Where online branding dollars go - 35% to niche sites, 21% to portals, 13% to local sites, 11% to ad networks

MediaPost and Deutsche Bank surveyed advertising executives regarding their online budgets. The results of the survey are published on MediaPost Web site. 35% of budgets dedicated to online branding went to niche sites such as iVillage and Marketwatch. 21% went to the three largest portals, with Yahoo! capturing 11%, as much as MSN and America Online combined (MSN had 6% and America Online had 5%). 13% went to Web sites of local media, while 11% went to ad networks. The remaining 20% went to various other sites, including Web sites of local media.

69% of respondents also reported spending more to buy sponsored listings on search engines. 35% of executives said cost-per-click had increased between 1 and 10%, while 25% reported a price increase of 11 to 20%; 9% of respondents said paid search was now at least 21% more expensive than in Q4 2004. Google accounting for 53% of search budgets and Overture accounting for 28%. 4% of search dollars went to Findwhat and 4% went to MSN.