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MySpace and Facebook Each Represent Nearly 10 Percent of Total U.S. Online Display Ads Delivered
RESTON, VA, September 1, 2009 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world today released a study of U.S. online display advertising on social networking sites in June 2009, based on data from the Comscore Ad Metrix service. The study showed that social networking sites accounted for more than 20 percent of all display ads viewed online, with MySpace and Facebook combining to deliver more than 80 percent of ads among sites in the social networking category.
Top Online Display Ad Publishers in Social Networking CategoryJune 2009Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore Ad Metrix
Total Display Ad Impressions (MM)
Share of Display Ads
Ad Exposed Unique Visitors (000)
Total Internet : Total Audience
326,899
100.0
188,589
Social Networking
68,927
21.1
129,620
MySpace Sites
30,004
9.2
64,472
Facebook.com
26,813
8.2
67,389
Tagged.com
1,940
0.6
7,422
MocoSpace.com
496
0.2
1,067
Hi5.com
461
0.1
3,459
Bebo
435
6,350
Classmates.com Sites
400
9,181
BlackPlanet.com
345
2,084
GaiaOnline.com
258
1,859
DeviantArt.com
204
3,681
“Over the past few years, social networking has become one of the most popular online activities, accounting for a significant portion of the time Internet users spend online and the pages they consume,” said Jeff Hackett, Comscore senior vice president. “Social networking sites now account for one out of every five ads people view online. Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle.”
AT&T Top Display Advertiser on Social Networking Sites in June
AT&T ranked as the top display advertiser on social networking sites in June with more than 2 billion ad impressions, which accounted for 30 percent of the company’s total number of display ads delivered during the month. Experian Interactive, which delivered a heavy rotation of ads for educational degree programs and credit scores, ranked second with nearly 1.3 billion impressions in the category. Two of the top ten advertisers on social networking sites in June delivered the vast majority of their impressions within the category. Pangea Media, which primarily advertises a variety of love and celebrity quizzes, delivered 90 percent of its ads on social networking sites, while online gaming provider Zynga delivered 97 percent of its ads on these sites.
Top Online Display Advertisers in Social Networking CategoryJune 2009Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore Ad Metrix
Share of Advertiser Ad Impressions
Social Networking Category
AT&T, Inc.
2,067
29.5
87,080
Experian Interactive
1,250
23.9
58,991
Ask Network
950
44.6
41,379
Sprint Nextel Corporation
790
26.3
68,581
Pangea Media
572
89.6
33,079
Microsoft Sites
564
16.8
60,148
Apollo Group, Inc.
510
41.4
51,981
Zynga.com
484
96.8
40,009
GameVance.com
450
33.9
34,762
Verizon Communications Corporation
10.5
54,010
“Social media is becoming an increasingly attractive vehicle for major advertisers seeking to optimize campaign reach and frequency and smaller advertisers desiring to reach a highly targeted audience,” added Hackett. “As social networking sites innovate on their existing ad offerings, the category should continue to grow in ad volume, while CPMs could also increase if the sites can demonstrate a high campaign ROI.”
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
PressBill DaddiDaddi Brand Communications646-370-1341press@comscore.com