Social Ad Spending Trends

Social Ad Spending Report – What You Need to Know

Whether you are still finalizing your social media strategy or hitting the ground running with execution this year, our social media agency has compiled the following social media ad spending trends to help guide and inform your social advertising spending in 2019.

Social Ad Spending Trends

Social Media Ad Spending Predicted to Grow By 19% in 2019

According to eMarketer’s US Social Trends for 2019, Social Ad Spending is predicted to increase by 19% in 2019, an estimated total of $37B in ad spend.

Social Network Ad Spending

To put this into perspective, eMarketer notes that this will bring social ad spending to nearly 50% of TV ad spending ($69.17 billion) this year.

Brand Implication:  Due to the expected increase in Social Media spending this year, marketers should consider the impact of increased competition into strategies, goals, and budgets in 2019. Maintaining the same media budget for social year-over-year may not be realistic given the nature of the industry and the predicted increases in social advertising spend this year.

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Facebook Comprises 84% of Social Network Ad Spend

Perhaps not so surprising is Facebook’s clear dominance when it comes to social network ad spending. With over 84% of marketing dollars allocated to the social giant in 2018, we can see just how reliant marketers have been on this particular platform.

Social Network Ad Revenue Share, by Venue

Instagram and Pinterest Ad Revenues Signal Strategic Media Shifts

Looking back at last year’s ad revenues can tell us a lot about the potential media shifts we can expect this year. From the eMarketer research below, we see nearly 90% ad revenue growth on Instagram compared to just 31% ad revenue growth from Facebook. 

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This, combined with the 43% growth on Pinterest and nearly 18% growth for Snapchat signal that advertisers are diversifying their ad strategies outside of Facebook (even if they still aren’t yet ready to go completely outside of Facebook’s portfolio).

Social Network Ad Revenue Growth, by Venue

Brand Implication:  Start considering how to leverage more opportunities outside of Facebook. Before allocating large budgets to unknown and unproven channels, start by carving out a portion of your overall media budget to test and learn opportunities on other platforms and compare against the results you see on Facebook.

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