$12.6 Billion to Be Spent On Local Online Ads In 2008

New statistics from the US last week claim that local online advertising is worth $8.5 billion. This number consists of local search, local banners and local video.

Research completed by Virginia based Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm that tracks local advertising, predicts that local search will grow substantially to become almost 50% of the total local online spend next year, which is projected to reach $12.6 billion. It is anticipated that local search spending alone will grow from roughly $2.5 billion to $5 billion in 2008.

Borrell also expects local video spending to roughly triple from just over $400 million today to $1.27 billion next year, while banner- type advertising will see growth of only 9% and that "The Big Three" classified categories (jobs, cars, real estate) will have a 37.7 percent share of all online ad spending in 2008.

This research also concluded that the local business categories which have the highest online penetration rates as a percentage of total ad spend are:

• Recruitment
• Real estate
• Computer-related services
• DotCom Businesses
• Auto marketing
• Miscellaneous retail

If this article has inspired you to increase your online marketing efforts to target your local area, then look no further than Local Search Listing which is the quickest way to tap into local search engine traffic, with submission to 46 local search engines including Google, Yahoo and Yellow Pages.

Posted by Courtney Mills at 7:40 AM GMT