Online searches and social media will drive online marketing and advertising this year, says the Digital Advertising Association of Thailand (DAAT).
Digital ad spending in the first four months of this year was lower than industry projections as traditional media such as TV, radio and newspapers still attracted buyers.
But digital media still enjoyed strong growth of 52% to 277 million baht, according to Nielsen Thailand.
Siwat Chawareewong, the DAAT president, said digital ad spending is estimated to grow 34.12% to 3.7 billion baht this year from 2.7 billion last year.
The communications sector will remain the top spender on digital media, at 380 million baht, followed by the auto and skin-care sectors, which will spend about 270 million each. However, the latter two are focusing more on digital media in addition to the food, drug and IT sectors.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a leading online strategy for advertisers this year, which attempts to increase a website's search engine ranking so more interested consumers will click through to their sites.
"Advertising on social media is another trend to increase customer engagement and create buzz through online media to increase brand awareness," he said.
Content is key for consumer communication and engagement, he added.
Spending on digital media is still only a sliver of total ad spending, representing 3% this year.
Once more Thais can access the internet, digital media spending will likely grow, Mr Siwat said.