How Much Tech Companies Spend on Advertising

Posted 05/09/2010 at 10:14am | by Justin Kerr

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Advertising, love it or hate it seems to work, but just how much money does it cost to get your point across? The exact marketing budget of the big tech companies has typically been difficult to track down, but the folks over at Businessinsider.com claim to have the inside scoop. Based on numbers collected from Kantar Media we now know what each company spent in 2009 across all advertising mediums, and some of the results might just surprise you.

Ebay for example had a pretty modest budget in 2009 of only 89 million, but had the highest percentage by far when compared to the amount of revenue they generate. This either means that the ads aren't working, or the business itself is on the decline. Not surprisingly Apple seems to get excellent mileage with an ad budget of only $249 million, a number that pails in comparison to the whopping $518 million spent by Microsoft.

The rest of the results are pretty straightforward except for Google, who only spent approximately 11 million in 2009 on traditional advertising. That number might sound a bit low, but when you consider that almost all online ads are served by the search giant anyway, what's the point of rolling a TV commercial right?

It would seem that Jerry Seinfeld was no match for Justin Long when it came to ad spending efficiency, but even the most hardcore PC enthusiast can usually agree that the Microsoft's ad agency should probably be sacked.

Anyone surprised by the numbers?