Forrester: B-to-b interactive spending to double by 2014

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B-to-b spending on interactive marketing will double by 2014, according to a report released Thursday by Forrester Research.

The report, “B2B US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009-2014,” predicted that interactive spending by b-to-b marketers will reach $4.8 billion by 2014. Last year, that spending totaled $2.3 billion.

The recession has hastened the adoption of interactive marketing in place of traditional offline methods such as print and events. B-to-b marketers “have begun to clamp down on expensive offline tactics and are instead turning to measurable, ROI-driven online channels,” wrote Forrester’s Michael Greene in the report.

Paid search accounted for 70% of b-to-b online spending last year, according to Forrester. While spending on display advertising fell 9% last year compared with 2008, search engine optimization increased and eclipsed spending on online display advertising. Forrester anticipates that online display advertising spending will increase this year as marketing budgets bounce back.

“Even with a short-term spending decline in 2009, display advertising will grow faster than any other established interactive category from 2009 to 2014,” Greene wrote. He said he anticipates that social media spending will increase (not including internal costs such as staffing and training) from $11 million to $54 million between 2009 and 2014. Similarly, mobile marketing is anticipated to increase to $106 million, from $26 million, in the same time frame.