WebProNews

It'll soon be what Andy Williams described as the most wonderful time of the year, and Facebook's doing its best to make the singer's words come true.  It seems that the social network has a ways to go, however, at least in terms of generating advertising revenue.

Facebook's far behind in this game, its condition more distressing than wonderful.  Jessica E. Vascellaro reports, "The company says 70 of the U.S.'s 100 largest advertisers have advertised on its site since 2007.  But its share of total number of U.S. online display ad views was just 1.1%, according to market research firm comScore Inc., in its most recent report in June."

 

Vascellaro then notes, "News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media Unit, which includes rival MySpace.com, is the market leader with 15.9% of display-ad spending . . ."

So all eyes are on Facebook's Beacon-esque engagement ads, which aim to invite clicks and then interest people's friends by recounting their activities.  Since the ads were tested in August and rolled out this month, their effect wasn't noted by the comScore report, and in terms of making users pay attention to advertising, they may well be on the right track.

Don't be surprised if lots of companies give them a shot as everyone tries to take advantage of the holiday advertising and shopping seasons.