For marketers, 2013 marks a shift in online advertising—to bigger budgets, sounder metrics and a continuing focus on brand advertising that we identified last year. According to the 2013 Online Advertising Performance Outlook, a report produced jointly by Vizu, a Nielsen company, and the CMO Council, advertisers are changing how they view the online medium. Long the bastion for direct response, marketers are now embracing online for branding purposes aimed at shifting consumer perception.
In 2013, advertisers project brand ad spending to grow more quickly than direct response. Sixty-three percent of marketers project that the dollars allocated to online brand advertising will grow in 2013, and one in five believes the increase will exceed 20 percent. These numbers are in line with what Vizu saw in marketers’ 2012 projections, demonstrating continued momentum on this front.
Roughly half (51%) of marketers also expect spending on direct response to increase in 2013. One in four stated that increase will exceed 20 percent; however, 41 percent say their digital direct response advertising budget will stay the same as last year.
While brand marketers are projecting overall growth in brand ad spending in 2013, they are also predicting their spending in particular digital channels will grow faster than others. Nearly three-quarters (70%) of brand marketers plan to increase their use of social media in 2013, followed closely by mobile advertising (69%) and video advertising (64%).
These numbers are all up from 2012 projections, indicating a continued shift toward the channels where consumers are spending an ever-increasing amount of their time. And the brands aren’t alone in their thinking. Agencies are also projecting growth in mobile advertising (81%) and video advertising (73 percent), followed by social (57%).
There’s no doubt that digital advertising is on the rise as more advertisers and agencies begin to understand and accept the opportunities the medium brings. How they use digital, however, will continue to evolve.
To download the 2013 Online Advertising Performance Outlook, please click here.
For the report “2013 Online Advertising Performance Outlook,” Vizu, a Nielsen company, collaborated with the CMO Council, which fielded a survey of 287 senior brand leaders, 176 agency executives and 152 publishing representatives. The online survey was fielded during January and February 2013. Readers can download the “Online Advertising Performance 2012 Outlook” to track significant shifts in response. The 2012 study can be downloaded at http://brandlift.vizu.com/knowledge-resources/research/2012-industry-outlook/.