Social Media Ad Spend In The UK To Increase By 50% In 2020

According to a recent piece of industry research from eMarketer, social media ad spending in the UK is due to increase by almost half by the end of the year, The Drum reports. This means that social media will account for 10.5% of the country’s total digital ad funding.

By 2016, it is predicted that social networks will amount to almost 15% of the UK’s total digital ad spend. This year, the country will spend around £7.25 billion on digital ads – an increase of 15% compared to last year. In 2016, UK advertisers are predicted to spend £36.49 per user, compared to £23.24 currently, as advertisers attempt to turn users into paying customers and increase brand awareness.

Facebook is due to take a large proportion of this spend, accounting for 7.5% of the revenue. This equates to approximately three-quarters of the UK’s overall spend on social media, with Facebook being the nation’s number one social network. It is predicted that within a decade the platform will take in around one tenth of digital and 25% of digital display ad spending.

Twitter comes second, being due to take 1.3% of the UK’s digital ad spend; surprisingly, despite this low figure, the platform will gather 13% of its overall ad revenue from the UK. This highlights just how profitable the UK market is on a worldwide scale.

Another survey from Duke University has shown similar results, concluding that social media spend is due to increase by 128% – meaning it will account for over 20% of marketing budgets within the next five years.