Online ads worth €100m in 2009

The online advertising market was worth just under €100 million in 2009, representing 10 per cent of the overall advertising spend, according to a new survey.

The research by IAB Ireland, the trade association for the Irish online advertising industry, and PricewaterhouseCoopers found the Irish advertising market was worth in total an estimated €940 million in 2009.

This was dominated by newspapers, which accounted for more than a third of the overall Irish advertising market at €373 million.

Television accounted for €209 million while radio represented €139 million. The online spend was €97.2 million – just over 10 per cent of the overall market.

IAB Ireland's Suzanne McElligott described the €100 million threshold as a "milestone". IAB expects the online market to grow by a further 10 per cent next year.

“The measurability of online campaigns and the opportunity for advertisers to engage online with their target markets are powerful drivers of adspend” she said.

IAB Ireland intends to produce the adspend study on a biannual basis. The next report will be published in November this year and will provide data for the first half of 2010.

"This is a benchmark report. Going forward, we look forward to being able to compare data on a half-yearly basis, as well as compare Ireland's position in terms of online advertising spend with international trends," Ms McElligott said.

The study found that search format represented 46 per cent of online adspend in Ireland, while Irish classified and display formats achieved a 27.2 per cent and 26.6 per cent share respectively.

Some 29 online companies participated in the study, although one of the country's biggest websites, Google, did not participate. The company does not break out its earnings from Irish advertisers. PWC however created an estimate figure from spend data provided directly by a representative sample of Google's clients.

The report's authors estimate that the study accounts for 90 per cent of online adspend in Ireland. Ms McElligott said that the company has commenced discussions with Facebook about participation in the next survey.