Webmaster T
05-25-2007, 03:10 PM
Today I was reading an article in SearchDay that was stating online advertising accounted for 16+ B of total ad spend and search advertising (which includes PPC and SEO) was 6.8 billion. Now immediately those numbers seemed to be so far out of whack I had to think that the number was pulled out of a hat (like most of the revenue estimates for the industry provided by the IAB, SEMPO and others).
The probelm is that those that correlate and report the industry revenue don't think guys like me count or they don't have a way to know our revenue. Which, is understandable, but... IMO, these reports include such a small slice of the industry that these revenue reports do more harm than good!
What was the reason this number immediately seemed way out of whack to me? Simple, Google's financial statements reported Ad revenue of 10,492,628,000 in 2006 and I've always been of the mind that all estimates of SEO spend were not even in the ball park because a large % of the revenue taken in by the industry is not reported to anyone but the revenuers (even that may be under reported). So, SEMPO, the IAB and others are not including a large % of the revenue generated by the industry thinking that the industry is only as big as their Organizations.
IMO all these industry revenue reports are nothing but useless speculation and should include a disclaimer that indicates the narrow segment of the revenue that is used to calculate industry revenue reported.
The eye opener for me was the fact display advertising was 5.4 billion! I know there is a sucker born every minute but... I just can't believe there is onlyn about 20% less spent burning $ bills on something that is mainly a branding tool. So, the display ad number is likely pretty close to reality, however, IMO, SEM/SEO is likely 4 or 5 times greater than what the IAB report would lead you to believe! Which would make our industry about 5th and a few years from now we'll likely be first as mobile/local advertising will dwarf what is currently spent on the web! Not to mention that most of the TV cats will be moot as TV will be broadcast over the net too!
Just my .02 Ca.
The probelm is that those that correlate and report the industry revenue don't think guys like me count or they don't have a way to know our revenue. Which, is understandable, but... IMO, these reports include such a small slice of the industry that these revenue reports do more harm than good!
What was the reason this number immediately seemed way out of whack to me? Simple, Google's financial statements reported Ad revenue of 10,492,628,000 in 2006 and I've always been of the mind that all estimates of SEO spend were not even in the ball park because a large % of the revenue taken in by the industry is not reported to anyone but the revenuers (even that may be under reported). So, SEMPO, the IAB and others are not including a large % of the revenue generated by the industry thinking that the industry is only as big as their Organizations.
IMO all these industry revenue reports are nothing but useless speculation and should include a disclaimer that indicates the narrow segment of the revenue that is used to calculate industry revenue reported.
The eye opener for me was the fact display advertising was 5.4 billion! I know there is a sucker born every minute but... I just can't believe there is onlyn about 20% less spent burning $ bills on something that is mainly a branding tool. So, the display ad number is likely pretty close to reality, however, IMO, SEM/SEO is likely 4 or 5 times greater than what the IAB report would lead you to believe! Which would make our industry about 5th and a few years from now we'll likely be first as mobile/local advertising will dwarf what is currently spent on the web! Not to mention that most of the TV cats will be moot as TV will be broadcast over the net too!
Just my .02 Ca.