Big-spending web marketers need better insight

Online advertising budgets continue to rise, but are all those marketing funds being well spent?

Online advertising spending continues to rise, despite predictions that this year will see the weakest growth in advertising budgets since 2002, according to a new report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

The Q2 2006 Bellwether Report found that the proportion of companies allocating more than ten percent of spend to internet marketing rose to a record high of over 17 percent, while the proportion of companies allocating no spend to internet budgets fell to a record low of 11 percent.

The online marketing channel currently only accounts for four percent of marketers' total spend, according to the survey, but a minimum of 26 percent of consumers' media time is now spent in front of a computer screen, which shows that there is the potential for huge growth in the area.

However, firms which have poor insight into their online marketing strategies will fail to maximise this spending, according to Frank Lombos, regional vice president of web analytics firm Coremetrics.

He added that is important for marketers to be able to view the performance of all online channels, including email marketing, referral sites and natural and paid for search, in one place, and to have the technology to measure individual elements such as links in emails and banner ads.

"If you don't have visibility at this level and a solution which manages this effectively you're effectively all at sea," he argued.