The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) announced earlier this week that Canadian Online Advertising Revenues for 2010 exceeded original expectations.

As stated in our last IAB article, the projection for 2010 called for total revenues of $2.1 billion; the actual numbers came in at $2.23 billion, showing a 23 per cent increase from the previous year.

As a result of such rapid growth, Internet advertising has surpassed Daily Newspaper, and is now second only to Television in terms of share of total Canadian media ad revenue.

The 23 per cent growth also placed online advertising as the fastest growing of all major media, all but one of which experienced single digit growth rates from 2009 to 2010.
 
Around $428 million (19 per cent) of the $2.23 billion in online ad revenue was generated by players in the French-speaking market, representing a 22 per cent growth from 2009.
 
The three most prominent advertising vehicles Online account for 98 per cent of the total Canadian market:

• Search advertising - $907 million (41 per cent);
• Display advertising - $688 million (31 per cent); and
• Classifieds - $587 million (26 per cent).

Online video advertising grew by a whopping 85 per cent, from $20 million in 2009 to $37 million in 2010. Only publisher-based email advertising and video gaming advertising lost ground, dropping from $13 million to $11 million and $3 million to $2 million respectively.
 
Online advertising revenue by advertiser category was also recorded, showing the following numbers:

• Automotive- 12 per cent;
• Packaged Goods - 11 per cent;
• Financial- 11 per cent;
• Retail- 9 per cent;
• Leisure- 6 per cent;
• Technology- 5 per cent;
• Telecommunications- 4 per cent;
• Entertainment- 4 per cent;
• Media- 4 per cent;
• Phara- 3 per cent; and
• Other- 31 per cent.

Future growth

The projections for 2011 online advertising revenues show that the industry is expected to continue its rapid growth. Online advertising in Canada is estimated to generate almost $2.6 billion in 2011, which would be 16 per cent more than the 2010 numbers. In the French-speaking sector, revenues are expected to increase by 17 per cent to $500 million.

"It's incredibly fulfilling to see that the years of diligent and determined work by Publishers in developing ever-evolving and engaging content for consumers, while simultaneously demonstrating the unique benefits of marketing within the medium to Advertisers, have culminated in this new level of success," says IAB Canada President Paula Gignac.

"Add to that the Mobile channel coming into its own, and the future of interactive advertising in Canada looks extremely positive!"

Click through to access the detailed IAB Canada 2010 numbers and the projections for 2011 (PDF).

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