TORONTO—Over the past five years, online ad revenues in Canada have more than quadrupled, according to a report released yesterday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada.

Reported online ad revenues in 2008 were $1.6 billion, compared to 2004’s $364 million. The recent numbers also represent a leap of 29 per cent over revenue for 2007 — and respondents to IAB Canada’s survey project that those numbers will only continue to grow.

“It’s pretty easy to measure your return on investment for online ads,” Paula Gignac, president of IAB Canada, tells Design Edge Canada. “You know the exact reach, exact frequency, you know that everyone sees your ad on their computers — it’s not like TV or radio where they could be out of the room. So online is accountable.”

Internet advertising in Canada now represents 11 per cent of the estimated $14.6 billion total spent on advertising in 2008, trailing behind TV ads (23.2 per cent) and newspaper ads (17.1 per cent) and bumping radio ads down to fourth place (10.6 per cent). Gignac offered a number of reasons why companies are spending more on online advertising:

“TV, radio and newspapers have been delivering tremendous reach, and now we have almost 25 million people online in Canada, so you can really get reach there,” she says. “Also, what advertisers like to do is target, and online you can target an audience by region, behaviour or subject, so targeting becomes very pronounced.”

The report also noted what types of ads were leading the pack, revealing the following breakdown:

•    Search advertising: $602 million
•    Display advertising: $490 million
•    Classifieds: $480 million
•    Online video advertising: $12 million
•    Email advertising: $18 million

Compared to the international market, Canada is just behind the US, whose online ad revenue is 12.5 per cent of their overall number. And if Canadian trends continue, revenue is expected to grow to $1.75 billion in 2009. Contact: www.iabcanada.com