eMarketer: Social Network Ad Revenues Reach $10 Billion Worldwide in 2013

Some people say that it’s all about acts, not ads. And that advertising is the fee you pay for being unremarkable. Interesting thoughts….? In our The Conversation Manager book though, the statement is made that advertising and the managing of online word of mouth and conversations you get “for free” go hand in hand with advertising. In that way, it’s sometimes appropriate to take a look about what’s going on in the world of social media ad revenues. eMarketer is a company that forecasts the spendings in that area. In one of that latests forecasts we see that social network ad revenues are hitting 10 billion worldwide in 2013. That is a lot of advertising money…. Take a look at the charts below:

The people at eMarketer analyze:

The bulk of these dollars, in the US and around the world, will go to Facebook, while a much smaller share will go to Twitter and other social networks. eMarketer’s first forecast of ad revenues for LinkedIn predicts the site will account for 3% of worldwide social network ad revenues this year, with $140.8 million. The site has more than tripled its ad dollars in two years, though growth is tapering off.

The growth is slowing down, but the amount of dollars spent tripled for LinkedIn in two years time. This all means, that marketers are beginning to see advertising on social networks as a regular part of the marketing mix. Interesting statistics, especially if you take into accout where the focus of marketers lies: in getting to know their customers and in customer retention. The focus on offline advertising seems to be long gone.