Advertising on social media is easily one of the most lucrative and cost-effective form of advertising available. Social media ads range from a promoted Tweet or Facebook post, to more in-depth promotional campaigns. With social media, its easy to target exact demographics and post ads based on people’s interests and what is trending. Millennials are more likely to look up products and services online because they spend a lot of time on their mobile devices, making them an easy target. As a result, social media advertising has proven to be a very direct way to attract consumers.
To put it in perspective, he amount of money spent on ads in 2016 in the United States reached $32.97 billion U.S dollars. And at the top of the advertising pyramid is–you guessed it–Facebook. Facebook’s total display of advertising in the U.S is 34.5% with a revenue of $11.93 billion. Right up there, is also Google, generating $4.9 billion, followed by Twitter at $545 million and Snapchat at $367 million.
Social media: The good and the bad 