2012 was a banner year for online advertising, as a whopping $387 was spent on real-time bidding (RTB) advertisement. According to Comscore, more than 10.4 million video ads were served in November alone. However, if a study by Forrester Consulting is to be believed, 2013 is set to blow last year’s spending out of the water. Forrester is projecting that advertisers will spend $667 million of online video RTB over the next 12 months.
RTB refers to any ad space that is bid for by marketers every time a user accesses it. This auction style of ad includes YouTube pre-roll ads and other individually tailored ad offerings. On a side note, this explains how my one day of listening to Rage Against the Machine caused me to receive a month of Rage Against the Machine pre-roll ads.
Of course, the more money advertisers spend in the online video industry, the less bang they will get for their buck. Forrester is projecting a yearly increase of almost 100%, and it’s unlikely the number of overall ad impressions will keep pace with that explosive increase. Forrester’s study does seem a bit optimistic, but the online video space does get more expansive every year, so there’s nothing wrong with assuming things are going to keep moving steadily forward.
