Every year billions of dollars are spent on advertising on social media in the United States. In 2020 the amount reached 40 billion U.S. dollars, and included paid advertising on social networks as well as games and applications on social media. By 2022, advertisers are expected to spend over 56 billion dollars on promoting their products on social networks. Facebook commands the lion’s share of these expenditures (more than 80 percent), followed by LinkedIn and Pinterest with four and two percent respectively.
Social network advertising – a closer look
Studies show that a little over 90 percent of U.S. companies are and will be using social media for marketing purposes2. In 2017, social messaging and video were thought to be the trends of the future in relation to social media advertising and believed to have the biggest effect on marketing strategies. Lo and behold, advertising spending on social video has been growing ever since, and is expected to amount to nearly 15 billion U.S dollars in 2021. Even in this respect, Facebook has the lead, especially when it comes to influencer marketing. In fact, all tiers of influencers - from microinfluencers to celebrities - post the majority of their videos on Facebook. The second choice of platform to share their videos is YouTube, which despite being 'the' video sharing platform is not as popular yet among influencers most probably due to smaller user reach.
Social network advertising spending in the United States from 2016 to 2022
(in billion U.S. dollars)
includes paid advertising appearing within social networks, social network games and social network applications; excludes spending by marketers that goes toward developing or maintaining a social network presence
Supplementary notes
* Forecast. Figures for periods prior to 2018 come from previous reporting.
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eMarketer. (November 24, 2020). Social network advertising spending in the United States from 2016 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved April 05, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/
eMarketer. "Social network advertising spending in the United States from 2016 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)." Chart. November 24, 2020. Statista. Accessed April 05, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/
eMarketer. (2020). Social network advertising spending in the United States from 2016 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: April 05, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/
eMarketer. "Social Network Advertising Spending in The United States from 2016 to 2022 (in Billion U.S. Dollars)." Statista, Statista Inc., 24 Nov 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/
eMarketer, Social network advertising spending in the United States from 2016 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/ (last visited April 05, 2022)