Internet advertising in the UK grew to be the third largest such sector last year, a new report has revealed.

The study, conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau alongside PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Centre, has predicted that the amount spent promoting through the web will overtake the amount spent through television marketing by the end of 2009.

It also asserted that paid search tactics are being used more carefully, with greater thought and awareness of consumer behaviour being put into keyword and phrase selection, which is generating a greater return on investment.

The research also found that there are now 32.5 million people online in Britain and the average broadband user is spending 16 hours a week logged on!

Such development in marketing opportunity is really unprecedented – even print and the widespread adoption of radio and television cannot have moved as quickly as the World Wide Web.