Internet advertising is becoming easier to target, making it "far better than TV" for this purpose, say industry experts.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for the internet marketing industry, made the claims saying that online ad networks have overcome the advertising obstacles that the "fragmented nature" of the net had previously posed.

Jack Wallington, programs manager with the IAB, said: "The fragmented nature of the internet used to cause problems, but with the latest technology it is possible to amalgamate thousands of websites and segment their content into broad and narrow categories."

He cited online ad networks, provided by firms like DoubleClick, which supply this service for thousands of different publisher websites such as the Guardian and ITV.

"Advertisers can approach an ad network asking for their adverts to reach consumers using various demographics and their ads can then appear across the entire network of publishers. The technology is extremely advanced, but using it is incredibly simple," he explained.

Research firm GroupM recently published a report which forecasted that online advertising is likely to overtake TV advertising soon in Britain – a phenomenon which has already occurred in Sweden.

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