CYBERSPACE – According to a report issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), advertisers spent $5.8 billion dollars placing online ads through the end of June 2005, an increase of over 25 percent in comparison with the first half of 2004.The spending increase was driven by ads linked to Internet search results, with search-related ads accounting for $2.3 billion of the total, a 27 percent increase in that category over the same period last year.

“The consistent growth in overall revenues shows marketers may be shifting more of their total advertising budgets to online,” said David Silverman, a partner at PwC, in a statement released by the company. “This is a natural development, as research shows more consumers are spending a larger percentage of their media time online.”

According to the report, only one category of online advertising saw a reduction in spending, and that was “online sponsorships”, the practice of an advertiser sponsoring an entire site, e-mail message/campaign or specific online event. Such sponsorships now comprise online 5 percent of online ad sales, down from 9 percent during the first half of 2004.

Ads incorporating audio or video streaming accounted for a relatively small portion of online ad revenue through June of this year (8%), but that segment is among the fastest-growing type of ad; according to the report, spending on such “rich media” ads jumped by 26% over the same period last year.