It's been another great 12 months for the online marketing and advertising industry, according to the 2004 figures from the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Overall sales topped £635 million last year, a whopping 60% growth on 2003. In terms of market share, the Internet ad space's performance was even more impressive. Online accounted for 3.9% of marketers' budgets and broke the 4% mark in the second half of the year. This compared to a share of just 2.6% of spend in 2003. The IAB was keen to tell anyone who would listen that online's new market share meant it had overtaken radio for the first time. That medium's industry body, the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), was on the defensive, pointing out that the IAB figures include classified and paid-for search. This, it implied, is not comparing like for like. The RAB's argument is effectively that the IAB should count banners, rich media and other display-style ads separately from the fast growing areas of paid-for search and classifieds.
