US Online Ad Growth Slows - (but still growing)

Is saying that “growth slows” not dissimilar to using a double negative? Maybe it’s just the way people report the news, maybe because it’s below what original forecasts were so it may change the analysts viewpoints on the industry, maybe it’s another reason that I’m just not aware of. Whatever it is, it seems as though the positive side of the data is being downplayed.

Percentages can be misleading, especially when comparing them to numbers as they’ve been growing - it’s usually best to have both the percentages and actual numbers to make any judgements. See the chart below for the percentage growth in online ad revenue (data from IAB) along with the actual dollar growth.

Year	Total Online Ad spend (Q1 & Q2)	Growth from Previous Year	% Growth from Previous Year
2008	$ 11,500,000,000	$ 1,500,000,000	15%
2007	$ 10,000,000,000	$ 2,063,492,063	26%
2006	$ 7,936,507,937	$ 2,143,436,450	37%
2005	$ 5,793,071,487

While the numbers still don’t look fantastic for 2008, increasing $500 million less than the year before, the industry is still growing at a very high pace.

Other good news for search agencies is that paid search increased by 24% up to $5.1 billion, up from about $4.1 billion.