One bell-weather for the strength of the Internet in US politics is the amount spent on political advertising online. According to a series of reports linked by the OPA it’s not.

This is mainly because online activists appear to be doing lots for free so why pay to put attack ads or campaign appeals online? This is what OPA said:

In this election year, Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing: They’re not going to spend a whole lot on online advertising. Even with the hype around candidates using social networks and online video, they have been slow to buy paid media online, preferring free promotion on partisan blogs. ClickZ reported that the estimates for online political ad revenues in 2008 varied, with Lehman Brothers projecting $110 million (or 3.6% of the $3 billion spent on all media), PQ Media predicting $73 million (out of $4.5 billion) and Borrell as the most conservative with just $20 million online (out of $4.8 billion). While Borrell predicts just 2% of online outlays to go to email, PQ projects 75% going to email marketing. Google, however, believes local elections will bring in more search ads. “While we recognize that [search advertising] is still new for presidential campaigns, we’re more optimistic in our projections,” Google’s political ad sales manager, Peter Greenberger, told ClickZ.