Surging Demand from Key Industries Will Boost Online Ads in Mexico

eMarketer’s CEO Geoff Ramsey presented at IAB Mexico’s yearly conference, IAB Connecta, last month, just as I was getting into the thick of my research for our Mexico Online report (available to Total Access clients only). Working together, we came up with a new way of looking at the data that went beyond estimates of internet users and penetration or spend by marketers.

Dividing the estimates of online advertising spending from the various country branches of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) by eMarketer’s own internet user estimates for the same countries allowed us to calculate the amount advertisers are spending online per user—and the results varied widely.

We compared Mexico and Argentina to more developed markets and found that online ad spending per internet user drastically lagged behind that in Canada, the UK and the US.

One thing this data indicates to me, and hopefully most marketers, is that there remain nearly boundless opportunity for online ad spending growth in the Mexican and Argentinean markets. Already, opportunity for engagement online is high—approximately 90% of internet users in Mexico look for information on brands and products according to one report from IAB Mexico.

Several industries have a chance to capitalize on this rising opportunity. Two of the historically largest industries in the country—financial and automotive—pulled back online advertising spending in 2009 but have seen success online in the US and other developed markets. As the Mexican economy rebounds in 2010 and 2011, these industries are expected ramp up spending online locally, hoping to replicate that success and meet pent-up demand in Mexico.

The potential for online ad spending will only get bigger, as the number of internet users in Mexico is expected to continue its strong growth. eMarketer estimates that users will increase from 29.5 million in 2009 to 56.4 million in 2014, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4% through the period.

To learn more about eMarketer’s coverage of Mexico and online advertising spending, please click here.