After a record-breaking 2010, online ad spending is set to increase even more this year, a new eMarketer report indicates.

The channel is expected to grow by 20.2 percent compared to last year, pushing past the $31 billion dollar mark. Over the course of the next four years, spending will continue to rise, though growth will peter out, eventually falling to the single digits by 2015.

"The internet has become as fundamental as television to advertisers," said eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman. "As consumers continue to increase their time spent online and as a resurgent economy continues to bolster ad budgets, we're going to continue to see an influx of dollars toward the internet."

Search is expected to keep its role as the most dominate form of online advertising, accounting for 45.9 percent of spending this year. However, emerging platforms will slowly eat away at its market share over the course of the next few years.

The growing budgets attributed to B2B online marketing highlights how important the communication channel is. However, companies need to have a variety of approaches – search, social and display ads are all crucial to overall success.

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