IAB: Online ad revenue up 37 percent

The IAB and Pricewaterhouse Cooper have released online advertising stats for the first half of the year. While all online advertising is up 37 percent over the same period in 2005, search is up 40 percent and classifieds grew 20 percent. Despite the fact that Yahoo warned that ad growth could be slowing, the Online Publishers Association said its members expect growth of 28 percent in Q3 with no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, eMarketer expects ad spending to grow 26.8 percent over 2006, down slightly from last year’s 30.3 percent growth. By 2008, eMarketer expects online will overtake radio for the first time as a percentage of total ad spend.