05 Dec Facebook Ads vs. MySpace Ads: The Latest Stats
comScore Ad Metrix is reporting today on the relative frequency of ads appearing on MySpace pages versus the relative frequency of ads appearing on Facebook. While MySpace had twice as many unique visitors (68.4 million) than Facebook in September, they served six times as many ads. That’s leading some to suggest that Facebook has lots of room to run more ads on their pages.
What that ignores, however, is the brand damage that could do to Facebook, which is already reeling from a backlash over their Beacon program, which they recently adjusted.
Remember, Facebook’s “brand” is clean and pure. MySpace’s brand is the wild, wild west, so the ads are just another part of the chaos—along with hideously ugly templates that some people choose.
Facebook continues to grow nicely (129% growth over September 06), particularly relative to MySpace (23% growth), but right now MySpace is winning the battle to monetize their traffic, and Facebook hasn’t yet found that answer. The multi-billion question is if they ever will.
Here’s the projected growth of advertising on social networks through 2011. (I love eMarketer, by the way… Great info from those guys…)
