Recession? Economic slowdown? Financial gloom-and-doom? Not online, and not as far as Internet advertising is concerned. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says that U.S. online ad revenue hit an all-time high of $6.3 billion in Q4 of 2009, a 2.6% increase over the fourth quarter of 2008 and a 14% increase over Q3 of 2009.
My overdramatic opening sentence aside, the economic downturn obviously did impact online advertising last year: The IAB says U.S. ad revenues for all of 2009 dropped 3.4% from 2008 to $22.7 billion.
Search and display ads continue to be the strongest ad formats, with 47% and 35% of all online ad spending, respectively. Digital video ads were a strong piece of Display’s total, showing a 39% increase from 2008 to 2009.
Classified ads took a big hit, dropping by 29% from 2008 to 2009.
There’s more discussion on Techmeme.