According to eMarketer, Twitter’s U.S. display ad revenue grew 90.2% through 2013, contributing to overall revenue growth of 110% to $665 million. Though it’s a slowing down from 2012 when its display revenue climbed 199.3%, according to eMarketer’s research, Twitter still leads the publisher pack in digital ad growth.
Second on the company’s ranking was Facebook with 50.5% display revenue growth in 2013, up from 25.8% in 2012. Amazon, LinkedIn and Google all saw growth in the mid-to-high 30s.
According to the numbers, Yahoo’s aggressive acquisitions of digital media properties like Tumblr haven’t yet paid off. Its display revenue was down 6.4% after a relatively stagnant 0.7% in 2012.
Of the nine companies listed, Microsoft performed the worst and saw a revenue decline 24.9% – an about-face from positive growth of 16.7% in 2012. This may mark a shift of Microsoft’s sales resources from display advertising to other developing digital channels, such as native and mobile.
A surprising success story was AOL, for which display growth accelerated from 6.5% in 2012 to 9.5% in 2013. AOL has been capitalizing on its display inventory by building an all-in-one programmatic platform for buyers, which combines built-in targeting, brand safety protection and optimization. AOL’s also made a big deal of programmatic direct, which allows advertisers to buy its premium media up-front, while still using its programmatic tech for targeting and optimization. Looks like AOL’s on to something.
