Skip to main content

U.S. Local Social Media Ad Revenue will Reach $3B

BIA/Kelsey forecasts U.S. social media advertising revenues will reach $9.2 billion in 2016 -- that's up from $4.6 billion in 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2 percent.

According to the finding from their fall update, the local segment of U.S. social media advertising revenues will grow from $1.1 billion in 2012 to $3 billion in 2016 (CAGR: 28 percent).

"The year 2012 can be viewed as social advertising’s coming of age," said Jed Williams, program director, social local media at BIA/Kelsey.

The continued development of native ads, such as Facebook Sponsored Stories and Twitter Promoted Tweets, and the acceleration of mobile monetization will be the primary drivers of social advertising growth through 2016.

BIA/Kelsey defines social media advertising as money spent on advertising formats across social networks.

Social display advertising will continue to account for a higher percentage of revenues, due in large part to Facebook’s Marketplace Ads and YouTube’s multiple display units (video, traditional banners).


Spending on social display advertising will increase from $3 billion in 2012 to $5.4 billion in 2016 (CAGR: 15.2 percent), according to the forecast.

BIA/Kelsey expects robust growth during the forecast period from native social ad formats, which are emerging as viable display alternatives.

The firm defines native social advertising as branded content integrated within a social network experience (e.g., the newsfeed or content stream).

Spending on native social advertising will grow from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $3.9 billion in 2016 (CAGR: 26 percent). Growth will be driven by the higher premiums native social ad units command.

The forecast also identifies mobile as a key growth area for social media. BIA/Kelsey estimates social-mobile advertising revenues will increase from $500 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion in 2016 (CAGR: 28.5 percent).

A variety of forces will influence this growth, including rapid social-mobile consumer usage growth, active experimentation by vendors and deep integration of native ad units on the platform.

Popular posts from this blog

How WLAN Transforms Industrial Automation

The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...