Spending on online promotions, including contests and coupons, will nearly triple to $22.8 billion by 2012 from $8 billion in 2007, according to Borrell Associates' "Online Promotions: The Big Shift" report.
Borrell said online promotions account for 22% of overall interactive marketing spending.
The report indicated that the rise in online promotional spending is due to "the inability of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV to prove return on advertising investment."
Those marketers who promote products with online coupons are in sync with consumer Web use.
A May 2008 BusinessWeek article said that coupon Websites were getting more traffic this year. The magazine cited March 2008 comScore data showing 281 million page views for coupon sites, up 38% from March 2007.
comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman told BusinessWeek that, as a general rule, "online coupon site activity would increase
as a result of macroeconomic trends."
However, coupon-clippers are not the only target of promotional spending. Marketers have the sweepstakes and contest crowd in their sights as well.
Borrell said that games and contests, which accounted for about one-tenth of online promotional spending in 2007, would nearly triple to 28.4% of online promotional spending in 2012.
Some marketers will use other digital channels for their promotions. An Online Testing eXchange study commissioned by SeeSaw Networks and the American Association of Advertising Agencies found that more than half of US mobile users would text in response to digital outdoor promotions.
The eMarketer US Online Ad Targeting report will be published next month. Click here to be notified when it is released.