Online ad spending continued to increase in the second quarter, apparently as a result of more marketers' turning to online advertising combined with less premium inventory being available, according to a Deutsche Bank study in conjunction with MediaPost, which reports on the results. Some 66 percent of executives surveyed said that their clients' spending increased from the first quarter, and 26 percent said budgets were flat. Nearly half (48 percent) said marketers increased their spending by at least 11 percent - with 12 percent reporting increases more than 30 percent. Respondents predicted continued increases for the next quarter.

Almost half of the respondents (48 percent) said prices for premium inventory rose between 1 and 10 percent; 18 percent reported an increase of 11-20 percent; 10 said that prices went up 21-30 percent. Most respondents - 55 percent - also reported that prices rose for run-of-network inventory, but increases were lower than for premium inventory.

Approximately 27 percent of branding dollars went to the largest portals, compared with 21 percent last quarter. (Yahoo captured 14 percent - more than MSN [6 percent] and AOL [6 percent] combined.) The largest portion - 37 percent - went to niche sites such as iVillage and Marketwatch, and 11 percent of branding dollars went to networks such as Advertising.com, ValueClick and aQuantive's DrivePM.

According to 65 percent of respondents, the cost of paid search was up: 40 percent said cost-per-click had increased 1-10 percent; 20 percent reported an increase of 11-20 percent; 13 percent said paid search was 21 percent or more expensive than in the last quarter of 2004. Google and Yahoo took in the most search dollars: Google, 47 percent; Yahoo, 26 percent - both down from last quarter.