital DM spending

The DMA said that digital will account for 19% of direct marketing budgets this year, rising to 21% for 2012. Spending will hit $31.3 billion this year and $35.4 billion in 2012. In the last five years total spend on digital direct marketing has grown by $14.5 billion.

Not surprisingly, social networking spend has experienced significant growth this year having risen 27.4% to $2.5 billion. Next year spending on social networks is forecast to rise a further 19.6% YoY to $3 billion.

By far the largest chunk of digital direct marketing spending goes on search and display channels. The DMA forecasts both will continue to grow their share of budget with search hitting $14 billion this year and display $8.5 billion.

But, of all the digital direct marketing channels, it is mobile that has seen the biggest growth in spending this year with an annual growth rate of over 50% YoY. Next year growth in spending on mobile is set to rise 39% YoY.

"It's fair to say that direct marketing is one of the current engines of economic growth for the US," said Yory Wurmser, the DMA's director of marketing and media insights. "Growth in advertising spending on online media over the past year exceeded our expectations."

Tags: digital spending, direct marketing, DMA, marketing budget, mobile marketing