Among those who ignore Internet ads, 43 percent say they ignore banner ads the most and 20 percent say they ignore search engine ads the most. Smaller percentages say they ignore television ads (14%), radio ads (7%) and newspaper ads (6%); just 9% of Americans say they don’t ignore any of the listed types of ads.

There is little difference in the ads that men and women say they tend to ignore the most. Forty-two percent of men and forty-five percent of women say they ignore Internet banner ads the most while twenty percent and twenty-one percent respectively, say they ignore search ads the most. Somewhat fewer say so about television ads (15% and 13%), radio ads (7% and 8%), and newspaper ads (6% and 5%).

Older Americans say they ignore ads on TV the most-one in five of those 55 years and older say they ignore TV ads (20%), compared to 14% of those 45-54 years, 13% of those 35-44 years, and just 9% of those 18-34 years. Conversely, younger Americans are more likely than those older to ignore radio ads the most (11% of those 18-34 years do, compared to 6% of those 55 years and older). Also, while over two in five in all age groups say they ignore Internet banner ads the most, those aged 35-44 are most likely to say this, as almost half ignore these ads (47%) compared to between 42% and 43% of the other age groups.

Those who have more education are more likely to ignore online advertisements-46% of both those who have some college and those who are college graduates say they ignore banner ads, compared to just 40% of those who have a high school degree or less. One-quarter (23%) of those who have graduated from college say they ignore search engine ads, compared to 17% who have a high school or less education. Those with a high school or less education, however, are more likely to ignore television ads (17% versus 12% of those who have gone to college).

The Online Publishers Association, a non-profit organization of brand name media companies, dropped a note in our inbox about their look at where marketers place their ads. Content is king, they suggested.

Even though certain brands may be perceived as having some kind of golden touch by virtue of their names, OPA said content sites outperform portals in a couple of ways.

A content site, like a media presence, helps raise “brand favorability” and “purchase intent” for people who view ads on them. Portals aren’t viewed as having the same depth, which detracts from the marketing message.

The group proceeded so far as to say sponsorships on sites with branded content are 36 percent more effective than a portal presence. Of particular interest for advertisers: the coveted 18-34 bracket as well as affluent audiences show they respond more to ads dropped on content sites.

We expect that little morsel will benefit astute advertisers, especially with the approaching holiday shopping season later in 2008.

Online advertising revenues in emerging markets are forecast to grow at 30 percent annually in the next three to four years as more users go online and access the Internet on mobile devices.

"For Yahoo’s emerging markets, we’re going to grow faster than that," Prashant Mehta, Yahoo’s vice president of emerging markets told Reuters.

Yahoo the number two search engine behind Google, projects it has 130 million users in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia, Latin America, India, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. This compares to more than 500 million users globally every month.

Mehta said Yahoo will "aggressively" hire new sales, marketing and engineering staff in these emerging markets, and will increase investment in infrastructure, but did not offer a detailed plan.

"We doubled our headcount in the emerging markets between 2006 and 2007. We’re not going to slow down our investments in these markets," he said.

Last month, Microsoft abandoned its bid to purchase Yahoo for $47.5 billion, or $33 a share. Yahoo rejected the offer and said it would only sell for $37 a share.

The firm said 18 digital and non-traditional media segments, accounted for 16.1 percent of total advertising and marketing spending in 2007, up from 7.9 percent in 2002.

"By 2012, we anticipate one out of every four dollars spent on advertising and marketing will be earmarked for alternative media," said Patrick Quinn, President and CEO of PQ Media. "Alternative advertising and marketing media are driving a new media order that presents vast opportunities for industry stakeholders, but also key challenges for some of the fastest-growing digital media segments."

Estimates of total US online ad spending in 2007 range from $10.9 billion (Universal McCann) to $30.5 (Veronis Suhler Stevenson).

eMarketer tracks U.S. online ad spending estimates from 23 companies and estimates that online spending was $21.1 billion in 2007.

"Technological advances have led to critical changes in consumer behaviors and media usage patterns, which have pushed the advertising and marketing ecosystems into a seminal period of transition", added Quinn.

"Driven by these market forces, brand marketers are seeking new strategies to connect with consumers through engaging means in captive locations, while at the same time providing proof-of-performance metrics. This confluence of trends is fueling the migration of dollars to alternative media."
 

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(Photo Credit: TNS Media Intelligence)

Internet display advertising continued its growth leadership, increasing 15.9 percent in 2007 to $11.31 billion in expenditures. Consumer magazines saw a 7 percent gain to $24.43 billion on the strength of higher spending by consumer packed goods marketers. Cable TV spending increased in the second half and finished 2007 at $17.84 billion, an increase of 6.5 percent.

Among television media, full-year Network TV expenditures dropped by 2 percent to $22.43 billion. Spot TV fell 10.2 percent to$15.59 billion. Syndication TV decreased 1.5 percent to $4.17 billion.

Ad spending declines in newspaper and radio media increased during the fourth quarter. For the year local newspapers were down 5.6 percent to $22.66 billion and aggregate radio expenditures feel 3.5 percent to $10.69 billion. Both media were hurt by spending reductions from automotive, media and retail advertisers.

"As a whole, the ad market remains stalled and is being engulfed by the spreading pessimism about general economic conditions," said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at TNS media intelligence.

"Fourth quarter performance was indicative of this malaise and early figures from 2008 suggest the growth rate for measured ad spending has not appreciably changed. A cyclical boost from the elections and Olympics still waits on the horizon. However, marketers are being cautious with their core ad budgets faced with concerns about consumer spending and corporate profits."
 

As the third quarter revenue figures hit $5.2 billion, they represented yet another quarterly increase. Second quarter revenue reached $5.1 billion, while the first quarter saw $4.9 billion flow into all manner of Internet ads.

“Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

The arrival of new outlets like video, rich Internet applications, mobile browsers, and social media sites promise even more gains for online advertising, according to Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s Peter Petrusky. “The industry has truly come into its own,” he said.

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The value of online display advertising in China reached RMB 2.6 billion in Q3, 2007 an increase of 14 percent over Q2.  Total online advertising value for the year to date is RMB 6.6 billion.

The value of online display ads broken down by quarters was RMB 1.7 billion, RMB 2.3 billion and 2.6 billion. The peak for online advertising in China took place in September with RMB 1 billion recorded, the highest in the past nine months.

"The online advertising market in China is booming and catching up fast with advertising in traditional media. Judging by its current growth rate, we anticipate that the year will finish not only achieving double-digit growth in online advertising, but also reaching the
RMB10 billion mark in value terms," said Sail Ma, Analytic & Research Director, Nielsen Online, Greater China and Southeast Asia.

The cumulative number of advertisers for the year to date was 2,661 with 19,049 campaigns. The categories that contributed the most were Automobile, IT/Electronics, FMCG (CPG) and Finance, which accounted for 60 percent of total ad value in the China online market.

"The market will continue to grow, with estimated ad value increasing close to RMB 3 billion as we enter the last quarter of the year, and contributing to an estimated full year spending of RMB 10 billion," Ma said.

The study revealed that ads placed on relevant pages on neutral sites can offer some of the same advantages as those placed on highly relevant sites and have the potential to do as well on those sites in ad and brand recognition.

The study tested a top consumer electronics manufacturer’s ad on Web pages in three different areas. A page on an average consumer electronics site, the technology section of leading newspaper’s site and a page in the online opinion section of the same newspaper.

The ad on the technology page of the newspaper’s site did better than the identical ad in the opinion section of the newspaper’s Web site, including ad recognition and brand recognition. The contextually served ad also did better in communicating information about the product to consumers compared to the opinion page.

Comparing the results between the ad on the technology page of the newspaper’s site to the identical ad on the computer Web site revealed equal performance as the (relevant) computer web site in the ad’s ability to communicate meaningful information, its influence on likelihood to buy or consider the products being advertised, and the consumers opinion of that brand.

Even with an interest in social media, 33 percent of spend, on average is devoted to online advertising and 28 percent to online promotion design and implementation. Fifty-eight percent of respondents have added user-generated content or reviews in the past year. Thirty-one percent have implemented a blog and 25 percent have added an RSS feed over the past year.

The findings indicated that most marketers have plans to add a social media marketing program at some point. Fifty percent said they would implement user-generated content and 22 percent plan to implement a blog. Twenty percent say they will implement social networks and another 20 percent plan to do the same with a RSS feed.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was the top priority, but ranked fourth in terms of time and budget allocation. Twenty-two percent of a marketers time was focused on email campaigns, while the biggest portions of budgets (33%) go to online advertising.

"This study echoes many of the qualitative findings that we hear from our customers on a day to day basis-marketers are aware of the impact that social media marketing can have on their overall program, but view it as uncharted territory, not worthy of their budget," said John Squire, SVP product strategy, GM marketing services at Coremetrics.

A new Keywords Analysis page became available in AdWords, as part of the Ad Group Details table. The magnifying glass icon launches Keyword Analysis:

At the top of the Keyword Analysis page, you’ll see your CTR, minimum bid, current bid, and keyword status (i.e. active or inactive for search). Below this information, there are two tabs – an ‘Ad showing?’ tab and a ‘Quality Score’ tab.

Ad showing tab: Click the ‘Ad showing?’ tab to see information from the Ads Diagnostic tool. Find out whether or not your keyword is triggering ads to appear on Google, reasons why, and ways to improve your ad performance. Results are based on specific Google search and geographic criteria. To test using different criteria, click the ‘Ads Diagnostic Tool’ link on the page or from your ‘Tools’ page.

Quality Score tab: Click the ‘Quality Score’ tab to get details and recommendations about your keyword’s Quality Score. At the top of the tab, find your Quality Score rating – Great, OK, or Poor.

Next, find tips on what to do in order to achieve the best ad results. Finally, see how different components that factor into your Quality Score as a whole are performing. Our system checks your keyword relevance and landing page quality. For each problem that we may find, we’ll provide ways to help remedy it.

The usual advice about ad relevance still stands. Google has been more aggressive since last year about weeding out ads it deems less relevant to a query. Failing to make ads and their landing pages more suitable to Google’s expectations could mean few or no ad displays for a campaign.