Comscore: Display ads rebound; Facebook has largest share
The display ad market is finally rebounding. Comscore reported today that a record 1.1 trillion display ads were put in front of U.S. Internet users in the first quarter, a 15 percent gain from a year earlier. Display ad spending reached about $2.7 billion, the research firm said.
The ad recession started in late 2008 and stayed down for the first three quarters of 2009, according to the comscore report. Since then, there's been a evident resurgence. In a statement, Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president, said:
The first quarter of 2010 posted strong volume in online display ads, coinciding with increasing expenditure from advertisers and higher CPMs for publishers. This pickup in activity should bode well for the online advertising industry as we move forward in 2010.
The report also listed Facebook as the top display ad publisher, with 176 billion display ad impressions, or 16.2 percent market share. The report also offered an unintended glimpse at how truly competitive the mobile phone market is in the U.S. Of the top 5 online display advertisers, AT&T tops the list, with Verizon in second place and Sprint in the No 5 spot.
