Advertising on Facebook soared by 33% in the UK last year, cementing the social network's position as the biggest online ad platform in the country. The latest figures from comScore show that Facebook served 19.7bn ads in May 2010, up from the 11.8bn it served in the same period of 2009 Its nearest rival was Microsoft who ranked second with 4.4bn ads served across its various websites.
However, while Facebook is the biggest ad publisher in the UK by volume, it remains far from being the most profitable. The social network is believed to have made in the region of $700m from advertising globally last year, compared to the $6.5bn in revenues posted by Yahoo!, most of which comes from ad revenues.
Google also saw a big jump in the number of ads served on its sites, publishing 2.68bn ads in May, which was up 145% year on year. Ebay ranked fourth with 2.71bn ads served, followed by Yahoo!'s sites with 2.4bn. Traditional brand advertising is driving growth in the market, with firms, including Virgin Group and Telefónica, topping the list of the biggest advertisers in the UK.
"Facebook's popularity continues to surge not only with consumers but also with advertisers," says Mike Read, MD of comScore Europe. "With 8bn more ads on the site versus last year, there is a clear willingness to test Facebook's ability to drive brand engagement."
Facebook is trying to increase its ad revenues by making ads more personalised and more targeted. The company is preparing to launch a location based app that will advertise to consumers based on their location, making the content more relevant and hopefully more engaging.
The comScore data also highlights the growth in the number of internet users clicking on ads. In May 2010, the total internet audience hit 41.8m in the UK, generating 66.6bn ad impressions. This is compared to an audience of 35.3m and 57.2bn impressions in 2009.
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