Canadian revenues from online advertising hit C $1.01 billion (US $894 million) in 2006, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, a jump of 80 percent in one year.

In 2006 search related advertising accounted for nearly as much revenue as online display campaigns and investment in search has increased faster.

Google had 80 percent of all Canadian search engine queries in the second quarter of 2007. The company has a larger share of the market than in the U.S., where it accounted for 53 percent of queries in August 2007, according Nielsen//NetRatings.

Competitors Yahoo and MSN are working to prevent Google consolidating its hold on the market, where about two-thirds of the population is online and there is room for Internet advertising to grow.

Microsoft has invested heavily in search, and has been persuasive in attracting Canadian advertisers with its adCenter option, which is viewed as a good deal by some advertisers who are using paid search.

Paid search is one of the online ad types contributing to the mediums growth, according to the Canadian Marketing Association. It estimates that Internet ad spending will pass all other ad types excluding television and telemarketing by 2011.

Canada Paid Search