Advertisers are applying their foot sharply to the brake, with eMarketer the latest to revise down its 2009 online ad forecasts. In a new report, the company puts ‘09 online ad spend at £3.58 billion, an annual growth rate of 7.2 percent - less than half the annual growth rate it forecast in May, and about a third of the pace things at which things have grown this year. That sounds bad, but it’s a better picture than others have predicted: WPP-owned GroupM ad buying agency this month lowered its 2009 ad spend growth forecast from 20 to just four percent while Enders Analysis expects spending growth to fall to 2.1 percent in 2009.

How will 2008 finish up? eMarketer now expects online ad spend, at £3.34 billion for the year, will be down slightly on its earlier prediction of £3.36 billion, but that’s still 21.5 percent higher than ‘07. Report author Karin von Abrams: “The good news is that, even though advertising in traditional media is down sharply, online is bucking the trend, at least to an extent…Fortunately, many forms of online advertising, such as paid search and e-mail marketing, rank high in terms of accountability and return on investment.”

If you like optimism of that sort, a survey from NMA of media agency heads has found that the online ad market will continue to grow in 2009, with display budgets growing almost 10 percent and their search budgets rising by 17 percent. The advertising chiefs are still confident of a rise in advertising expenditure despite the downturn, and many said that new media ad networks like AOL’s Platform-A (NYSE: TWX) and Microsoft’s Media Network were among those set to benefit the most from any spend increase, while many believe behavioural targeting will play an increased role in 2009.

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