Online advertising market continues to develop positively

To depict the online advertising market as a whole, Media Focus' advertising statistics, which include only the display advertising segment, are supplemented by expert estimates of the search engine advertising, affiliate marketing, online classifieds, and online directories segments. The following describes how the various online advertising segments can be characterized and differentiated from one another.

Classic online advertising

The classic online advertising (display) advertising segment comprises all forms of advertising (standard banner formats and native ads) on all devices (desktop and mobile). The forms of billing applied are generally fixed, contact or click prices. For this report, the data from the Media Focus advertising statistics (gross billed) is extrapolated. The moving image sub-segment is estimated separately and specifies the video ad advertising format. Crossboarder advertising placements (CH advertising on foreign websites) are not taken into account.

Search engine advertising

Search engine advertising refers to advertising options in which the advertiser pays for a position for its link on the popular search engines. Usually, an auction procedure is used to determine who gets the best position. The billing method of search engine advertising is payment by number of clicks on the text-based links.

Affiliate marketing

The affiliate marketing segment is part of performance marketing and is billed on the basis of performance. Normally, billing is based on CPO, CPL, and in some cases CPC. The integration of advertising media takes place on a large number of websites, for example by means of display ads, text links, product feeds, or special integrations. Affiliate marketing measures are usually carried out via a network and usually have a long-term orientation. The advertiser provides advertising material and remuneration as part of the "affiliate program," while the website bears the main responsibility for deciding which advertising material is delivered when, where, and how.

Online classifieds market & online directories

The online classifieds market refers to the online classifieds business. For this report, the classifieds segments "Real Estate," "Auto," and "Job" are taken into account. The online directories advertising segment includes the paid entries of a directory search platform, such as paid additional entries, highlighting ads or a logo entry.

Online trend by advertising segment

Development in absolute terms 2011 - 2016 (1st half-year)

The online advertising market continued to develop positively in the first half of 2016 compared to the prior-year period. The previous year's figures were significantly exceeded in all advertising segments. The expert panel estimated the total volume of the Swiss online advertising market at slightly over CHF 555 million in the first half of 2016.

Online trend by advertising segment

Segment mix 1st half-year 2016

Compared to the prior-year period, there were only slight shifts in shares in the advertising segments:

Search engine advertising gained 5 percentage points, while traditional online advertising (display) lost 1 percentage point, online directories 2 percentage points, and car and job classifieds 1 percentage point each.

Growth

Growth 2007 - 2015

Overall, the growth forecasts for 2015 were exceeded: The forecast was 11.2 percent. A total of 19.3 percent was achieved. This is the first time in three years that growth has exceeded 15 percent.

Forecast

Growth forecast 2016 - 2019

According to experts' estimates, the online advertising market will continue to grow over the next three years.

Compared with the online advertising volume in 2016, the experts estimate that the online advertising market will grow by an average of 16.3 percent per year until 2019.

Share of online advertising in the Swiss advertising market

1st half year 2016

The share of online advertising includes the advertising formats display, search engine advertising and affiliate marketing. To maintain comparability, online classifieds and directories were not included for this analysis, since classifieds or directories are not included in other media groups either.

In the media mix, online advertising accounted for 13 percent in the first half of 2016, an increase of two percent on the same period last year.

Online advertising (display) by industry

1st half year 2016

As in the first half of the year and in 2015 as a whole, the top two places belong to the financial and automotive sectors. The former shows a gross value print of 19 million Swiss francs, which corresponds to an increase of 3.5 million compared to the first half of 2015 (15.5 million). The vehicle sector lost 2 million compared to the previous year (14.5 million) and currently amounts to a gross value print of 12.4 million Swiss francs.

In terms of the share of online advertising in the media mix, the financial sector has the highest share of online advertising, with a total of 12.2 percent. The telecommunications sector follows in second place with 8.7 percent. In the first half of 2016, the average online media mix share was 3.9 percent (H1 2015, 3.5%).

Methodology

The data for the Display advertising segment are based on the advertising print statistics of Media Focus and are product-exact, reported values (gross invoiced) from our coopera- tion partners. The total volumes of the Display segment are based on an extrapolation of these values. The data for all other segments are based on expert estimates.