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January 7, 2005

A recent review done by Nielsen//NetRatings reveals that online advertising, particularly banner ads, experienced relatively strong growth in 2004. The number of banner advertisements in Europe increased by 24% from November 2003 to November 2004.

Banner ad usage grew across Europe, though more noticeably in certain countries. Web sites in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands all experienced growth of over 30% in the number of banner ads run, while Germany, Norway, Spain and Belgium banner ad use grew by 10% or less.

The number of online advertising campaigns run across Europe has increased as well, from 33,472 campaigns in November 2003 to 36,824 campaigns in November 2004, an increase of 10%.

eBay was the leading advertiser in Europe, in terms of campaigns. The company conducted a massive 432 ad campaigns in Germany during November 2004, in addition to 91 in the UK and 52 in Austria. Those countries, plus France and Spain, accounted for the lion's share of advertising campaign in Europe in November 2004.

These countries will also account for the greatest increases in online advertising spending between 2003 and 2007, according to Zenith Optimedia and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Online advertising spending will rise by 11.4% in the UK, 10.4% in Germany and 8.4% in France.

One reason for the continued rise in the number of banner ads, despite their being among the oldest forms of Web advertising, may be their appeal to Internet users, at least compared to other, newer online ad types.

A poll by GartnerG2 from 2004 found that Internet users in Western Europe found small banners to be the least annoying type of online ads, much less irritating than pop-ups and floating ads.

Source: eMarketer