Facebook Pulled In 75% Of Global Social Network Ad Spend In 2014

Facebook continues to be the clear leader when it comes to social network advertising spending. According to a new research report by Boston-based Strategy Analytics, Facebook pulled in an impressive 75 percent of the total advertising spending on social networks in 2014.

The report indicates that social media ad spending grew 41 percent overall in 2014, with Facebook accounting for $11.4 billion of the $15.3 billion market. Twitter earned $1.2 billion in ad revenue in 2014, which accounts for 8 percent of the total share. Strategy Analytics predicts that in 2015, the total social network ad market will grow by 29 percent to $19.8 billion, and will increase to $24.2 billion by the end of 2016.

Another interesting finding in the report is that the total number of users of social networks passed the 2 billion mark for the first time in 2014. Facebook accounts for 68 percent of the total, with 1.4 billion monthly active users. This impressive number illustrates the social network’s global dominance, despite its lack of an official presence in China, which is the country where almost 25 percent of all social network users reside.

“Overall, the social network market continues to show strong growth across all regions as the major social network platforms drive usage and engagement via improved integration of digital media content,” the report’s author Leika Kawasaki said in a release. “While Facebook currently dominates the global social network market, its absence in China allows local social networks such as QZone and Tencent Weibo to gain traction in the rapidly expanding Chinese digital advertising market.”

Clearly, Facebook’s strategies are continuing to work exceptionally well for the social media giant. For marketers, Facebook’s platform is well designed to provide the ability for companies to easily advertise products and services on its network. The increased focus on video support has done a great deal to attract marketers to the platform as well, and has certainly helped Facebook to increase its advertising revenue over the past year. Additionally, considering the fact that the social media giant accounts for 68 percent of the total social network users globally, marketers are well aware of the massive reach potential for their advertising dollars.

In the release, Strategy Analytics offered the following key findings from its research report:

• Nearly half (46 percent) of social network users reside in the Asia Pacific region.
• China accounts for almost 25 percent of global social network users with 495 million users in 2014.
• North America had the highest ratio of social network users to its population (64 percent) in 2014, followed by Western Europe at 55 percent.
• The U.S. accounts for the largest share of global social network ad spend (41 percent), totaling $6.2 billion in 2014, up 35 percent YoY.
• The U.K. is the second largest market for social network ad spend, accounting for 8.2 percent of global social network ad spend in 2014, just edging out China (8 percent).
• The U.S. had the highest social network ad spend per social network user at $31.37 in 2014. This is expected to grow 27 percent to $39.84 in 2015.