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Facebook Ad Revenues Expected To Grow 42 Percent in 2015, Twitter Growth Estimates Lowered

The latest from eMarketer suggests Instagram is set to take off in 2016 and that Twitter's weak user growth is hampering ad revenues.

Ginny Marvin on September 23, 2015 at 1:22 pm

Instagram is helping to drive Facebook’s continued strong growth in ad revenues. Facebook’s ad revenues are expected to reach $16.29 billion this year, an increase of 41.8 percent this year compared to 2014, putting its market share among social networks at 64.8 percent, up slightly from 64.4 percent the previous year.

In its most recent estimates, eMarketer expects Instagram to generate $600 million in ad revenue worldwide and account for 5 percent of Facebook’s mobile ad revenues in 2015. In 2016, Instagram’s growth is expected to take off, increasing by 149 percent to $1.48 billion globally.

Twitter Growth Estimates Lowered

With this report, eMarketer lowered growth estimates for Twitter from April. Ad revenues are expected to increase by 61.8 percent this year to $2.03 billion, giving Twitter 8.1 percent market share among social networks. In April, the growth rate was pegged at 66.9 percent.

The estimates, put out by eMarketer on Wednesday, show global social network advertising will hit $25.14 in 2015, up from the previous estimate of $23.68 in April.

“Twitter’s slowing user growth is impacting its ad business,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “Twitter has improved its ad targeting capabilities, and it still has a lock on real-time conversation. However, advertisers want to reach a mass audience and that’s harder to do on Twitter than on Facebook.”

The latest estimates find Facebook’s ad revenue per user will reach $48.76 in 2015 in the US — that’s higher than the April estimate of $43.43. In contrast, Twitter will take in $24.48 per US user in 2015, which is a downward adjustment from April.

twitter facebook revenue per user, emarketer

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.