NEWS: Marketers: Print Budgets Down, Online Ad Spend to Grow Rapidly

Marketers: Print Budgets Down, Online Ad Spend to Grow Rapidly

Marketers are continuing to put their ad dollars online at the expense of print advertising, according to the 2008 “State of the Marketer” survey report from Eloqua, which found that 55% of marketers anticipate a decrease in print ad spend three years from now.

Spending Trends

Online advertising spend is expected grow at a rapid rate, with 90% of marketers saying they will continue to increase their direct online advertising budgets - and 15% saying they will “radically” increase online ad spend.

Moreover, some 78% of marketers say they will increase their social media spend; 74% say they will increase their direct email spend; and 65% say they will increase their mobile texting/SMS spend.

Overall, more than 40% of marketers have radically increased their budgets for online advertising from three years ago. Also…

• Some 23% of all marketers surveyed say they have increased their spending on Google AdWords.
• 26% of marketers say they have increased their direct email spending.
• 60% said they have kept their text and SMS spending on par with spending three years ago.
• In general, print advertising, direct mail and broadcast spend remained the same vs. three years ago

Additional Findings

• Accountability pressure is growing: 86% of marketers say pressure has increased on them to account for results; no one said that the pressure has decreased. Moreover, 68% of organizations are measuring the quantifiable contribution of marketing to the bottom line.
• Marketers believe they  are getting more effective - 64% say their marketing programs are more effective now than three years from ago.
• Sales & Marketing are bridging the divide: More than 90% of marketers surveyed say the relationship between sales and marketing departments is OK or excellent, with 54% saying it has improved in the past three years, and 58% saying blame is shared equally.
• Marketing budgets have increased over the past three year: 72% have had an increase in marketing budget, with nearly 50% increasing more than 10% and 11% increasing more than 50%
• Marketers view prospects’ needs differently from their own: 60% say text messages are not effective for themselves, though they will increase their spending over the three years by 65%.
• Marketing growth is continuing despite a down market: 95% say they will maintain or increase their marketing staff over the next three years.
• Marketers are not always familiar with “do not track”  lists, but most would opt in:  32% of aren’t familiar with the list, but 47% support it - and 67% would opt in to it.

About the study: The Eloqua survey was conducted with nearly 200 US marketing professionals at companies covering a variety of industries and ranging in size from $10 to $500 million in annual revenues and including industries such as business and professional services, high technology, manufacturing, retail and hospitality.