The Growth of Online Display Advertising

The world of digital marketing has seen much change over the past few years, with the rise of social media platforms adding to the endless possibilities where one can advertise online.

With the recent announcements that display advertisements are now generating more revenue than search ads this year, many businesses are turning to this medium to reach potential customers and enhance their brand recognition.  When venturing into the world of display advertising, however, many people are unsure of where to go and who to use.

Research from a recent IDC report, however, may help in this matter.  It has emerged that Google has now become the largest online display advertiser, overtaking Yahoo for the first time in the first quarter of 2011. With 14.7% share of the US display ad market Google was the medium of choice for display advertisements, with Yahoo seeing its share fall from 13.6% to 12.3% over the last quarter.  Despite being in third place Facebook was the fastest growing platform for display advertisements, taking in a revenue of $238 million and establishing the site as the place for display advertisements on social media platforms.

Much of Google's growth in the display ad industry came from the large amount of small and medium businesses who used Google programmes such as AdWords.  Yahoo, on the other hand, saw much of their display ad revenue come from large consumer brands who spent their money on Yahoo owned properties rather than on a network.

As a leading digital marketing company Pipon Solutions has consistently used AdWords for our clients and have found it to be an easy and cost-effective medium to get advertisements onto the display network.  As a social media marketing company we have also seen the benefits of advertising on platforms such as Facebook and we can only see the social media display ads generating more revenue in the future.  Do you use display advertisements for your business?  And if so, how have these campaigns affected your ROI?