NEW YORK: Digital ad revenues in the US reached a record level of $10.69bn in the third quarter of 2013, according to newly-released figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, compiled by the digital ad trade body in conjunction with PwC, the business services firm, showed 15% year-on-year growth and a 4.2% increase on the second quarter.

"These figures reflect marketers' trust in interactive to deliver," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

"It is indicative of the digital age in which we live, and within which advertisers need to effectively reach targeted audiences wherever they are consuming information or entertainment – often on several screens at once," he added.

A separate report from insights company eMarketer, Digital Ad Spending By Industry 2013, forecast investment in online and mobile paid media would increase from $36.80bn in 2012 to $62.83bn in 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 11.3%.

This report highlighted the different rates at which various industries were embracing digital advertising. Retail and financial services, for example, had been early adopters as they developed integrated, multichannel campaigns, while healthcare and pharma lagged behind.

Retail alone accounted for almost one quarter (22.3%) of digital ad spending in 2013 and was nearly twice as much as the next two sectors combined, according to eMarketer. Financial services took a 12.4% share, just ahead of automotive on 12.1%.

Telecoms followed on 11.4%, then came CPG and consumer products (8.3%), travel (8%), computing products and consumer electronics (7.6%), media (5.3%) and entertainment (4.6%). The healthcare and pharmaceutical sector brought up the rear on 2.8%.

The eMarketer report also noted that some sectors, such as travel and retail, were focusing their digital investments in direct response advertising with a view to obtaining sales or leads, while others, notably CPG, were concentrating on branding.

Data sourced from IAB, eMarketer; additional content by Warc staff