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The UK’s total online advertising expenditure exceeded all expectations in 2005 - representing almost eight percent of total UK ad spending for 2005 - and may overtake national press advertising by the end of this year, according to the UK Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), writes eMarketer.

Online advertising in the UK reached $2.5 billion in 2005, a 65.6 percent jump over 2004, according to data found in a study conducted in partnership with World Advertising Research Center and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“With a 7.8 percent market share, the Internet is now as much part of the UK advertising mainstream as newspapers,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. “Even more ad spending will migrate to the online space in the coming years, which will force other media to better integrate the Internet into their traditional offerings.”

Paul Pilkington, a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that online advertising would likely surpass $3.6 billion in 2006.

Many UK advertisers have increased their spending on newspaper websites, and have recognized that online search is effective for both brand-building and direct response initiatives.