Report: Social Ad Spending Expected To Double By 2016

Social media ad spending is expected to double in the U.S. between now and 2016, according to a new forecast from BIA/Kelsey. The data are from BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast, which sees a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent in social media advertising. The forecast estimates social media ad spend at $4.8 billion […]

Chat with MarTechBot

Shutterstock 74511895 MoneySocial media ad spending is expected to double in the U.S. between now and 2016, according to a new forecast from BIA/Kelsey.

The data are from BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast, which sees a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent in social media advertising.

The forecast estimates social media ad spend at $4.8 billion in 2012 and doubling to $9.8 billion by 2016. (That’s slightly more than double, to be precise.) BIA/Kelsey estimates that about one-third of that ad spend will be from local advertisers, with their ad spending in the U.S to grow from $1.2 billion this year to $3.1 billion in 2016.

social-ad-spending

The forecast credits the growth of local social ad spend to increased adoption of Facebook’s ad platform and Twitter’s recently launched self-serve ad platform for small businesses. There are also recent reports that Foursquare is launching an ad platform later this year.

Mobile will no doubt be another driver of social/local ad spending. Both Facebook and Twitter recently announced that ads can be targeted to their rapidly growing number of mobile users.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Get the must-read newsletter for marketers.