Article posted by BitBriefs references Facebook’s unbelievable ascent to the top of the display ad market by serving 16% of all display ads in the US in Q1, according to comScore.  This handily beats #2 Yahoo, who served ~12% of all Q1 display ads.  What’s even more impressive than the total number of ads served on Facebook (a whopping 176Bn impressions), is the YOY growth of 150%.

Facebook display ads are here to stay

Its clear that Facebook is where people “hang out” the most on the web, and some stats we’ve seen show that 1 in 4 page views happens on Facebook each year.  That’s staggering, and Facebook is turning the revenues on by letting advertisers target the types of people they want to serve ads to, in a hugely scalable self-service model. The open graph only enables brands to target in on consumers better, and Facebook is poised to continue stealing ad dollars from brands seeking a ’social’ ad unit.

Shortbord thinks that Facebook is leaving money on the table by showing ads AT consumers instead of WITH them.  Only when Facebook ads are clicked and CTR’s climb to a reasonable number will brands truly open their wallets the way they have for Google.

Right now, brands are utilizing Facebook because they think they should.  We speak with a lot of marketers on a daily basis that have not experienced revenue-driving results through Facebook’s platform.  Yeah, ads are served to the right people and are on the web page for a while.  But until those ads become “social” and fit into the conversations we are all having with our friends, these Facebook display ads fail in the relevance department.  People are the distribution channel for content on the web, attach an ad unit to an individual and tap into their social spheres.