Canadian Internet Revenue Passes $1 Billion..........

In 2006 Canadian Online Advertising Revenues surged to an unprecedented $1.01 billion dollars for the year. The 2006 actuals represent a 26% increase over the $801 million originally estimated by the IAB for 2006; and an 80% increase over the 2005 actuals of $562 million. Of the $1.01 billion, approximately $208 million or 21 percent of ad dollars were allocated to the French Canadian Online market, representing growth of 68% over the 2005 actuals of $124 million, according to the IAB.

IAB Canada’s projected total for 2007 Online advertising in Canada, is estimated to be $1.337 billion – a full 32 percent more than the 2006 actual of $1.01 billion. The 2006 actual revenues and the 2007 estimated revenues were reached after a comprehensive survey of all major Online publishers in Canada. Interestingly, Online Ad Revenue was spread across a number of advertiser categories including:
-> Automotive - 16%;
-> Consumer Packaged Goods - 14%;
-> Entertainment (Music, Film, TV) - 9%;
-> Financial - 16%;
-> Leisure (Travel, Hotel, Hospitality) - 14%;
-> Retail - 16%;

-> Other - 15%

This trend is consistent with online advertising revenue growth across other key markets around the world, such as France, Germany, United Kingdom and of course - the U.S. One key driver of this trend include Integrated Online Campaigns, new search ad choices, rich media ads. Several new blue-chip advertisers also entered the market for the first time in 2006. Interestingly, Online display ad spending in Canada outpaces search advertising," unlike the United States, where Search Revenue has surpassed display advertising revenue. That discrepancy is likely due to the substantially greater broadband penetration in Canada, at 58% of households according to eMarketer estimates, versus only 46% in the US, making the Canadian market even more valuable to brand advertisers buying display ads. Canada leads all countries surveyed in hours online per month, according to Comscore Networks. Spending on online classifieds and directories showed the fastest growth, up 120 per cent to $273-million in 2006, according to the IAB. E-mail marketing grew 82 per cent to $20-million; search marketing grew 79 per cent to $353-million. And display advertising - the most mature online ad medium - grew 58 per cent to $364-million.

In fact, according to data provided by Comscore, Canadian users out surf US users by 27% to 72% for average usage days per visitor (per month) and average visits per visitor respectively. Canadians averaged 39.6 hours per month online overall, with broadband users spending nearly three times more hours online than narrow band users. While a healthy Canadian economy has seen marketing budgets increase across the board, Internet advertising continues to show the greatest gains.