September 2008 | Download PDF

The Point

SMBs Stay Apace in Online Shift

View Point

Earlier this week The Kelsey Group released a data point based on a review of quarterly financials reported by five leading public Yellow Pages publishers. Our review found the average share of revenues from online advertising was 15.2 percent for the first half of 2008, up from 12.8 percent in the first half of 2007 — a one-year increase of nearly 19 percent. These figures illustrate how quickly the shift from print to online is taking place.

The acceleration of online is also evident in data from The Kelsey Group’s Local Commerce Monitor survey of small and medium-sized businesses. The latest wave of data suggests SMBs are increasingly aware of and responding to performance media and are shifting their advertising budgets accordingly.

Data Point

One of the most interesting pieces of data coming out of LCM Wave XII shows resilience among SMBs in terms of their advertising budgets. When we compared respondents’ plans for advertising in August 2008 vs. March 2002, we found six times more SMBs said they intend to increase their advertising spend (30 percent in 2008 vs. 5 percent in 2002). The reason is simple: Six years ago SMBs had few local advertising options that were performance based. With the introduction of search and other performance media, SMBs are now staying in the game.