Pop-up ads told to pop off, as online ad spend soars

Online advertisers are turning their backs on pop-up marketing, according to UK figures released today.

The propotion of UK spend funneled at pop-ups fell more than 35 per cent to 0.7 per cent of the total online budget in 2006. So-called interruptive formats - a hangover strategy from radio and TV campaigns - often infuriate web users and are now routinely blocked by browsers and toolbars from Google and Yahoo!.

The news comes in a report released today by industry body the Internet Advertising Bureau which also showed, for the first time, that in 2006 firms spent more hawking their wares online than they did in national newspapers. Total internet advertising budgets swelled more than 40 per cent in the UK to £2.02bn, overtaking the £1.9bn aimed at national print media.

The numbers also highlighted UK advertisers' web-happy attitudes: 11.4 per cent of the entire national spend was directed online, compared to about seven per cent in the US, and a global average estimated at 5.8 per cent.

In separate news, Wall Street analyst house Pali research said News Corp's MySpace was now bringing in more than $30m in advertising revenues per month, compared to about $30m annually when the Murdoch empire acquired the site for $580m in 2005. ®