Online Advertising

• 32.4 percent of likely voters have clicked on a political Web ad during the current presidential campaign. Those who did click were active beyond the clickthrough by a wide majority (72.4 percent). They went on to read additional information about the candidate's platform, among other post-click activities, including signing up for news alerts (44.5 percent); making a donation (31.8 percent); even volunteering to work on the campaign (21 percent). (Burst!)
  
  
• The campaigns of George W. Bush and John Kerry spent a total of about $3 million on online ads That, BizReport.com points out, is about half the $5.7 million John Kerry raised through the Internet on the day he accepted the Democratic nomination. (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
  
  
• Henry Copeland, whose company Blogads sells ads for some of the most popular blogs -- on both political and other topics -- said that in recent months about 40% of ads have come from campaigns and other political-advocacy groups. (Forbes)
  
  
• BURST! Market Research Manager Chuck Moran predicted that the campaigns would invest as much as $20 million in Web advertising. Now, as the numbers from October begin to trickle in, measurable online spending to date is not expected to exceed $6 million or $7 million, Moran and Buchwalter estimate. (BURST!)
  
  
• Recent research in early 2004 projected online spending for political ads will be $25.3 million in 2004, up 853.8 percent from the 2000 election. (PQ Media)
  
  
• 36.6 percent of likely voters surveyed who have clicked on a political ad, 67.2 percent went on to read about a candidate or advocacy group's issue platform. (Mediapost)