Facebook ‘the top UK display ad publisher’

Facebook has been ranked by some distance as the number one publisher of online display adverts.

The social networking site attracted 12.5 billion ad views during the month of April, according to new comScore Ad Metrix data.

Second and third places were respectively taken by Microsoft sites, gaining 3.76 billion ad views, and eBay, with 2.87 billion.

According to comScore, its new Ad Metrix tool is a “breakthrough service … that provides comprehensive insight into where display ads are viewed online and the demographic composition of the audiences reached”.

In terms of the top display advertisers, comScore revealed that telecommunications firms dominated the rankings, with Telefonica O2 and T-Mobile taking the top two positions.

Telecoms company Orange was in the marketing news headlines earlier this week, as it launched its online Spot the Bull competition for the third year running.

People can go online to guess where in a field a bull called Desmond will be at 15:00 BST each day, with winners getting their hand on tickets for the Glastonbury festival.