Defying the difficulties plaguing the economy as a whole, interactive advertising in the US is set to grow well above 20% this year, nearing $40 billion in revenues, according to the latest eMarketer estimates.

And if eMarketer is correct, double-digit growth will continue for at least the next couple of years before slowing slightly. The research company believes U.S. online ad spend will reach $53 billion in 2014 and $62 billion in 2016.

Total ad spending on all media is expected to grow 6.7% this year to $169.5 billion, with national election campaigns and the growth in mobile spending giving things a boost. Growth will continue at a 3% to 4% rate in the next few years, with spending approaching $200 billion by 2016.

For the first time this year, online ad spend will exceed the total amount spent on print magazines and newspapers, eMarketer says, with $39.5 billion going online versus $33.8 billion to print. The gap between online and print will only grow in the coming years, as print continues to dip and online continues to rise.

Unlike print, television isn’t suffering while online grows. TV will continue to rise as well, though more slowly. EMarketer estimates that TV will capture $72 billion in ad dollars in the U.S. in 2016, continuing to grab more total dollars than online.

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections

About The Author: Pamela Parker is executive features editor of Marketing Land and a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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