Display Ad Domination: Social Vs. Search

Yahoo! dominated display ad revenues in 2009 and 2010.

However, Google and Facebook have been chipping away at Yahoo!’s market share in the display ad realm.

Look for Facebook to take the largest share of U.S. display ad revenue in 2011, according to estimates from eMarketer. Facebook is expected to see 80.9 percent growth in display ad revenue. That’s $2.19 billion this year, pulling in 21.6 percent of all U.S. display ad dollars.

Google is expected to surpass Yahoo! in display ad revenue share in 2012.

Google will see modest gains from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 12.6 percent in 2011, while Yahoo! will experience minimal gains in 2011 (16.4 percent) followed by a small loss in 2012 (16.3 percent).

“Yahoo!’s US display ad revenues will increase by double digits each year from 2010 through 2012. Despite that, not only will Facebook’s display revenues surpass Yahoo!’s this year, Google’s revenues will exceed Yahoo!’s next year,” said David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer. “What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the strong demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements.”

Google’s revenues are expected to fall because of competition from Bing. However, a solid competitor to give Facebook a fight remains to be seen.