Many marketers think 2008 will be a year for subdued spending. But this is unlikely to be the year that companies cease promoting their products altogether.

“Investment in marketing, specifically online marketing, be it outsourced to agencies or in-house, continues to grow with only 7% of our respondents citing no planned resource increase," said David Eldridge, CEO of marketing software maker Alterian said.

Mr. Eldridge was commenting on the company's "2007 Annual Survey Results Brief," which collected responses from marketers based mainly in North America. Besides the generally positive outlook for 2008, more responding marketers said they had online marketing budgets of $1 million or more in 2007 compared with those who said so in 2006.



How will those budgets be divided?

In advertising, some of the most technically-savvy marketers plan to invest more in PPC and behavioral ads, and less in untargeted display ads.

Nearly one-third of ad:tech attendees surveyed by MarketingSherpa in December 2007 said that they planned a 5% or more increase in PPC spending in 2008.

More than one-quarter of marketers surveyed said they planned to increase behaviorally-targeted ad spending. That was one-third more than those who said so the previous year. Unlike the previous year, respondents did not say they would increase spending on e-mail lists, SEO, or affiliate marketing.