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Spending on advertising for online dating services has risen dramatically since 2004, according to data released today from Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
The advertising intelligence service said that while total media spend for such efforts was $149 million in the U.S. in 2004, it rose to $310 million the following year, and hit $430 million from January to November of 2006.
“The dating services industry has shown tremendous growth in terms of ad spending across all media, but most especially cable TV, online and local TV and local radio,” Brian Lane, svp-client strategy & product management for Nielsen Monitor-Plus, said in a statement.
NMP said the most recent figures for media chosen showed cable TV led the pack with $130.6 million in reported ad spending last year. The Internet was a close second at $127.3 million, and spot TV ads were third with $75.1 million spent.
Ubiquitous online dating service eHarmony.com was the biggest advertiser overall, spending $110 million in 2006. It was followed by IAC/InterActiveCorp, the parent company of Match.com, which spent $66 million on ads. In third place for overall spending was Teligence (parent company of Live Links, Tango, Redhot, Vibeline and Fonchat), which spent nearly $43 million.
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