The predictions all seem to be getting larger and larger, even as the country’s economy stays relatively shaky. Somebody must be doing something right though, as people are predicting bigger and bigger numbers regarding revenue in the advertising and marketing industry, and the predictions are releasing more frequently as well. BIA/Kelsey, a company that specializes in the advising of companies in the media industry, has released yet another prediction, bringing to the table a much larger number than they did in their prediction from a few weeks ago in regard to the mobile marketing industry. This time, the company has predicted big things for social media in the near future, and everything seems to be pointing in the direction of growth.
Seeing that social media has already become so big, it may not seem like there is not much growth that can actually take place, but of course there is always more money to be made. In this prediction, BIA/Kelsey is saying that by the year 2016, social media ad revenue in the country will have reached as high as 9.2 billion.
The growth is predicted by the company to happen steadily. In 2012, the number the company has reported is $4.6 billion, and by 2013 that number is predicted to reach about $5.7 billion. By 2014, the ad revenue will have reached $6.8 billion, by 2015 it will have reached $8 billion even, and then in 2016 the predicted revenue will hit $9.2 billion. Jed Williams, program director of Social Local Media at BIA/Kelsey made the following statement for the press release:
The year 2012 can be viewed as social advertising’s ‘coming of age. The continued development of native ads, such as Facebook’s Sponsored Stories and Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, and the acceleration of mobile monetization will be the primary drivers of social advertising growth through 2016.
BIA/Kelsey states that part of the reason for their prediction is that they see native social media ads as becoming a viable alternative to display ads, which are already nearing their predicted number for social media ads as we speak. As native social media ads begin to be seen more in place of these display ads, they will essentially steal some of the revenue being seen in display advertising. Display advertising will not be going anywhere soon of course, but social media will possibly become a much stronger competitor in the very near future.
Reasonable these predictions are, as the amount of buzz about social media today is almost unfathomable. With the Black Friday that has just passed, and today’s Cyber Monday, one can see the undeniable proof of the ever-growing use of social media as an advertising platform. Therefore, it is easy to believe that BIA/Kelsey’s prediction is in no way out of the ball park of where we will see social media revenue in 2016.
According to the press release, a huge part of this growth will come from social-mobile advertising platforms, which combines two of the fastest growing advertising outlets of today. If they continue to grow as fast as they have, the bar that BIA/Kelsey has set with their prediction will easily be met.
