—Paid search will fare best: The online ad sector you can trust the most is paid search, the report says, which accounted for 49 percent of European online ad spend in 2008 and will grow faster than any other sector. “Over the past four years, the annual growth rate of European online ad spending has declined significantly, paid search has continually taken share from display advertising and online classifieds…As the recession bites and marketers look for results, search will suffer least.”

—Display will be worst hit: Advertisers told Forrester’s researchers that online display ads is the area they are most keen to cut back on—though the report doesn’t think the segment will be as badly hit as it was in the last recession in 2001 as ad prices are not as inflated as they were then. So that means four percent growth in display this year, rising to 10 percent in 2013.

—UK leads the way: The main countries in terms of online ad spend, the UK, Germany and France, represent 66 percent of European online ad spend and will continue to dominate for the next four years despite rapid growth in smaller “early adopter” nations like the Nethderlands and the Scandinavian countries. The report says this is down to advertisers giving a “disproportionate share of spending to the largest markets”, with the UK alone receiving €3.09 billion (£2.69 billion) in 2008, a third of the European total. Last year Germany attracted €2.13 billion (£1.85 billion) and France €1.15 billion (£1 billion).