NEW YORK – U.S. online advertising revenues grew for a third consecutive year as keyword ads targeted to specific search queries continued to dominate, an industry group said Thursday.
Online advertising set a new record of $12.5 billion last year, a 30 percent increase from the previous high of $9.63 billion in 2004, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said.
Search remained the largest generator of revenues, accounting for $5.1 billion, or 41 percent, of the 2005 figures. That’s slightly higher than the 39 percent share in 2004.
Internet ads also set a record for the fourth quarter, with revenues totaling $3.6 billion, a 34 percent jump from the same period in 2004 and 15 percent more than the previous record of $3.1 billion, set in the third quarter of 2005.
“Interactive advertising continues to experience tremendous growth as marketers experience its overall effectiveness in building brands and delivering online and offline sales,” Greg Stuart, chief executive of the IAB, said in a statement.
Stuart said he expects growth to continue as advertisers find additional ways to exploit opportunities in broadband video, Internet-based television and online games.
The growth in online ad opportunities was one of the chief reasons Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit opted to make most of its features available for free through its ad-supported sites, rather than keep it exclusive to its paying Internet access subscribers.
Despite the record revenues, Internet advertising represents only 5 percent of all U.S. advertising revenues, up slightly from the 4 percent share in 2004, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in the study it conducted for IAB.
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