When US online advertisers go international

Zia Daniell Wigder | July 08, 2008, 02:34 PM

There’s been much discussion over the past couple of weeks about global online ad markets following ZenithOptimedia’s assertion that in 2008, over 10 percent of all global ad dollars will be allocated online. Having recently surveyed US advertisers about their international campaigns – and gearing up for a report this summer on global online marketing campaigns – I was curious to see how US advertisers’ priorities stacked up against different global online ad markets.

Indeed, as with online retailers, the assumption tends to be that US online advertisers are operating in the largest global online markets, whereas in fact they’re most likely to be in the English-speaking ones first and then other European markets subsequently (see my previous post on online retailers’ global expansion).

The following is a ranking of key international markets in which US advertisers are marketing products or services online, as measured in our Advertiser Executive Survey last month:

1. Canada
2. UK
3. France
4. Germany
5. Japan
6. China

By contrast, a comparable list of the largest global online advertising markets has Japan and Canada roughly switched: outside of the US, estimates of the online ad market tend to put Japan at #1 or #2 alongside the UK. Canada, by contrast, falls further down the list after Germany and France, closer to estimates for China.

It is not surprising that the list of top international markets for US online advertisers maps to the markets in which US online retailers are operating, it simply reinforces the fact that Canada factors in with US companies well above its market size as a result of its common language, geographic proximity and existing trade relations with the US.

As the balance of global users shifts to Asia and an increasing number of both online content and commerce providers tap into the growing Asian marketplace, look to see the percentage of US companies advertising online in the region increasing. For now, however, it’s most likely that a US company touting its international online ad campaigns is operating north of the border.