Attributor releases online ad-serving market share figures

Three guesses who has the biggest share of the ad-serving market? That's right, Google's DoubleClick and AdSense are responsible for over half of all online ad-server calls.

by Helen Leggatt

Together, DoubleClick and AdSense account for 57% of all server calls in October, 2008, according to recently released figures from content-tracking firm Attributor which analyzed over 75 million domains. A server call is the moment when a website requests an ad to serve up to a user.

However, percentage share for DoubleClick and AdSense were actually down 3% and 9%, respectively, from last March, the most recent month Attributor conducted the same research.

The top five in terms of market share are Google's DoubleClick and AdSense, followed by Yahoo, Revenue Science and AOL. Relative newcomer, Revenue Science, broke into the top five with 7% market share.

Additional findings from Attributor's analysis:

- For larger sites with more than 1M monthly unique users, DoubleClick has a 36% share, a three-times share advantage over its nearest non-Google competitor, Yahoo. Together, AdSense and DoubleClick capture 54% of this segment.

- For smaller sites with less than 1M monthly unique users, AdSense has a 38% share, a more than 7x share advantage over its nearest competitor, ValueClick. Together, Google and DoubleClick capture 60% of this segment.

- AdSense gained two points of share on large sites while Yahoo lost four points since the March report.

- Share positions for the 'Big 3' -- DoubleClick, AdSense and Yahoo -- vary widely by vertical.

- DoubleClick's share is strongest on Automotive sites (58%), whereas AdSense is strongest on Blog sites (40%). Yahoo is strongest on Health sites (13%).

Tags: ad-serving marketing, AdSense, AOL, Attributor, DoubleClick, Google, online advertising, Revenue Science, server call, Yahoo