comScore: Facebook Now Accounts For Nearly 1 In 4 Display Ads In The U.S.

According to audience measurement company comScore, the U.S. online display advertising market is growing like a weed. Data from the company’s Ad Metrix online ad intelligence service indicated that nearly 1.3 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during Q3 2010, marking a 22-percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The average U.S. Internet user was delivered more than 6,000 display ads over the course of the quarter. King of the hill is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook.

According to comScore, the social network led all online publishers in the third quarter with no less than 297 billion display ad impressions, representing 23.1 percent market share.

You were right, Tim Armstrong (aka my new boss), about Google (aka his former employer) and Facebook eating away display ad share from AOL – and others, of course.

For what it’s worth, the comScore data is line with some of the things we’ve heard recently from many a Facebook employee, some of them senior level ones: that the company is on track to record $2 billion in revenue this year, mostly coming from display advertising.

For the record, comScore data for display advertising units includes both static and rich media ads but not video ads, house ads and tiny ads (less than 2,500 pixels in dimension).

According to comScore’s data, Facebook’s market share has increased 13.9 percentage points from 9.2 percent in Q3 2009. Yahoo! Sites ranked second during Q3 2010 with 140 billion impressions (11 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 64 billion impressions (5 percent) and Fox Interactive Media with 48 billion impressions (3.8 percent).

AT&T ranked as the top online display advertiser in the third quarter with 21.1 billion impressions, accounting for 1.6 percent of display ads. Scottrade ranked second with 14.9 billion impressions (1.2 percent), followed by Verizon with 14.6 billion impressions (1.1 percent).

Rounding out the top ten were: Netflix (1.0 percent), GM (0.8 percent), Walt Disney (0.8 percent), Toyota (0.7 percent), and Procter & Gamble (0.6 percent).