Legacy marketers continue to merely shift their obsolete advertising approach online, rather than invest the time and effort to learn how to effectively utilize today's digital media self-publishing opportunities. These traditional marketers have created a revenue bonanza for online social networking sites -- who gladly sell them the display ad space.
Clearly, for those marketers that still see all marketing opportunites through the lens of traditional media buyers, writing a check to Facebook is a comforting alternative to embracing the disruptive transformation that's turning their whole world upside down.
comScore released an overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q1 2011, indicating that nearly 1.11 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the quarter.
Facebook accounted for 346 billion impressions, nearly double the number it delivered in Q1 2010 -- and accounting for nearly one third of all display ad impressions delivered.
"The U.S. online display advertising market maintained its strong momentum from last year with a terrific first quarter," said Jeff Hackett, comScore executive vice president. "We are now seeing more than one trillion display ads delivered every single quarter and nearly 300 individual advertisers spending at least $1 million a quarter on display, numbers which underscore just how large and vibrant the online medium has become."
Facebook's market share has increased 15 percentage points from 16.2 percent in Q1 2010. Yahoo! Sites ranked second during the most recent quarter with 112 billion impressions (10.1 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 54 billion impressions (4.8 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 33 billion impressions (3.0 percent).
AT&T ranked as the top online display advertiser in the first quarter with 19.5 billion impressions, accounting for 1.8 percent of display ads. Experian Interactive ranked second with 16.6 billion impressions (1.5 percent), followed by Scottrade ranked third with 11.2 billion (1.0 percent) and Intuit with 11 billion (1.0 percent). Groupon entered the top ten display advertisers at #7 with 7.7 billion impressions (0.7 percent).
Additional findings from the comScore Q1 2011 study include:
- The top advertisers in Q1 by estimated share of online display ad spending were: AT&T (2.1 percent), Experian (1.9 percent), Scottrade (1.6 percent), Toyota (1.2 percent), and Netflix (1.1 percent). Rounding out the top ten were Intuit, Verizon, Progressive, Sprint Nextel and ING, each with 1.0 percent.
- The top consumer goods advertisers ranked by display ad spending were: Procter & Gamble, Mars, Kellogg’s, General Mills and Kraft Foods.
- 95 different advertisers delivered at least 1 billion display ad impressions and 293 advertisers spent at least $1 million on display ads during the quarter.
