Internet ad spending may have reached the end of its skid.
    After months of decreases in web ad spending, new data from AdZone Media Research shows that spending increased modestly from April to May.
    Some $1.48 billion was spent on web advertising in May, according to AdZone, a figure up 3.6 percent from ad spending online in April (see chart).
    May 2001’s figure is 22 percent above the amount spent online last May. This continues a significant trend of higher web ad spending in 2001 versus 2000 (see chart). 
    In April, ad spending had been 32 percent higher than spending in April 2000.
    AdZone president John Cardona thinks May’s uptick represents a turning point.
    "The slight increase in ad revenues shows that the internet marketplace, and likely all of the technology sector, has found its bottom and will continue to grow," he says in a statement accompanying the monthly results.
    AdZone measures advertising activity on the 2,500 web sites that account for 95 percent of all internet ad revenue. Its figures are representative, rather than actual, based as they are on an application of full rate-card rates to measured impressions.
    AdZone’s data shows internet ad spending is having a pretty decent 2001.
    Not only are April and May of this year up from the same months last year, but online ad spending for the first quarter of 2001 is up more than 90 percent from the first quarter of 2000.
    At the same time, total U.S. advertising spending for the first quarter of 2001 is down 5.2 percent from the first quarter of 2000, according to estimates from Competitive Media Reporting.
    The web’s leading advertised brand in May, ranked by spending, as estimated by AdZone, was Amazon, far ahead of the pack with $52.2 million spent on online ads for the month. A distant second was Compaq at $35.4 million (see chart).

June 13, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.

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