Whoa: Facebook gets bulk of social media dollars

Facebook has by far the most users among all the social media networks.

It also dwarfs them when it comes to ad dollars.

A new forecast from eMarketer finds that the site will account for an incredible 67.9 percent of global ad spending on social media this year.

By comparison, the No. 2 social network, Twitter, will make up 7.9 percent of spending. No other social site is even close. EMarketer lumps the rest together at just over 24 percent.

For Facebook, that works out to $22.37 billion total, up from $17.08 billion last year. More than half of the spending will be generated by foreign countries outside the United States.

Facebook Messenger waits in the wings

The forecast says there’s still plenty of room for growth for Facebook, noting it’s barely experimenting with ads on its popular Messenger app yet.

“Messenger is gaining traction among marketers that want to experiment with chat bots,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “These are very early days for conducting business activities on Messenger, however, and it remains unclear just how important it will be as a marketing vehicle”

She says video has become a major draw for Facebook advertisers, especially as a vehicle for raising awareness of brands.

“And products like Dynamic Ads, which let advertisers upload their product catalog to Facebook and then deliver relevant targeted ads, are proving highly effective for marketers that want to drive lower-funnel activities, such as purchases,” she says.

Tags: emarketer, facebook, facebook advertising, forecasts, social media, social media advertising