A leading media agency has forecast that, despite the uncertain state of the British economy, spending on all forms of online advertising will top £100 for every UK adult internet user this year.
GroupM, part of worldwide advertising and media group WPP, has produced an in-depth forecast of levels of online advertising spending for 2012 based on similar figures from the past five years.
Pay-per-click advertising will continue to take the lion's share of advertising budgets, the agency says, at an estimated £2.79billion, 8.1 per cent higher than the 2011 figure. Display advertising spending, though, is forecast to grow at about twice that pace, to reach a total of £1.2billion.
Overall, companies and small businesses are expected to spend £104 on advertising online in 2012, up from £98 last year, and a near-50 per cent increase on five years ago.
GroupM says that, while the UK's spending on all forms of online advertising is growing rapidly, it is still behind the United States and Australia, where the equivalent of £110 and £114 respectively are spent on online ads per internet user.
Yet none of these is the country with the higher per user online advertising spend
