Facebook Served More Than a Quarter of Display Ad Impressions in Q4 2010
Facebook served up more than a quarter of all display ad impressions in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to numbers from comScore.
MediaPost reported that Facebook accounted for 25.8 percent of all U.S. display ad impressions in the last quarter of 2010, up 23.1 percent from the third quarter of 2010. “The social network’s gain came at the expense of Yahoo, whose display ad share fell to 9.7% from 11%, and Fox Interactive Media, which dropped to 2.4% from 3.8%, in the third quarter.”
Of the more than 1.3 trillion ad impressions served in the fourth quarter of 2010, 338.6 billion came from Facebook.
According to eMarketer, Facebook will surpass Yahoo in display ad revenues in 2011. Yahoo claimed 16.1 percent of U.S. display ad revenues in 2010, while Facebook got 13.6 percent. In 2011, however, the picture will be flipped, with Facebook expected to grab 21.6 percent of the market, while Yahoo is expected to get 16.4 percent.
eMarketer also expects Facebook to rake in $4.05 billion in total global ad revenues in 2011, up significantly from the $1.86 billion it got in 2010.
If you’re looking to post your ads on Facebook, Efficient Frontier has some tips for you. While the company admits their lessons are not an exact science, “it’s a good place to start.”
Regarding image size, Efficient Frontier recommends using a 110 x 80 or 85 x 62 image in your Facebook ads. This is because while the social network accepts images of various sizes, they become distorted or foggy when they’re resized down to 110 x 80.
When it comes to image quality, Efficient Frontier recommends: 1) not using white space, 2) avoiding the use of logos and 3) try to use product action shots.
For ad language, heed Facebook’s own advice and use these drivers: asking questions, using third-person, including a time prompt, and emphasizing discounts and free offers. However, avoid being too wordy, being too trendy, using first-person, using too many caps and using percentage signs.
BIA/Kelsey forecasts that social media ad spending will reach $8.3 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 31.6 percent.
“It’s no surprise that Facebook commands a dominant share of all social ad impressions served and ad revenues generated,” said Jed Williams, analyst and program director of BIA/Kelsey’s Social Local Media practice. “As the social market leader, it already serves the most display ad impressions of any digital company, surpassing both Yahoo and Google. We fully expect Facebook to increase both impression share and ad revenue, as buyer awareness accelerates and creative formatting and targeting improve to optimize performance.”
Sources:</strong
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=149597
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/quick-stat/
http://blog.efrontier.com/insights/2011/04/facebook-101-imagesads.html
