How much did you spend on advertising last year?  How much of that was for online advertisement?  If your spending matches the rest of the marketing community, you're probably spending more this year than you did last year.

In what appears to be a continuing trend, revenues for online advertising rose again for the third quarter of 2006.  According to a report released from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), online advertising revenues for 2006 are already close to surpassing the yearly total for 2005.  The record-setting revenues, estimated to be nearly $4.2 billion, marks the eighth quarter in a row of growth.  The following graph, supplied by the IAB report, illustrates the dramatic growth:

As the report states, online advertisers are spending more money and seeing more return on their investments.  The relative ease in which online sales and traffic can be tracked make online advertising one of the most cost-effective mediums in which to invest.

As internet marketers, we play both sides of the online advertising fence.  On one hand, we spend money on ads to get traffic to our sites.  On the other hand, we make money from ads that we have on our sites.  If this trend continues (and we hope it does), there will be more and more opportunities to take advantage of this growing form of advertising.

So now I'll ask you again.  How much are you investing in online advertising?  Are you sure it's enough?