Online ad spend increased 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005 from the third quarter, according to surveyed media executives who during the previous quarterly survey by Deutsche Bank and MediaPost had forecast a 10 percent increase. The cost of premium inventory increased, on average, 6 percent, while run-of-network inventory costs increased about 3 percent, and pay-per-click prices were up 5 percent, according to the respondents.

Some 72 percent of media execs said clients spent more on internet advertising in 4Q; CPM averaged $16.71 on premium sites, and $8.47 for run-of-network inventory.

About 16 percent of respondents' clients' branded advertising budgets were spent on ad networks, up from 11 percent in the third quarter. Portals AOL, MSN, and Yahoo garnered some 30 percent; niche sites (such as iVillage, Marketwatch) got 33 percent.

Some 65 percent of media execs reported that paid search spending increased in the fourth quarter: 49 percent said spending was up 1-10 percent from the third; 16 percent said more than 11 percent. Of spending on paid search, 57 percent went to Google, 23 percent to Yahoo, 5 percent to MSN; Miva and Ask Jeeves got 1 percent each.