Many smaller companies find it difficult to determine what makes the most sense in terms of advertising. As these companies all have a limited marketing budget, it is important that the money is spent in the best possible way to promote the company. A new report indicates that many smaller companies are spending their marketing budget on alternatives to web advertising. This could mean that a company invests some of their budget into improving their web presence overall.

The report, which is named ‘Main Street Goes Interactive’, was generated by Borrell Associates. If its forecasts are accurate, five years from now spending on marketing that is not related to online advertising will reach over $1.6 billion. The report also suggested that some web advertising sectors will see much slower growth than they have in the past.

According to the report, “The blurring borders between what is advertising in the interactive world and what is not added to the shift of ‘non-ad’ marketing dollars. Businesses large and smaller–but especially smaller ones–don’t even try to make the distinction. To them, whatever they spend or do on the Web is advertising, whether it goes through an intermediary or not.”

The forms of online advertising that are popular today, such as the paid search advertisement, are expected to remain popular in the near future. There has been some speculation that banner ads may fall in popularity to more interactive forms of advertising like video.