Of the many companies trying to convince marketing executives to spend their money on the internet instead of on television, none is more invested than Google.
The company currently controls a whopping 40% of the U.S. digital advertising market, and it has spent the past year going to great lengths to show media buyers that its YouTube platform is a superior marketing vehicle than cable.
And yet, according to data from Kantar Media — which Google disputes — the search giant doesn't always put its money where its mouth is.
According to the WPP-owned media measurement firm, Google spent about 78% of its $569 million U.S. ad budget on television last year, compared to just 15% on internet display advertising.Web display advertising is only a fraction of all digital ad expenditure however. It doesn't include search, mobile or video advertising. Google tells us that all its digital advertising represents a "majority" of its ad budget. Given that its TV budget is estimated by Kantar at $445 million in 2013, that would imply Google's total ad budget is around $1 billion per year or more.
Here are Kantar's numbers which, again, do not include mobile, search or video ads:
Google says its own figures differ from Kantar Media's.
"We're not familiar with the details of the report or its methodology, but it appears to be inaccurate," a Google spokesperson said of the Kantar data. "We embrace digital marketing and it represents the majority of our media budget."
According to figures published by Ad Age from ZenithOptimedia, 21.7% of U.S. marketing expenditures are made on digital advertising, with television taking a 38.6% share.
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect comments from Google and to note that Kantar measures only a fraction of digital adspend.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
