The Potential of Social Media Advertising

The worldwide social media advertising market was worth some 43.78 billion dollars in 2017, and accounted for 18 percent of the total digital advertising market. As our infographic shows, the U.S. market is by far the biggest in the world, having generated some 21 billion dollars. That's a 22 percent share of the total U.S. digital advertising market.

Its European counterpart was worth about 8 billion dollars, not even half the size of the U.S. market. In China, 11 percent of the digital advertising revenue comes from social media. Around the world, mobile is more important than desktop targeted social media advertising. While all markets are poised for growth in the foreseeable future, it's China where most growth is likely to occur, almost doubling in the years to come, until 2022.