AdWeek: Search Ads Contribute to Web Spending Rise

The IAB reports that search advertising helped the online industry book a 21 percent increase in billings last year, totaling $7.3 billion. Where search comprised only 15 percent of 2002's figures, it grew to a 35 percent share of 2003's revenues.

By the IAB's count, the 2003 revenues were still behind the $8 billion booked in 2000, but at least several hundred million dollars of the 2000 figures turned out to have been generated from sham transactions. The IAB figures rely on publicly traded company disclosures, but the trade group has yet to correct its revenue totals to reflect later admissions by companies of revenue exaggeration.

Partly due to the popularity of search advertising, per-performance deals were on the rise. While only one out of five dollars went to a per-performance deal in 2002, just under two out of five dollars went to one in 2003. CPM pricing still managed to keep its plurality, with just over two out of five dollars going to buy impressions.