According to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), social media sites have helped online display advertising in the UK grow 6.4% year on year to £381m in the first half of 2010. This is in sharp contrast to 2009, when this sector experienced a 4.4% year-on-year fall in spend.
The IAB report attributes much of the online display advertising growth to the popularity of Facebook. Other social media sites attracting display ads are MySpace and Linkedin.
Digital display advertising accounts for just over 19% of the £1.97bn spent by companies on all UK Internet advertising for the period.
Paid-search advertising, dominated by Google, has seen ad spend increase by 8.9% to £1.18bn year on year in the first six months. (Source: The Guardian)
