Forrester: B2B online marketing spending to double

Spending on business-to-business (B2B) online marketing will soar over the next few years, according to a new forecast.

The report from Forrester Research says that expenditure on a B2B online strategy will increase from an estimated $2.3 billion (£1.5 billion) in 2009 to $4.8 billion in 2014 - a more than 100 per cent rise.

Report author Michael Greene says: "B2B marketers will continue to invest heavily in paid search but will also begin to invest in display advertising and emerging marketing tactics such as social and mobile marketing."

In a blog post, he adds that B2B marketers are particularly likely to shift money from other channels to the online medium, as well as being more prone to focusing on accountability than their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts.

According to the MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Report for 2009-10, B2B advertising executives are more likely to take advantage of social media for promotional purposes than B2C marketers.

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