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Social networking sites in the U.S. accounted for more than 20 percent of all display ads viewed online in July, with MySpace and Facebook combining to serve more than 80 percent of ads, according to a new report from comScore.

"Over the past few years, social networking has become one of the most popular online activities, accounting for a significant portion of the time Internet users spend online and the pages they consume," said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president.

"Social networking sites now account for one out of every five ads people view online. Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle."

AT&T was the top display advertiser on social networking sites during the month with more than 2 billion ad impressions, which accounted for 30 percent of the company’s total number of display ads delivered during July.

Experian Interactive, which delivered a large amount of ads for educational degree programs and credit scores, ranked second with nearly 1.3 billion impressions.

Two of the top ten advertisers on social networking sites during the month delivered the majority of impressions within the category. Pangea Media, which mainly advertises a variety of love and celebrity quizzes, delivered 90 percent of its ads on social networking sites, while online gaming provider Zynga delivered 97 percent of its ads on these sites.

"Social media is becoming an increasingly attractive vehicle for major advertisers seeking to optimize campaign reach and frequency and smaller advertisers desiring to reach a highly targeted audience," said Hackett.

"As social networking sites innovate on their existing ad offerings, the category should continue to grow in ad volume, while CPMs could also increase if the sites can demonstrate a high campaign ROI."

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