eMarketer reports that beginning this year, Piper Jaffray anticipates that local online advertising spending will outpace the national spend within the U.S. marketplace.
In 2008, national and local ad spending levels were equal. But while the research firm projects a drop in national online ad spending for 2009, local is expected to increase by 5 percent.
Over the next five years, Piper Jaffray predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 percent for local online ad dollars, compared with 4 percent for national Internet spending.
Borrell Associates, on the other hand, forecasts only a 2.9 percent CAGR for local online ad spending over the next five years. Borrell puts spending at $16.4 billion in 2013, compared with $19.18 billion for Piper Jaffray.
While Borrell believes the local online ad market is approaching saturation, Piper Jaffray indicates in its report that small businesses will begin to catch up with consumers online, bringing significant growth to the local online sector and moving local dollars from offline to the Web.
Piper Jaffray considers lead generation the primary goal of local advertising, and suggests that mobile device use presents a major opportunity for savvy marketers.
With online search the preferred method to find local business infornation, and consumers highly connected to their mobile phones, especially during the weekends, they predict huge growth in mobile search spending through 2012.
Local-centric digital marketing companies will play a key role in bringing small businesses into mobile advertising, according to the report. Small businesses need to understand that mobile phones and public Wi-Fi hotspots can be an effective source of new sales leads -- similar to utilizing traditional online promotions.