IDC Says Google Revenues Biggest In Display; Yahoo! Convenes Investor Day; IAB Reports Q1 U.S. Online Ad Spend

Google-Yahoo and Display Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

IDC Says Google Display Is Biggest

In IDC’s latest “Worldwide and U.S. Internet Advertising Report”, analyst Karsten Wilde says that as of Q4 2010, Google is now #1 in display advertising and displaces Yahoo! after Google Display Network (GDN) provided enough momentum to tip the scales. Karsten says its all due to small and medium-sized websites. Wilde offers his display stats for Q4: “Google’s net U.S. display advertising revenue share grew to 14.7% in 1Q11 from 13.3% in 4Q10, while Yahoo!’s declined from 13.6% to 12.3%.” More here for IDC subscribers only. It should be noted that Yahoo! owns its inventory for the most part where the margins and CPMs are better. The display inventory which Google controls is on a third-party (through its ad network) except for YouTube. But, as Google strategy morphs and more clearly moves into owning content, Google O&O display inventory will expand and so will its display margins.

Investing With Yahoo!

Yahoo! Investor Day has come and gone and International Business Times carries the overview from Wall Street analyst and ThinkEquity’s Aaron Kessler: “Overall, while we are encouraged by the revamp of the technology platform and solid display growth, search growth continues to be a drag near term and long-term margin targets for 2013 are currently below range due to the lower revenues.” Read more. In a note to investors, Citibank’s Mark Mahaney remains neutral: “Yahoo’s Internet positioning, global reach, and product roadmap are promising. But competitive and execution challenges remain.”

Online Spend Increasing

The IAB in the U.S. released its latest quarterly ad spend report and said, “Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.3 billion for the first quarter of 2011, representing a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2010.” Looking at the quarterly revenue growth chart that the IAB supplied in its release, it appears ad spend online has resumed its trajectory. See and read more.

Polling Display Strategy

BtoB Magazine asks marketers how important display advertising is in their marketing strategy. Debbie Braney at Hitachi seems sold: “Online display advertising is an excellent opportunity to drive brand awareness and engagement in an era where print publications are dwindling and audiences are seeking more information from online sources.” Lee Ann Daly from Thomson Reuters adds, “We’re constantly seeking opportunities to build force multipliers into our marketing campaigns, and online display advertising has been one of those (not so) secret ingredients.” Use the force.

Friends Disintermediating Friends

This week, AdWeek’s Michael Wolff has been covering the eG8 in Paris which had been put together by Publicis CEO Maurice Levy and supported by French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Wolff quotes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who appeared at the conference, “If you think about advertising, what’s going to be more effective than any advertising you show is something your friend says they like.” Levy apparently agreed with Zuckerberg to which Wolff offers in his article, “Friends advertising to friends, disintermediating Levy and Publicis. Good to know.” Read more.

Adding Research

Demand-side platform [x+1] announced that its adding a research function for clients that will initially focus on consumer insights for the credit cards and auto insurance categories as the company rolls-out “a rolling survey of 200 U.S. consumers conducted biweekly.” Initial findings include “One-third of respondents who were considering auto insurance said they visited a comparison website, while 40% said they went directly to the company website. Of those in market for auto insurance, 43% said they used an online search engine.” Read the release.

On Mobile Success For Pubs

Daniel Ambrose gets on the soapbox for a Publisher Insider piece on MediaPost and talks mobile: “Many mobile services companies will get rich selling the picks and shovels for this gold rush. But few media companies are going to profit like they could because so few have a serious digital foundation to build on.” Ohh.. Facial! Read more.

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