Report: Social Ad Spending Expected To Double By 2016

Social media ad spending is expected to double in the U.S. between now and 2016, according to a new forecast from BIA/Kelsey.

The data are from BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast, which sees a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent in social media advertising.

The forecast estimates social media ad spend at $4.8 billion in 2012 and doubling to $9.8 billion by 2016. (That’s slightly more than double, to be precise.) BIA/Kelsey estimates that about one-third of that ad spend will be from local advertisers, with their ad spending in the U.S to grow from $1.2 billion this year to $3.1 billion in 2016.

The forecast credits the growth of local social ad spend to increased adoption of Facebook’s ad platform and Twitter’s recently launched self-serve ad platform for small businesses. There are also recent reports that Foursquare is launching an ad platform later this year.

Mobile will no doubt be another driver of social/local ad spending. Both Facebook and Twitter recently announced that ads can be targeted to their rapidly growing number of mobile users.