Internet advertising declines: First time in 7 years

The economy has taken a stab at Internet advertising. According to an AP report out of San Francisco yesterday, the 1st Quarter reports show Internet advertising down by five percent in the United States. The 5% decline in ad sales is even greater than the downturn in the 4th Quarter of 2002, when we saw a 4% decline in Internet ad sales.

Looking at the silver lining in this story, total online marketing in the United States for all of 2002 was about $6 billion. The 1st Quarter of 2008 Internet ad sales were $5.77 billion; almost as much as the entire year’s receipts for 2002. Even with the decline of the 1st Quarter of this year, we still saw $5.48 billion spent in the United States for Internet advertising.

Major players in online advertising, retail stores, realtors, the auto industry and banks have spent less; contributing substantially to the overall decline in recent Internet marketing sales.

As a side note, property values have gone down, huge deals are available on new car purchases, some retail stores have dropped prices; and the greedy banks have went the other direction by throwing lavish parties, rewarding their top losers with bonuses and offsetting their extravagance by raising interest rates on their customers. To that I say, lay off the parties, bonuses, raised interest rates and increase your Internet marketing sales … and become more socially conscious.