InteractiveSalsa.com

Much of the conversation about online ad spend has been on its aggregate growth and, when broken down, on search (primarily Google). Well, as we all know, this little internet fade has grown well beyond that scope. It affects just about everything. Everything has an Interactive/online/digital component. And, of course, some things are (or start) as an Interactive pure-play. This diversification, or increasing complexity with the word “internet,” is a big reason I started this blog. There is so much to think about, to share and to discuss as this world evolves.

Forrester has come out with a study about the diversification and growth of web ad spend. As the interactive space builds itself out, the ad dollars with follow. And as the ad dollars follow, it will guide how people build out the Interactive space. Here are some of the key points (per BrandWeek) of the study:

Forrester Research, like nearly all ad-spending forecasts, projects marketers will shift budgets online at a quick pace in the next five years. By 2012, it expects the market will hit $61.3 billion, up from $18.4 billion in 2007. In five years, Forrester expects interactive spending to account for 18% of marketing budgets.

The maturing of new channels like mobile, videogames, social media and online video will help not just grow but reorient the balance of the market. Display advertising will see its share of online advertising fall from 33% to 22%, according to the forecast. E-mail marketing’s slice of spending is expected to fall from 15% to 7%.

Forrester sees much higher spending growth in newer areas. It expects buying in the “emerging channels” category (in-game advertising, social networks, mobile) to grow from $1 billion to $10.6 billion in 2012, when it will make up 17% of all spending. Online video is set to grow from $471 million in 2007 to $7.2 billion in 2012, accounting for 12% of online marketing spending.

An area that is expected to continue to have outsized influence: search marketing. Its share of the market is projected by Forrester to decline slightly, from 44% to 41%. Yet its compound growth rate of 26% is to keep pace with the overall market.