Germany’s online advertising market grew from DM16.2 million in June to DM18.2 million in July, an increase of DM2.5 million, according to the latest figures published by Forrester Research B.V. (Nasdaq: FORR). In June, Forrester launched its Internet AdWatch local-language online ad monitoring tool in Germany.

In July, Bertelsmann was the country’s leading advertiser, spending DM1,305,000 — a DM61,000 rise from the previous month. However, the UK still remained Europe’s largest online advertising market in July with a total ad spend of DM26.2 million.

“Germany’s online ad market continues to show strong signs of growth, but it’s far more uneven than the UK, where the scale of online spend is more evenly distributed among the top 10 advertisers,” said William Reeve, group director of data products at Forrester Research B.V. “For instance, the two biggest German online advertisers are disproportionately bigger than the rest. Behind Bertelsmann, Lycos was Germany’s second-highest spender, pumping DM915,000 into the market. There is then a huge spending gap of DM385,000 between Lycos and third-placed Verlagsgruppe Milchstra_e, which spent DM530,000.”

Reflecting the summer holiday season, the media and entertainment and consumer goods sectors totalled DM8.7 million, or 47% of Germany’s total online ad spend in July. Financial services came in third, with 13% of the market or DM2.4 million. This sector is far stronger in the UK, where total online ad spend by financial services companies came to DM5.3 million in the same month — again underlining the level of competition between traditional banks and online entrants, which is more acute than in Germany.

“However, both the German and the UK online advertising market are demonstrating the general buoyancy and uptake of business-to-business eCommerce,” Reeve continued. “The business products and services sectors was ranked fourth in both markets in July. In Germany, online ad spend in this sector was DM2.0 million, and in the UK it totalled DM2.5 million. This reinforces Forrester’s contention that Europe’s 1.2 trillion euros in B2B eBusiness trade will outstrip the region’s B2C eBusiness trade tenfold by 2004.”

Internet AdWatch tracks and values the online activities of over 15,000 advertisers across more than 650 sites in France, Germany, and the UK, and can be accessed in three distinct yet complementary ways. Internet AdWatch Online is a simple Web-interfaced desktop application that enables clients to search more than 6 million observations of online advertising, archived to May 1998. Clients have the facility to examine their competitors’ online ad campaigns in great detail, through analysis of creative work and the recreation of media schedules. The Internet AdWatch Spending Monitor is an invaluable way to size the total online ad market and the split between product sectors on a monthly basis, through a list of the top advertisers and campaigns with their estimated values. Finally, Internet AdWatch customers can receive weekly email Campaign Alerts showing campaign creatives with hot links to their placements.