A new Jupiter Communications and Media Metrix collaborative report suggests that business-to-business (B2B) online advertising is the fastest growing and one of the most financially rewarding segments for online publishers.

Media Metrix's data indicates that the B2B industry is the fastest growing online ad segment in mainstream online media, growing to 5.6 billion online ad impressions in the second quarter of 2000, up from one billion in third quarter 1999.

Jupiter analysts estimate that based in its current growth rate of 94%, the B2B market will grow to $3 billion by 2005, representing 18% of online advertising spending on mainstream online media.

A number of big B2B plays in the Silicon Valley have already seen considerable impressions from their ad campaigns. San Francisco-based customized Web feed provider Moreover.com, Palo Alto's hardware, software and services giant Sun Microsystems, and San Bruno-based precision instrument eCommerce provider TestMart were among the Top Ten B2B Web ads for the last week of July, according to Media Metrix. TestMart.com ranked tops of the bunch, with 39 million total impressions for its banner advertising during that period.

Along with the growth, however, Media Metrix's data also reveals considerable fragmentation within B2B advertising, with 80% of B2B online ad impressions being hosted by 25 (or more) publisher sites. Compared with more mature markets, such as financial services and retail, the majority of online advertising impressions are distributed across eight or ten publisher sites at most.

"Publishers must continue to spend the time and money to target B2B online advertisers," says Jupiter Communication analyst Jean-Gabriel Henry.

Henry says the B2B market will only become more fragmented, but that publishers should continue to devote resources that target B2B ad dollars, despite their fears that fragmentation could equal lower revenue potential.

"Publishers, as ranked by B2B advertising impressions, each earn on average $5 million quarterly from this growing market," explains Henry. "Compare that with only $500,000 per top publishers in the automotive industry."

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